The color photos coming out of the dreaded Abu Ghraib prison, on the outskirts of Baghdad, are racing around the world, silent yet eloquent testament to what Americans really think, about the people they allegedly came here to liberate. The photos, especially in the age of the internet, are racing through the Arab and Muslim world, and showing a side of the American character that seldom gets to be seen, especially abroad. The photos of naked men, some posed with laughing, jeering women, is the height of humiliation and tells everyone who can see that Americans hold the Iraqis, and by extension, other Arabs in utter contempt.
“This is not America,” some politicians exclaim. “I am appalled,” another claims. Yet what is truly chilling, and perhaps more chilling than the naked human pyramid shown, is the sheer glee shown the faces of the Americans. The photos reported in British tabloids of gleeful soldiers urinating on naked Iraqis tells the same baleful tale. This is the action of contempt, hatred, disrespect, and conquest. Are the Americans and the Brits liberators, or occupiers? One need look no further than the faces of the photos of Abu Ghraib for the answer.
When speaking recently with Emory Douglas, the celebrated former Minister of Culture and Chief Artist of the Black Panther Party, Emory brought back to mind an image that is almost lost in history. He reminded me of a police raid on the West Philadelphia offices of the Black Panther Party on August 31st, 1970, when the police, armed with automatic weapons, stripped men in the streets. I also thought of the infamous Charles Stewart case from Boston, when a white man claimed a Black man killed his wife. The cops descended on Roxbury, Black Boston, like a plague. They stripped men in the streets of Beantown.
Many of the people who are now in Iraq, especially those in the reserves, are cops and prison guards. The treatment of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib has its dark precedence in the prisons and police stations across America. According to journalist Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker, there have been cases of sodomy against prisoners and even killing. Shades of Abner Louima, huh? If you hate someone, if you disrespect them, if you fear them, how can you liberate them? As we have said from the very beginning, the Iraq adventure is not and never has been about liberating the oppressed people of Iraq. Indeed, a recent U.S.A Today CNN poll suggests Iraqis have come to that conclusion themselves, with 71% stating that Americans are occupiers. Americans may call it liberation, but they are bringing torture, humiliation, and domination. It is somehow fitting that these depraved events have happened in one of the most dreadful prisons of the Hussein regime. It shows the continuity of torture and terror. Now, if U.S. history is any guide, prepare for the whitewash. It is sure to come. From death row, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are produced by Noelle Hanrahan for Prison Radio.
