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Abu Ghraib أبو غريب | |
|---|---|
Town | |
 Map showing Abu Ghraib nearBaghdad | |
  Abu Ghraib Abu Ghraib location inside Iraq | |
| Coordinates:33°17′31″N44°3′56″E / 33.29194°N 44.06556°E /33.29194; 44.06556 | |
| Country | Iraq |
| Governorate | Baghdad Governorate |
| Population (2003) | |
• Total | 189,000 |
Abu Ghraib (/ˈɑːbuːˈɡrɛb/ ⓘ or/ˈɡreɪb/;Arabic:أبو غريب,romanized: Abū Ghurayb) is a city in theBaghdad Governorate ofIraq, located just west ofBaghdad's city center, or northwest ofBaghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000 (2003). The old road toJordan passes through Abu Ghraib. The government of Iraq created the city andAbu Ghraib District in 1944.
The placename has been translated as "father of littlecrows" (in the sense of "place abundant in small crows"), but this translation has been suspected of being afolk etymology, and the name may be related togharb ("west"), orghariib ("strange, foreign") instead.[1]
Abu Ghraib was known for the Abu Ghraib Infant Formula Plant, which Westernintelligence agencies perennially claimed to be abiological weapons production facility.[citation needed] The plant was built in 1980 and painted with a dappled camouflage pattern during theIran–Iraq War. It was bombed during theGulf War, and the Iraqi government allowed CNN reporterPeter Arnett to film the destroyed building along with a conspicuous hand-painted sign that read, "baby milk factory". Iraq partially rebuilt the facility afterward, and US Secretary of StateColin Powell falsely cited it again as a weapons production plant in the run-up to theIraq War, even though the CIA's own investigation had concluded that the site had been bombed “in the mistaken belief that it was a key BW [Biological Weapon] facility.”[2][3] Also, an examination of suspected weapons facilities by theIraq Survey Group later determined that the plant, in disuse for some time, housed discardedinfant formula, but found no evidence of weapons production.[citation needed]
The city is also the site ofAbu Ghraib prison, which was one of the sites where political dissidents were incarcerated under former rulerSaddam Hussein. Thousands of these dissidents were tortured andexecuted.[citation needed] After Saddam Hussein's fall, the Abu Ghraib prison was used by American forces in Iraq. In 2003, Abu Ghraib prison earned international notoriety for thetorture and abuses by members of theUnited States Army during thepost-invasion period.[4][5][6][7][8]
NBC News later quoted U.S. military officials as saying that the unreleased photographs showed American soldiers "severely beating an Iraqi prisoner nearly to death, having sex with a female Iraqi prisoner, and 'acting inappropriately with a dead body.' The officials said there also was a videotape, apparently shot by U.S. personnel, showing Iraqi guards raping young boys."
The paper quoted Taguba as saying, "These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency." [...] The actual quote in the Telegraph was accurate, Taguba said – but he was referring to the hundreds of images he reviewed as an investigator of the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq
Taguba said that he saw "a video of a male American soldier in uniform sodomizing a female detainee"
The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology later ruled al-Jamadi's death a homicide, caused by "blunt force injuries to the torso complicated by compromised respiration."
