The Smoking Gun

Hell is murky! Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?

       -- William Shakespeare, Macbeth, V.i.45

It is now four years since the Abu Ghraib photographs were placed before the world by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker and by Dan Rather in 60 Minutes II. The military and the administration did everything to prevent their release. Calls from the White House, calls from the Pentagon, the whole nine yards. Mary Mapes who produced the story for 60 Minutes II, talked about the endless pressure that came from the government not to run the story. At one point Dan told me, "Just walk away. Walk away. God damn them." He was enraged. The photographs were eventually published - despite the hesitancy of bigwigs at CBS.

The photographs inaugurated a storm of international protest. In America hand wringing and regret quickly devolved into buck-passing and finger pointing. The President commented, "This is the worst day of my Presidency." But quickly, the story changed. We were told that the photographs depicted the actions of "a few bad apples." Both the left and the right agreed, the bad apples were bad, really bad, and although the reasons for this were disputed, everyone could agree the pictures were beyond the pale.

Ironically, the abuse photographs helped George W. Bush win the 2004 election. When the photographs came out, Bush said that it was the worst day of his presidency. That was doubtlessly true, but on the other hand, the photographs opened up an opportunity. He had an excuse. To the questions: why is the war going badly? Why is the insurgency growing? Why does the Arab world hate us? He had an answer. Because of these soldiers, because of the bad apples. They betrayed us. They stabbed America in the back. It didn't matter that it wasn't true. The insurgency had been growing by leaps and bounds before the first photographs at Abu Ghraib were taken. The war had gone south from the very beginning.

Quickly, the public jumped to one conclusion after another. A picture of Sabrina Harman, one of "the seven bad apples" was assumed to implicate her in a murder, despite the fact that the prisoner, al-Jamadi, had been beaten to death by the CIA. We know about the murder only because of her photographs. Is it right that a twenty-four year old whistle-blower should spend a year in prison and the real murderer - a CIA interrogator - should skate away without punishment? Twenty-one year-old Lynndie England became the poster-girl for torture and abuse even though interrogation policies developed by the Department of Defense encouraged American female soldiers to strip and humiliate Iraqi males.

The photographs have hopelessly confused the issue. They focus blame on the wrong people. Abu Ghraib was not just one cell corridor and a few MPs with cameras. By the end of 2003, it was a de facto concentration camp in the middle of the Sunni triangle with close to 10,000 prisoners. There was systematic and horrendous abuse. Constant mortar attacks putting both guards and prisoners at risk. Thousands of prisoners rounded up in sweeps and kept indefinitely in outdoor "tent cities;" repeated rioting because of food shortages and squalid conditions; illegal renditions to Jordan; kidnapping, hostage-taking; children behind bars; torture, water-boarding - even murder. We put the bad apples in prison, isn't it now time to deal with the real criminals?

Meanwhile, the military has been engaged in a giant cover up that has continued until the present day. Even the cover up has been covered up. The New York Times could faithfully report on the destruction of the Zubaydah interrogation tapes, two of them, but hundreds, if not thousands of interrogation tapes were destroyed at Abu Ghraib in January 2004. Colonel Thomas Pappas, the head of the prison, in a signed written statement declared an "amnesty period" in January 2004. Soldiers were asked to destroy whatever photographs or files they had. Hard drives were erased and e-mails purged. No one seems to know about it or care. Certainly, few officials in the military or the government cared about what really happened; they cared about damage control.

It is one thing to go to war; it is another thing to promote a foreign and domestic policy without even paying lip service to ethics, morality or the law. Make no mistake, the bad apples are not completely innocent of wrongdoing, but they are not the ones truly responsible. We have punished many of them for taking pictures of abuse and have never punished the people who ordered and were responsible for the abuse.

While I was working on Standard Operating Procedure, many people asked about "the smoking gun." "Have you found the smoking gun? Have you found the smoking gun? -- presumably linking the abuses to the upper levels of the Defense Department and to the White House?" The question puzzles me. There are smoking guns everywhere but people don't see them, refuse to see them or pretend they don't exist. How many torture memos does an administration have to promulgate before the public gets the idea they are promulgating torture? Bush has recently admitted that he was present at these meetings and approved "harsh interrogation techniques." And yet this has scarcely been a news story. Well-documented attempts to subvert the Constitution, abrogation of the Geneva Conventions and simple human decency. What does it take?

