Abu Ghraib - Speigel Online Article

[mikelewis]

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,352090,00.jpg
This man is believed to be Hajj Ali and here is his story....


This is probably the most disturbing thing I have read. It's probably the best account of what happened at Abu Ghraib that I have read so far.
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,377361,00.html

Speigel Online Article
THE PRISONER AND THE GUARD

A Tale of Two Lives Destroyed by Abu Ghraib

By Marian Blasberg and Anita Blasberg

They have recently begun stacking prisoners in piles -- heaps of naked, hooded men -- and they keep dragging prisoners through the corridors on dog leashes. Hajj Ali stands at the bars of his cells, and the things he sees are almost more unbearable than what they do to him.

On one occasion, a boy stands in the hallway in front of his cell, begging the guards to take him to the toilet. But they blindfold him and lead him around, fetch his father and force him to lie down at his son's feet. Then they tell the boy: Okay, now you're standing in front of the urinal.

In late April 2004, shortly after Javal Davis saw his photo on the TV news, he was arrested by the military police. When he returned home a short time later, the newspapers were calling him a war criminal. A psychologist diagnosed him as traumatized. Davis hardly ate anymore, spent hours walking, mile after mile, waiting for his trial: The United States of America v. Javal Davis, the most powerful nation on earth against a boy from New Jersey.

At his trial in February 2005, he testified, in tears, that it was an alien world, that it had made him crazy. He said that when he jumped on that pile of bodies, he had no intention of injuring anyone, only of scaring them.

"I'm embarrassed to be sitting here," he said, his voice trembling. "I don't know what I was thinking. Believe me, I wasn't myself when I did that."

[abbeyco]

1. The story link doesn't work

If it can be re-posted, I'd love to read the story.

Thanks.

[mikelewis]

3. I made the change... sorry bout that...

forgot to nix the "http://"

[icymist]

2. Here's a better link:

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,377361,00.html

[abbeyco]

5. This is just horrible....

I'm going to have nightmares, just like Davis has.

I'm simply appalled.

[icymist]

4. It's amazing that we have to turn to foreign sources for a story like this

eom