Symbol of Abu Ghraib Seeks to Spare Others His Nightmare
The photo of him in a hood, arms outspread and with electrical wires trailing from his body became the definitive image of the prison abuse scandal. He is now heading up a prisoners' rights organization.
N.Y. Times:
AMMAN, Jordan, March 8 — Almost two years later, Ali Shalal Qaissi’s wounds are still raw.
There is the mangled hand, an old injury that became infected by the shackles chafing his skin. There is the slight limp, made worse by days tied in uncomfortable positions. And most of all, there are the nightmares of his nearly six-month ordeal at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 and 2004.
Mr. Qaissi, 43, was prisoner 151716 of Cellblock 1A. The picture of him standing hooded atop a cardboard box, attached to electrical wires with his arms stretched wide in an eerily prophetic pose, became the indelible symbol of the torture at Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad. [The American military said Thursday that it would abandon the prison and turn it over to the Iraqi government.]
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Wounds of War
Two decades after being brutally tortured, three Iraqis have brought a lawsuit against the U.S. military contractors responsible.
Editorial Cartoons
George Orwell warned that a “lack of precision” in language can destabilize entire societies. America's 45th president is living proof.
American intelligence agencies are the nation’s enemy from within and the Praetorian Guard of sinister forces.
Aggressive policing, mass incarceration and inhumane detention facilities are products of overseas empire—imperial chickens come home to roost.
Not that Americans are paying attention, but there are important lessons to heed from the collapse of democracy in Egypt.
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