We are surrounded by smoking guns on all sides. Crimes have been committed; we have ample evidence of them. But there can be no justice if there is a failure to stand up for it, if we fail to demand it. Here's the flip side of the torture memos. John Yoo can argue that the President can do anything. Let him do what he pleases, but does that mean he can't be held responsible for the things he has ordered or the things done in his name?

It is easy to dismiss all of this as the unfortunate product of war. But this is not about war, it is about us. How complacent have we become? What does it take? Each day that we allow these crimes to go unanswered erodes the very ideals that this country stands for.

More on the web:

errolmorris.com/
takepart.com/sop
aclu.org/safefree/torture/index.html

Comments

[DaveNoble]

Who ever thought the shining city on the hill would have torture chambers in its basement.

Jerry, as much as I deplore your position, at least you call it what it is - torture. The Bush administration insists it does not torture. It uses "enhanced interrogation techniques."

Similarly, the charred body of an Iraqi infant is "collateral damage."

[mikerol]

for january 2009, the day bush + cheney head out of town for good, why not a million strong bronx cheer in d.c. to send them on their way???

[mikerol]

i think Erroll's words are excellent and to the point. the insurgency started in Fallujah instant on the u.s. division stationed there starting to shoot up irakee wedding celebrations; it spread rapidly, fed by the astounding mistakes made by an ignorant utterly arrogant so-called liberating power: is there anything worse than being "liberated" by the u.s. , the madness of u.s. moral imperatives? how words tie the world into knots.
i look forward to seeing the film, the issue how to tell a story truthfully in its complexity is one i wrestled with myself this past winter in a hybrid play./ screenplay.
http://www.roloff.freehosting.net/index.html

[davidpeace]

Unfortunately, I think most Americans are more concerned with where they are going to get their next meal from and if there will be a roof to sleep under when night comes. We are simply too exhausted by daily life to be able to care about what the criminal administration is doing to be able to do much about it. As long as there is reasonable food on the table at a "reasonable" price, as long as we can drive to work and not have to pay too much for the gas we put in our personal pollution generators we count ourselves as lucky to have survived another day of this eight year nightmare. But even this so-called security is going to end. Everything is connected. Soon there may be food riots in the US. Then, when we can't get our basic survival needs met, we, the masses may actually start paying attention to the causes. And we will get to the bottom of it all and find that it was us and our complacency.

One thing we can do, is get a commitment from the person elected to be the next president, presumably Obama, that he submit the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court to the Senate for ratification. Then, even if bush et. al. pardon themselves, and they probably will, they can still be held accountable. Here's the contact form for his presidential website:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/contact2

[wrabbitt]

How about the torture of people that keep dragging up the torture thing? Freedom isn't free, have you ever heard that? well, sometimes you have to step on toes to get their attention. Reverse the roles, they behead our civilians, and workers because they don't fit between the lines of the way they believe the whole world should act. Go tell Osama bin crazy that you don't like the way they torture their own people, or behead captives, or when a innocent woman is brainwashed into blowing them selves up because allah told them to! Torture is a term used loosely to describe a way of making prisoners reveal secrets that they don't want to tell. We live in a free country, free to complain, free to voice our opinions, go to Iran and complain about women being forced to wear the big blue tents. then you will find out what torture is, or maybe you will be shown mercy before you meet Allah

[mthespian]

You just tried to defend our actions because they're better than those of a madman.

Folks like you don't seem to realize -- to many of us the biggest part of the problem with the US torturing isn't even about the people it's happening to. It's about us. It's about what we turn into when we do it. We're the country that is supposed to stand for human rights. We're supposed to be the good guys. And when we do crap like the various "enhanced interrogation" techniques, we're not any more. And that sucks.

[Cybershaman]

You convince yourself of the justification for torture by fantasizing it is only done to 'terrorists'.
The reality is that our military rounds up everybody and then tortures to determine who has information. Then they ratchet up the 'enhanced interrogation' techniques to get that information. What this means is that innocent people are being tortured by us in order to establish guilt ... same as the spanish inquisition and every other instance where the state feels justified to engage in this behavior.
You use the beheadings to show how inhumane these people are, yet ignore that we execute people here also. They have their reasons and we have ours. Our methods of execution may be more humane, or they may not. Besides we've executed people brutally in the recent past also, and I hear people all the time who want to go back to those techniques in order to "send a message". Same rationalization, different culture.
Some of their religious leaders want to label us 'demons'. Why should we behave in a manner that confirms these stereotypes in the minds of the Muslim people? Why not prove them wrong instead? We would get more valuable information from people who feel betrayed by their leaders than those who see that they were right by our example.

