Standard Operating Procedure Page #2

Synopsis: Errol Morris examines the incidents of abuse and torture of suspected terrorists at the hands of U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Director(s): Errol Morris
Production: Sony Pictures Classics
  2 wins & 18 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.5
Metacritic:
70
Rotten Tomatoes:
79%
R
Year:
2008
116 min
Website
253 Views


So if I say, "Hey, this is going on.

Look, I have proof,"

you can't deny it.

(CAMERA CLICKING)

Gus was the prisoner

with the leash.

We thought he was maybe

part of the Iraqi army,

because he was always,

like, you know,

"Saddam's going to come back

and kill all of you. I hate you."

And all this stuff.

He had all this anger.

And so we thought he was

someone maybe pretty important.

And then we found out the history

of his arrest and why he was there.

And he had gotten drunk

and beat someone up.

He was just

a regular prisoner,

like we'd find at one of our

county jails, or something.

Once he came over to the

hard site, he stopped eating.

And we had to pump him, you

know, five to eight IV's a day

or bags of IV fluid a day

just to keep him alive.

Gus was being verbally threatening

and not following any directions.

Graner put

the leash on him.

And then he crawled out

on his own after that.

And then he handed

the leash to Lynndie.

And that's when

he took the pictures.

And then the guy got up

on his own after that.

They were trying to say

that she was dragging him,

which never occurred.

I was there, and I

know it didn't happen.

It may have been unorthodox,

but he came out of the cell

and he didn't hurt anybody,

and he didn't get hurt.

Graner had the camera

in his cargo pocket.

And he asked me and Ambuhl

to come downstairs with him.

When he opened

the door,

Gus was in there,

he was naked.

He didn't want to stand up,

so that's why he brought

the tie-down strap.

So he put it around his neck.

So he's gonna make him crawl out.

And I guess he got about

halfway out of the door.

Graner told me to hold onto the

end of the tie-down strap, so I did.

I just grabbed it.

You can see the slack on it.

People said that

I dragged him,

but I never did.

(CAMERA WHIRRING)

Graner took three

pictures back-to-back.

You can see Megan

on the side standing.

He would've never had me standing

next to Gus if the camera wasn't there.

I'm a 95 to 100 pound

female, short female, at that,

holding a strap that's attached

to his neck. I'm dominating him.

Maybe that's what

Graner was going for.

Maybe it was for documentation,

maybe it was for his own amusement.

I don't know. I don't know

what was going through his head.

But he took it.

In all the years

as a cop,

I'd say over half of

all my cases were solved

because the criminal

did something stupid.

Taking photographs of these things

is that one something stupid.

BRENT PACK:

They gave me 12 CDs

and said, "There's thousands

of pictures from Abu Ghraib.

"We want you to find

all of them that depict

possible prisoner abuse

"or people that were in

the area at the time

that the abuse was occurring.

"And we need to know exactly

when the pictures were taken."

The pictures spoke

a thousand words,

but unless you know what day

and time they're talking,

you wouldn't know

what the story was.

I started lining pictures

up based on subject matter.

Put these on a time line

so that the jury could see

when did the incident

begin and when did it end.

How much time elapsed in

between these photographs.

How much actual effort

did these people put into what

they were doing to the prisoners.

Who else was there in the room

at the time that it occurred?

How could all this go on

without anybody noticing it?

When you look at this whole case

as one great, big media event,

you kind of lose focus.

These pictures actually depict

several separate incidents

of possible abuse or possible

standard operating procedure.

All you could do is present

what you know to be factual.

You can't bring in emotion

or politics into the court.

LYNNDIE ENGLAND:
When I was

in the brig,

every single woman there was

in that brig because of a man.

Different reasons, yes,

but it was because of a man.

And when you join the military,

no matter what anybody says,

it's a man's world.

You have to either equal a

man or be controlled by a man.

If you want to be their

equal, you got to be strong.

They're going to

try to control you.

You need to step up and tell them,

you know, show them who's boss.

"I'm not gonna take that.

I'm not gonna let you power me.

"You know, control me because

I'm a woman and you're a man.

"It's not gonna happen."

Even though it's the military.

I mean, hell, if you're in

the military, you got a gun.

Use it.

If I would have thought about

that then, by God, I would have.

But I was blinded by

being in love with a man.

Graner, he's

really charming.

If you didn't know him

and you just meet him,

you'd be drawn

in to him.

And in a crowded room,

he'd be the one to look at.

He would draw

the attention.

If the attention is not on him,

he'll get it there.

That's what he does.

He thrives on that.

If you're not paying attention to him,

he'll make comments about you

and this and that,

you know.

Whatever you wanna hear,

he'll say it. And he knows.

He knew. And I was, what,

He was 34.

He had 14 years more

experience than I did.

So he knew what

to say, what to do.

And I was dumb enough to fall for it.

I should have listened.

Everyone tried to tell me,

"He's too old for you.

He's a bad guy."

But I didn't

believe them

because I believed him

for some reason.

Can't figure it out now.

The population was

just simply growing

but nobody really had a

plan on how you release

a formerly known as

"suspected terrorist" or an

"associate of a terrorist."

General Wojdakowski told me after

the first intake of prisoners

that this was going to

go on for several weeks

and at the end of it we might have

that we would be

responsible for.

And I said,

"Don't you think you should have

shared that information with me, sir?

"You know, I mean, we don't

have any resources to provide

"for the 200 prisoners in

the cells out at Abu Ghraib.

"And now you're going

to give us 1500 more.

"What's the release

procedures?"

He said, "You are not

to release anybody.

Do you understand me?

"If any one of these

prisoners gets released,

or ends up out on the street,

"I'm coming after you."

They would go out in

the middle of the night

and sweep up every single, you know,

fighting age male and lock them all up.

That's why you hear

the stories about

sons and fathers

and, you know, nephews

all getting locked up.

That's what they would do.

Imagine someone coming to your

town and taking all the men in it.

They would come in, like, on

cattle trucks, and just like cattle.

I mean, you come to the back door,

I mean, you hear a bang on the door

you know, bang, bang, bang, here

come the deuce and a half truck

full of scared

individuals coming to jail.

Were like,

"They come get me in middle of night.

"Mister, Mister, what, am I in trouble?

What I do? I'm not terrorist."

You know, they were like taxicab

drivers and welders and, like, bakers,

and they're at Abu Ghraib.

We had kids.

If we can't get the insurgent

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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