Lifting the Hood - Iraq

November 2005
As the 'hooded man' in the infamous Abu Ghraib pictures, Haj Ali became an icon of everything that was wrong with the US occupation. He tells his story and we hear from other prisoners

"They stretched my hands in this position and attached the wires to them", states Haj Ali. "It felt like my eyes were popping out. I couldn't stand it." He spent three months being physically and psychologically tortured at Abu Ghraib. Interrogators wanted him to use his knowledge as a community leader to inform on other people. "They said 'give us the name of anyone you hate and we'll see it as co-operation and help you.'" In a nearby cell, army general Abu Maan was also being interrogated. "They stripped me and took photos of me in degrading positions", he recalls. Both men are angry that only junior officers have been disciplined for the abuse that went on at Abu Ghraib. Ilham al-Jumaili's husband Munadel was tortured to death there. It's his corpse that Sabrina Harman was photographed gloating over. "We didn't expect America to take Munadel and never return him", she laments. The victims of Abu Ghraib remain haunted by their experiences. In the words of Haj Ali "Only one thing has changed. The cameras have now disappeared The abuse still continues."

Produced by SBS/Dateline
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures

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[StrongerThanYsterday]

omg i wanna cry !! WTF with US government and soldiers R they Humans like us ??!!

americans must be ashamed of that ! U MUST WAKE UP AMERICANS ..STOP BEING A JOKE WITH NO BRAINS !!

[inick54]

The US military has always been full of redneck idiots

[wwwtotalitaerde]

@nonwo10 Here, in the German Land (state) of Baden Württemberg the ruling CDU was voted out of office 10 months ago. After being in power for 58 years.

We now have a green prime minister and the torture situation has considerably improved, even as in my case torture is done by the BND, which takes its orders from the German government in Berlin, still under CDU control

Its still not being perfect, but the improvement is remarcable.

[kdavidmcd]

This is the American way. We do this to our prisoners here in the US too. It's just sickening. We have more prisoners than any other country on Earth, and they still try to say we live in a free country. YEAH RIGHT!!

[911insidejob81]

Close Guantanamo NOW

STOP torture

nazis tortured people too!

[BeatsByWeight]

@99XM You sound mentally ill my friend.

[99XM]

@BeatsByWeight Yes, just in your sick brain.READ BILBLE YOU WILL SEE WHAT JESUS SAY ABOUT THEM, THE SERPENTS.

GOD DONT WANT TO HEAR YOUR OPINION, THE TRUTH IS JUST ONE.

WHEN THE DAY COME, YOUR SOUL WILL BE PUT IN A BALANCE.