[goodspeed]

Errol wrote:

"We put the bad apples in prison, isn't it now time to deal with the real criminals?"

Amen Errol !!!

[dajson]

I think the bottom line is that it is hard to unseat a war President or even to get in the way at all between him and his war. You can see how the media was cowed into this position probably with reminders of how they lost US the Vietnam war. It doesn't matter that we have some real crimes perpetrated here because the media is bound and determined to not be blamed for this war going sour. The problem is that this isn't a war, it's a war crime, and we will forever suffer from this because of the impossibility to win a war crime. We are just plain in the wrong and no amount of muscle powered war might will change the fact that we are wrong and our enemies are made stronger by being in the right. It's all a war President thing. Still Bush hides behind this war and will never let it go because he knows that should this war come to an end his day of reckoning will arrive.

[rkrenke]

HuffPost's Pick

Thank you for this post, Errol. The fact that it has remained virtually unnoticed within the intelligent and well-informed HuffPo community speaks volumes. I believe that traditional media coverage (or lack thereof) has desensitized the People to the amount of scandalous (criminal) behavior perpetrated by the Bush administration.

While everyone is distracted by stories about the horse race, flag pins, and Reverend Wright, Bush and his megalomaniacs continue to pillage our treasury to enrich their friends and commit atrocities to quell their own pathological fears. The People are easily confused by too much information and political discourse has denigrated to divisive issues that trick the electorate into voting against their own best interests.

This is an issue that Obama needs to openly discuss as he campaigns against McCain. Until the millions of low information voters understand the serious political, criminal, and psychological ramifications of Bush’s unethical and inhumane policies, there will be no outrage and very little change.

[cbart]

And how about the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of INNOCENT Iraqis that were systematically rounded up, "processed", detained for years on end and released without charges. Why don't the victims of the torture have a voice?

I have photographed some of them: http://www.chrisbartlettstudio.com/gallery.html?gallery=Detainee%20Portraits

[jhNY]

Americans, content to believe they are incapable of ameliorating the predations and illegal acts of the Bush cabal, are presently just hoping that nothing worse happens before the Dear Leader leaves office, if indeed he leaves...

Meanwhile, 'America does not torture' remains on view as a wisp of a fig leaf that but poorly covers the facts of our doings-- state terrorism and institutional torture and degradation of hapless innocents, all financed by the US public, without nearly enough noise being made about it by the payers, who prefer to think better of themselves than circumstances would allow, if only the public would allow themselves to see the facts for what they are...

[fcsakes]

We are waiting for a real president - President Obama will take the oath of office on Jan 20, 2009 - it is a day that shines like a beacon for millions of Americans sick of the lies, corruption, murder, and desertion of the Constitution by those morally bankrupt individuals now destroying our country.

So, as we have been advised by the fool in office, I will be patient and I will be fighting for the next six months until I can breathe again.

[thinklib]

So you're buying in to the Obama hype too? What a shame.

I think Obama has been brilliant in portraying himself as a unifier (whatever that is), even though he has no record and no accomplishments to back up his rhetoric. He's just another politician, a skillful one, who's good at getting elected. But will he be good at leading? Will he stick to the Constitution as you so confidently assert? The answer, for anyone who chooses to see it, is no. For example, Obama has already said he wants to cap CEO pay - where is it written in the Constitution that the government has that kind of power?

Obama is just another pol. He will disappoint, just like those before him and those after.

[fcsakes]

crawl back under your rock limbaugh.

[mikerol]

obama's foreign policy in no way differs from mcain and clinton, his f.p. advisor is brezisinsky [i can never get the spelling of that cold warrior right]; besides, in iraq his hands or whatever is/are tied: that is one dog the u.s. will never get out of... no matter how it turns and twists, it is iraq that will torture the u.s. for no end of years.

