There's a very interesting, yet troubling article in The New Yorker that looks into the apparent homicide of a detainee at Abu Ghraib.
Two years ago, at Abu Ghraib prison, outside Baghdad, an Iraqi prisoner in Swanner’s custody, Manadel al-Jamadi, died during an interrogation. His head had been covered with a plastic bag, and he was shackled in a crucifixion-like pose that inhibited his ability to breathe; according to forensic pathologists who have examined the case, he asphyxiated. In a subsequent internal investigation, United States government authorities classified Jamadi’s death as a "homicide," meaning that it resulted from unnatural causes.
I'm not opposed to taking extreme measures to get information that will save lives, but in the year 2005 shouldn't we have better, cleaner, less barbaric ways of doing this than putting plastic bags over people's heads?
The CIA press office recently released a document stating "All approved interrogation techniques, both past and present, are lawful and do not constitute torture..."
If this isn't torture, what is?
It's sad that we live in such a "gray" world now. There truly is no black and white these days.
