{"id":1118,"date":"2005-05-20T11:36:14","date_gmt":"2005-05-20T18:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2005\/05\/the_shame_of_bagram\/"},"modified":"2022-10-26T19:06:15","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T23:06:15","slug":"the_shame_of_bagram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2005\/05\/the_shame_of_bagram.html","title":{"rendered":"THE SHAME OF BAGRAM"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jan Herman<\/strong><\/p>\n

One day historians will ask how we stood by and let this happen<\/span><\/b><\/a>: “He had been chained by
\nthe wrists to the top of his cell for much of the previous four days. … [H]is legs, which had been
\npummeled by guards for several days, could no longer bend. … When he was finally sent back to
\nhis cell … the guards were instructed only to chain the prisoner back to the ceiling. ‘Leave him up,’
\none of the [interrogators said].” See sketch by a former U.S. military policeman.<\/em>
\n“[A] final horrific detail: Most of the interrogators had believed [he] was an innocent man …”<\/p>\n

Read much more about the death and torture of Afghan prisoners by
\nU.S. soldiers in the euphemistically named Bagram Collection Point. This morning’s New York
\nTimes has a two-page spread, written by Tim Golden, based on an Army investigation detailed in
\na secret “Bagram file,” a copy of which was obtained “from a person who was critical of the
\nmethods used at Bagram and the military’s response to the deaths” that resulted from those
\nmethods.<\/p>\n

Because Golden’s report will soon disappear into an archive on the Times Web site, available
\nonly by paying for it, my staff of thousands insists on posting excerpts for the record, showing
\nthat torture was not the exception but the rule, that what has happened under Dear Leader’s
\nregime — with the approval of the American electorate last November — may be justifiably
\ndescribed as a systemic violation of human rights and a corruption of democratic principles due to
\nan utter lack of accountability at the top of the regime.<\/p>\n

For instance:<\/p>\n