[pandag]

President Obama will lead us out of this darkness and without that knowledge I would be ready to expatriate if it were possible. Justice Antonin Scalia should be prosecuted for his part in the first election and stopping the count in Florida. Behind the scene neocons, e.g. Wolfowitz will never be held accountable although they sure as hell should be. Bush, Cheney, Rice, Gonzales, Tenet, et al. should be up on charges of treason, law breaking, the whole works. There have always been "politics" as usual but this gang has crossed all lines, broken all faith and are evil dangerous people. It seems hard to believe they will escape any earthly accounting. What they have done on all levels is inexcusable and sickening to the very soul of our Country.
Thank you for your words in your last paragraph, they so completely express our feelings! I feel as though am holding my breath just praying we can survive this evil moron & his cohorts until they vacate the premises as it were.

[Cathexis]

Not a day goes by that I don't stand in wonder at how our institutions (government, press, etc.) can cloak themselves in Denial and continue ignoring the atrocities that are going on, right now, in our lifetimes and under our noses.

Any gradeschooler can tell you that what is happening is wrong. Any high school Civics class attendee can tell you that it is Anti-American and against everything this country holds dear.

The only outrage is from pockets of us who vent on the Internet and cry out truth to anyone who will listen. My gratitude to each and every one of you who speaks out -- it is only by hearing the affirmation of your cries of protest and outrage that I reassure myself I haven't slipped into some parallel universe where none of the Principles with which I was raised still apply.

[jerry6stl]

MOrris, you don't get it!

Most Americans are willing to have terrorists tortured in order to keep our country safe -- and avoid another 9-11 attack. Terrorists are people that want to kill our children. WATERBOARD AT WILL!

JERRY

[mthespian]

jerry you're the one that doesn't get it. First off, the people you're talking about torturing haven't been convicted of any crime. People always leave off the word "accused" before "terrorist" when trying to defend despicable behaviour. In this country we believe in trial before punishment, or at least we used to.

Secondly, it isn't about them anyway. It's about us. Try reading the personal accounts that have been published by a few of our interrogators. What we turn into in this scenario is evil and wrong, and we should know better. History has taught us better. Only now we're being led be people who argue against "the reality based community."

[avraamjack]

Well said.
.
Anything became possible when gang stalking became legitimized and institutionalized by the government's acquiesence and the intimidation or corruption of all other institutions.
.
If it is ok for gang stalkers to openly and notoriously poison and irradiate citizens then very little remains of genuine freedom.
.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22gang+stalking%22
.
.

[chalcogens1]

Dear Mr. Morris,

I agree with all that you have written. Of all of the big lies that this administration has put forth, the idea that the night shift was responsible for what we saw in Abu Ghraib was one of the most pernicious. The only way that I can explain it is to say that the evidence about the White House's culpability dribbled out slowly and so never had the impact it should have.

In answer to the troll's comments above (rwe), there were over a hundred deaths of prisoners as of two years ago, and a quarter of the deaths had been ruled to be homicides. A number of others probably were homicides also (see "Taxi to the Dark Side" for more information; it would make a good double bill with Standard Operating Procedure). No fraternity hazing I ever experienced remotely resembled the mistreatmentseen in the Abu Ghraib photos, let alone homicide. Rwe's comparison with John McCain reminds me of a point that Andrew Sullivan recently made. McCain was subjected to stress positions, which is one of the many things the White House and the Pentagon specifically signed off on. Why was it wrong for the North Vietnamese to engage in this but OK for us? Sounds to me as if moral relativism has taken over at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. . If we don't put a stop to these abuses soon, I am afraid that we will have lost our moral compass permanently.

[BonnieJW]

People are outraged, but they know nothing can be done until January 20, 2009. Nothing will be stopped, nothing will be admitted, no one will be punished for war crimes, until that date. Regardless of the protests, emails, or calls to senators and congresspersons, the torture will continue. We are waiting.

[Thermodynamics]

Brown vs. Mississippi (1936): Supreme Court ruling that evidence gained by coercion is inadmissible because it violates Due Process

In some ways we had a higher level of civilization back then. It is not a matter of how much oil or how many cars a nation has.

[LittleBrother]

Hey, the political elite sez that accountability for torture is Off the Table.

Tacit and clandestine approval of torture is one of Amerika's proudest accomplishments in bipartisanship. And you want to tear all that down in the name of justice?

If we're lucky, in a century or so Congress will pass a bipartisan non-binding resolution deploring any torturish stuff that may or may not have happened during the War Criminal-in-Chief's reign. Something to look forward to, eh?