Rape as a Tool of American Warfare: Abu Ghraib, Foreign Prisons and the Future
While we have limited knowledge of what goes on in overseas prisons, a small fraction of the incidents have been documented. It's time we hold those accountable for their brutal practices, including rape, because without accountability, there is no justice.
Published: February 11, 2015 | Authors: Veena Trehan | NationofChange | Op-Ed
“Rape as a weapon of war is an assault on security and a world in which these crimes happen is one in which there is not, and never will be, peace,” Ambassador Angelina Jolie, Special Envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, told the United Nations Security Council in 2013.
Despite limited knowledge of the shadowy web of overseas prisons used in the “War on Terror”, many incidents – but probably a small fraction of the total – have been documented.
From 2001 to 2005, the US government captured foreign individuals in a rendition program that spanned 54 countries. Individuals were frequently given cavity searches and suppositories as soon as they were taken by US forces, a process described by a person involved in the Council of Europe inquiry as “used to absolutely strip the detainee of any dignity … subordinating the detainee through humiliation.” These foreign citizens were taken to jails overseas known for their brutal practices, including rape, like Egypt and Syria.
We may know more about what occurred in American-run prisons. American soldiers and contractors documented events in photographs and tapes the US is still fighting to keep private. Media and government have also researched abuses.
US General Antonio Taguba published an investigation of the Abu Ghraib Iraqi prison in 2004, the same year the infamous photos were published. He found evidence that American soldiers had threatened male detainees with rape, used sexual slurs, and sodomized a detainee with “a chemical light and perhaps a broomstick.” Among an additional 2100 photographs of American-run prisons that the Obama administration is fighting the ACLU to not releaseare evidence of American soldiers raping a female and male prisoner and performing sexual assaults with various objects, according to Taguba. Many other allegations of rape exist, including resulting pregnancies.
Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Sy Hersh, who helped break the Abu Ghraib story in 2004, also reported videos existed from that prison of boys being sodomized while the camera was rolling, with women passing out notes asking to be killed because what had happened. (These may be part of the 92 videotapes destroyed by the CIA.) Women have also passed out notes saying US guards raped female prisoners.
A few low-level military employees have been punished for abuses at Abu Ghraib. Four former prisoners are trying to sue CACI Internationalfor damages in America.
Our latest mode of war, in which America chooses drone warfare and military aid over large ground engagements, won’t prevent abuse. We must decide: how do we view all forms of torture, including rape? Do we train others in international law? Do we use them to torture on our behalf? How broadly will we apply the Leahy Law (which prevents military aid to units of foreign governments that lack accountability for major human rights abuses)? Shouldn’t the law be extended to rebel forces? What prosecution will we pursue for techniques never authorized at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, including rape?
Without looking back, we can not look forward. Without accountability, there is no justice. And without bodily sanctity, there is no peace.
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