FOR A HANDLE ON THE US MILITARY’S COMPLICITY IN WIDESPREAD TORTURE IN SAMARRA, IRAQ, WATCH THIS.
FRAGO 242
FRAGO 242 is the US military’s abbreviation of a “fragmentary order” given to US military operatives.
When US military became aware of Iraqi torture of other Iraqis, to quote The Guardian‘s David Leigh, “FRAGO 242 meant that no further investigation was necessary.” When in the custody of Iraqi security forces, detainees were subjected to horrendous abuse. The US turned a blind-eye. The information about this is brilliantly presented in this seven minute video.
Iraqi commandos securing the area after a car chase resulted in the arrest of foreign terrorists. Gilles Peress/Magnum, for The New York Times. (Cropped from original)
Included in the seven minute video are Gilles Peress’ images from a New York Times assignment in 2005. (You can find 23 of Peress’ image from the assignment by searching “Peress Iraq Counterterrorism Commandos” on the Magnum website.)
The writer for that assignment was Peter Maass. He was reporting on the elite Iraq Ministry of Interior Commando Force, known as the Wolf Brigade. For the assignment, Maass shadowed Col. James Steele who he describes as “Petraeus’ man.”
At the invite of Steele, Maas visited a Samarra interrogation center. In this same video, Maass describes the sights and sounds of torture from within. During the interview incredibly loud screams of pain could be heard throughout the building. According to Maass, Steele left the room, the screams fell silent, Steele returned and Maass continued his interview with a Saudi prisoner.
Steele has not yet commented on Maass’ account of that day in Samarra.
General Abul Waleed, Head of Command for the Wolf Brigade, and Col. James Steele, Samarra, Iraq. Gilles Peress/Magnum, for The New York Times.
WHAT JOHN MOORE DIDN’T PHOTOGRAPH
All of this is a very interesting counterpoint to John Moore’s In American Custody.
Moore’s compilation of images from embedded positions at Abu Ghraib and Camp Cropper (2003-2007) have been roundly celebrated since their publication on the 22nd Oct. I don’t see it. The collection is a politically safe edit of images from a war we are technically out of; they are the product of US military deceit. Moore was their pawn.
Moore’s images are benign in comparison to the descriptions set forth by Maass, the Wikileaks files and the thousands of Iraqis whose stories of torture have fallen on deaf ears for the past six plus years.
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October 26, 2010 at 7:52 am
FRAGO 242 and How the US Military Duped Photog. John Moore « Prison Photography | The Click
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October 27, 2010 at 1:28 am
Malin Laney
Yes. I agree that Moore’s images (or at least the edited version we have access to) are too safe. The images show an overly poetic world, where representations of imprisonment become symbolic instead actual. The effect on the viewer is a creation of emotional distance.
In contrast the Perres images (as shown in the video) allow for a more direct viewer connection to the detainees; through showing their faces, and depictions of direct use of force/violence.
It was interesting to see a photo of James Steele, you probably know about his history in El Salvador:
“James Steele was recently featured in a New York Times Magazine story as a top adviser to Iraq’s “most fearsome counterinsurgency force,” an outfit called the Special Police Commandos that numbers about 5000 troops. The article, by Peter Maass, noted that Steele “honed his tactics leading a Special Forces mission in El Salvador during that country’s brutal civil war in the 1980s.” And, as Maass reminded his readers, that civil war resulted in the deaths of 70,000 people, mostly civilians, and “most of the killing and torturing was done by the army and right-wing death squads affiliated with it.” From http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0507-26.htm
October 28, 2010 at 10:45 pm
Stan B.
For all practical purposes, all embed photos have been duped photos.
And we were all duped into two false presidencies who in turn duped us into two false wars.
October 28, 2010 at 10:52 pm
petebrook
The first war was not concretely false, but soon develop so after the second absolutely false war was instigated.
I want to know where Gilles Peress was when Maass was in the interview room.
October 29, 2010 at 7:50 am
Guy Grandjean
I am writing from GuardianFilms the documentary arm of the Guardian Newspaper and was involved in the seven minute film about Peter Maass. We are looking into making a follow up film to this and are requesting anyone who witnessed evidence of torture in Samarra in 2004 / 2005 to get in touch.
T:02033533308
guy.grandjean@guardian.co.uk
November 7, 2010 at 9:13 am
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[…] pictures that are anything but propaganda. (It was for this reason I thought Pete Brook’s criticism of John Moore’s Detained project as being a “product of US military deceit” was too strong. Moore’s project is […]
March 6, 2013 at 10:02 pm
Colonel James Steele, Iraqi ‘Death Squad’ Police, and U.S. Funded Network of Torture Centres | Prison Photography
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