Harkham Jail Narrative Report

Intro- Shock and awe-2003
One morning as a 13 year old, as i was getting ready for school my step dad called me into the front room to see the morning news. Playing on a loop was the 2003 invasion of Baghdad, also commonly referred to as the Shock & Awe. I remember how the city was illuminated by our rockets.(see Appendix A) I knew that the were not special effects or fireworks, but i felt, like after hearing about the initial invasion and how hard fought the battles leading up to that point were, i felt like the iraqi people had deserved it. I was filled with so much excitement and pride, i could practically hear the national anthem in the background. “We got em’!” We struck back at the individuals that “suckerpuched” us on September 11th

only two years prior. I rode that high for the rest of the week. I had no idea that 7 years later, i would be walking on the same soil, in the same boots, with a radically different perspective.

Background-UK and US have occupied Iraq for a majority of the last century.
Four generations of western imposed war in Iraq created a financially and structurally unstable environment that would resemble a warm petri dish for anti-western extremism to grow.

When large groups are threatened by conflict, members of the group cling ever more stubbornly to experiences of ethnicity, nationality, and religion in an effort to maintain and regulate their sense of self and their sense of belonging to a large group.

“I am sick and tired of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.”-From “On Killing” by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman
Guantanamo bay
Voices from guantanamo tells the story of seven innocent men were held in guantanamo “without charge, without trial and without explanation, after three years he was released without charge, without trial and without explanation”
Moazzam Begg: he was a British resident helping build a school in Afghanistan. Now he's getting to know his own kids, who were too young to remember their dad.“My youngest daughter recognized who I was because, I think, my wife must have told her through the photographs as to who dad is, but she refused to look at me. The son that I've never seen cried the moment I tried to touch him because I was just a stranger to him. My wife looked exactly the same that she had the night I had been taken away from her.”
Omar Deghayes grew up and went to law school in England. He became Guantanamo Prisoner 727 after going to Afghanistan to study its legal system. He also married an Afghan woman there. Omar uses drawings to help tell his story of torture. Omar Deghayes: Put in this kind of position, and the guard pushed his fingers into both my eyes, where I lost the sight in one of my eyes. (Picture of drawing)
Omar Deghayes: I want the people themselves, the humans in America, the good people which I met many of, to realize how in their names those ugly people have done to others.
Bisher al-Rawi: The first few years, two or three years of my capture, I always thought that soon enough they would realize that I'm innocent, and I'll be released, soon enough that will happen, soon enough that will happen, but that never did. Before Guantanamo I had many interests; sky diving, sea diving, and all sorts of exciting sports. I cycle as well, so quite a lot of things I used to do. I didn't quite feel right, but when once I got on my bike, really, I felt like I'm almost back to my old self. One struggles after the release. You know, you don't know where you are, you don't know the real world, how to function in the real world.
Strong faith was a common source of strength for the detainees …
Moazzam Begg: I memorized some of the largest chapters of the Koran and some of them had great meaning for me and a very spiritually uplifting thing. The story of Joseph who is imprisoned for a crime he doesn't commit. Ruhal Ahmed: It taught us to be patient, it taught us that, you know, it's a trial. Life's about a trial.
https://www.aclu.org/news/justice-denied-voices-guantanamo
‘Don’t interact, don’t talk, they are not humans’ - Gitmo guard's basic orders
Saddam used guantanamo as a torture center
Ignatieff the lesser evil
The language of empire - rajiva
Is currently about to close because it is viewed as bad publicity for the US. Obama claims it is being used as a recruitment tool.
https://www.rt.com/news/un-guantanamo-terrorists-violations-857/
Letters from guantanamo http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/5381322.stm
Abu Ghraib prison scandal
Timeline: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/30/world/meast/iraq-prison-abuse-scandal-fast-facts/index.html
November 2003 - A detainee dies during an interrogation at Abu Ghraib Prison.

November-December 2003 - Photos are taken of naked Iraqi detainees being humiliated.
January 2004 - Spc. Joseph M. Darby discovers photos on a CD-ROM of Iraqi prisoners being abused. He reports the abuse to superiors, prompting an investigation.
April 4, 2004 - Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba releases his report to Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez about misconduct in the 800th Military Police Brigade.
April 28, 2004 - "60 Minutes II" broadcasts graphic photos of Iraqi detainees being humiliated and tortured.
April 30, 2004 - The New Yorker publishes an article by Seymour Hersh reporting details in the Taguba report on the abuses at Abu Ghraib.
April 30, 2004 - Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba's report detailing his investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade is released.
Taguba's report stated that the following abuses happened in this incident:
- Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked

feet.
- Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees.
- Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing.
- Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time.
- Forcing naked male detainees to wear women's underwear.
- Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped.
- Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them.
- Positioning a naked detainee on a box, with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture.
- Writing "I am a Rapest (sic)" on the leg of a detainee accused of rape, and then photographing him naked.
- Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee's neck and having a female soldier pose for a picture.
- A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee.
- Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee.
- Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees.
February 2008 - A documentary about the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal by Oscar-winning director Errol Morris, "Standard Operating Procedure", debuts at the Berlin Film Festival.
April 2014 - Iraq closes the prison due to security concerns.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/05/10/torture-at-abu-ghraib
Lynndie England, Charles Graner

Used as recruitment tools
They include "youths who have been hurt by ethnic conflict: those who have been beaten up or have lost a father or brother in demonstrations; those who have not successfully completed their adolescent transformation and are alienated without much hope for the future in existing political and economic conditions" (Volkan, p.165). Fatherless brotherless, adolescents are easily manipulated by leaders for ulterior motives chosen Due to lack of religious knowledge Fiercely aggressive “snatch-and-grab” missions Relatively Indiscriminate drone strikes

Chosen traumas

Conclusion
It wasn't until i got over seas, that i realized, how great of a footprint we have left on the people's lives. Upon arriving, i realized that we are in someone's home, this is where this person grew up, we may come and go, but they will remain here. What may be collateral damage on paper can be someone's entire livelihood someone's business being turned to rubble, or family torn apart. Most of these people don't care who is ruling them, all they want is to live their life in peace and raise their family, the more we try help out, the more we get in the way and complicate that for

them.
Considering Volkan’s profession as a clinical psychoanalyst, it is not surprising that his experience leads him to conclude that long-standing national and ethnic conflicts "cannot be understood by focusing only on real-world factors, such as economic, military, legal, and political circumstances. Real-world issues are highly ‘psychologized’—contaminated with shared perceptions, thoughts, fantasies, and emotions (both conscious and unconscious) pertaining to past historical glories and traumas: losses, humiliations, mourning difficulties, feelings of entitlement to revenge, and resistance to accepting changed realities" (Volkan, p.117).

Occupation of a foreign land causes suicide bombings,