Life's Lesson : A short history of Abu Ghraib prison.

I was recently afforded the opportunity to visit Abu Ghraib prison, given a guided tour of “the hard site” and take some photographs. During recent days I received a post from a person concerned about American atrocities in Iraq and specifically Abu Ghraib prison. I am not an expert on the prison, and I have no first hand account of the information I can share with you, only that my information comes from current guards, former guards, and prison wardens. There are three time frames in the prisons history that I would like to address. The prison as it was under Saddam; the prison under the Coalition Provisional Authority; and the prison today, under Iraqi corrections.

Abu Ghraib prison was built between 1962 and 1964 by the British. It was the primary prison for all of Iraq. The prison compound consisted of five main buildings and at it’s hight between the 1980’s and 1990’s the prison housed 35,000 prisoners. The famous cell block of Abu Ghraib prison, called “the hard site” was designed to hold 2,035 inmates for 25 sq ft per prisoner.
Under Saddam Hussein, the hard site held 8,000. It was standing room only as there was only 3 sq ft per prisoner, forcing the inmates to sleep in shifts. As a comparison, American inmates are required to have 80 sq ft per prisoner. The upstairs of the hard site was a 100 x 6 meter hallway and had no bathrooms. At one time, there were 4,000 prisoners standing shoulder to shoulder. When the American military arrived, the inmates were standing in 1 ft of excrement. There was also a motor pool that is now referred to as “Cooters Garage” that is 20’ X 50’ housing 600 prisoners.

The prisoners under Saddam were primarily political although petty criminals and felons were also residents. Abu Ghraib was known as Oday Hussain’s playground. The warden at the time, Mr. Abu Schawb (by best estimates, I may be wrong) complained that there were too many prisoners and the over crowding was to severer. Saddam sent his son Oday to the prison, where he lined up the inmates, and shot every third one. It is also reported by the prison guards, that Oday and his brother Kusay (my spellings might be incorrect) used the prisoners as food for their pet lions. We also know of a story that the loving siblings wanted the goods and products of local merchants, but rather then pay for them, 42 Baghdad businessmen were sent to Abu Ghraib prison and killed by firing squad. The businesses were then plundered by the Hussein family.







During the 1990’s the correctional staff was made up of several thousand guards, but the prison was run by 35 of Saddam’s secret police. Akram Hussein, a Kurd, was a prisoner of Abu Ghraib at that time (1986-1992), and he recounts being tied to a metal rod and hoisted in the air, in a crucifix position. Electrodes were then attached to his scrotum and shocked. Akram could vividly recall the screams of the inmates, and the smell of burning and rotting flesh that surrounded Abu Ghraib prison.

By best estimates, Abu Ghraib prison has executed from 20,000 to 100,000 prisoners. Not mentioned in those numbers are the tens of thousands of prisoners that died from starvation, disease, or pleasure killings by the guards. The prison provided no amenities for the inmates. Food, clothing, medicine etc had to be brought in by the families. Although we know that the prison had kitchen facilities to feed the inmates, when the CPA took over the prison, the kitchens were practically brand new. This information is given to us by the current deputy warden who was a captain at the time. The deputy Warden also recounts how on one day, a prisoner killed 18 other inmates before he could be stopped. We do know from Abu Ghraib records that in August of 2002, 4,000 prisoners were killed. The water table at Abu Ghraib prison is too high to bury bodies, so there has to be another way to dispose of them. Families from the surrounding area inform us that truck loads of bodies were being driven out of the prison to be buried in mass graves in the Anbar province. Americans first taking over the prison found 55 gallon drums filled with acid that the guards say was for disposing of bodies.


Khadum is a shift manager that has worked at Abu Ghraib for 35 years. He tells us about on the job training for new guards. Every guard going through basic was assigned an inmate used to learn the proper way to torture. The guards learned two methods during basic training but were not limited to those two. The first method is a form of cobbling. The feet are tied to a rack and the bottoms of the feet are beaten with a rod. The second form of basic torture 101, is handcuffing an inmate behind the back, tying a rope to the chain between the cuffs and hoisting the inmate into the air. This dislocates the shoulders causing great pain. Then the legs are beaten with rods and all this is done in the cell block in front of other inmates to “teach a lesson”. Some of the guards also liked to use mental torture on the prisoners. One way to get a laugh was to execute three or four prisoners, allow everyone to hear the doors clanging, and then bring in a dupe. Some inmate, after hearing everyone else die, was brought into the gallows, a noose put over his head, given a last prayer or request, and then the opposite door was opened. The guards would laugh at the look on the guys face and return him to his cell.

Abu Ghraib was a death camp. It was widely known that if you went to Abu Ghraib you were not coming out. Although, there was at one time a way to escape. You could bribe the guards. If given enough money, the secret police would go to a local insane asylum, and switch the special needs person with the inmate. The mentally challenged person was taken to Abu Ghraib prison and executed. The death row inmates name was recorded, and the inmate escaping death was allowed to exile himself to Syria or Jordan. This worked until 1995 when a chief of the secret police went to the insane asylum to visit his brother. When he could not find his brother, the scam was uncovered, and the chief executed 6 of the secret police involved in the death of his brother. After that, there were no more substitutions.

There were two main methods of execution. One of the ways was by firing squad. The wall behind the prison had to be rebuilt in 2003 because of all the bullet holes in it. The second method was by hanging. Hanging is broken down into three categories. First, is to be hung with piano wire. The inmate stood on the trap door, and when it was opened there was a loud clang that could be herd through out the entire prison. The inmate was quickly decapitated. One guard remembers the doors clanging 125 times in one day. Two doors on the gallows = 250 inmates. The second way to hang was with a slack rope. The doors opened and the neck was broken. The third way was to have a towel wrapped around the neck and then the noose put over the head. The inmates noose was taught so as to strangle slowly. The gallows trap door was opened and the inmate, now dangling in the air, was lowered into a furnace below. To this day, the Iraqi Correctional Officers (ICO’s) will not go near the hard site, as they believe it is haunted.

In 2003, just prior to the Coalition arriving in Baghdad, Saddam Hussein released 20,000 hardened criminals with the hopes that they would take up arms against the American liberators. They did not. They escaped into the community where till this day, some of them are still kidnapping for ransom, robbing and murdering. When the Coalitional Provisional Authority (CPA) took over Abu Ghraib prison in 2003, the residents of Abu Ghraib city and Khandar Village, the two towns surrounding the prison, raided Abu Ghraib, breaking windows, smashing walls, and ransacking the buildings. What was the reason? I believe it is because the residents of these towns were just as much victims as the inmates that lived there. Imagine growing up with the sounds of men screaming, firing squads, and the smell of death. The CPA also made mistakes. Some mistake made early on was allowing soldiers that just came out of the field to look after the inmates that were the same terrorist killing their friends a week before. Some of the “abuses” noted were allowing dogs on leashes to bark at the inmates. Iraqi people in general have a fear of dogs. Dogs are looked at, I would say, the way Americans look at large rats. Dirty, infested, diseased. Some Iraqis have realized the value of having dogs in the home, and take advantage of the early warning detection they provide and the deterrence that the dogs provide to burglars. There are no reports that I know of where the dogs were allowed to bite the prisoners but the barking alone and the paranoia associated with dogs was enough for the desired affect. The inmates fear. There were no “beatings or torture”, by the military, but there were a few incidents of guards burning the backs of prisoners hands with cigarettes. Those guards were arrested, and prosecuted. And of course, lets not leave out the infamous photos showing the Iraqi terrorist playing a game of naked twister, and wearing women’s underwear on their heads. The outrage of these incidents, from what I am told by the locals, was not the fact that the prisoners were humiliated, but that it was done at Abu Ghraib. The stigma of Abu Ghraib goes through out the entire Arab community. The Coalition came in to make Iraq a better place, and the first thing they do is open Abu Ghraib for business. The insult was not so much the underwear as it was where the insult took place.


Today, Abu Ghraib is completely run by Iraqi’s with Americans acting as highly paid consultants. Abuses still take place, but now the inmates have a voice. Americans provide lawyers to the prisoners, and any accusations of abuse are forwarded up the Internal Affairs line, and also reported to the Human Rights commission of the international Red Cross. There are 562 prisoners being held at the hard site, with about 50 convicted terrorist. These Terrorist are Saudi’s, Syrians, Iranians as well as former Saddam supporters. There are several camps with in Abu Ghraib but they are NOT Abu Ghraib. Two camps inside the walls are Camp Redemption and Camp Remembrance. There are 4,000 prisoners being housed in tents (soft site) they are given three meals a day, religious materials, doctors, clothing and family visits and as I already mentioned, meetings with lawyers.

Abu Ghraib Prison is a black spot in Iraqi history. From it’s inception until 2004, Abu Ghraib was a death house and a metaphor for pain and suffering. There is not just a fear of the prison but the ground it is built on. There are no longer any executions done at Abu Ghraib. All executions are done off site at an undisclosed classified location. The Coalition is currently using the prison, but from reliable sources I understand that plans are being made to demolish the prison itself. When that will happen, who knows? There is no comparison in the torture of Iraqi prisoners by Saddam vs. the humiliation by a handful of the military guards. Outrage is expressed over the Americans “abuses” but I don’t hear any indignation over Iraqi abuses. It must be easy for opponents of the American liberation to cast stones but the revelation of the truth will squelch any dissent. The truth is, Iraqi inmates are treated with dignity, even though they are the same people that chop off the arms of the daughters of men that drive trucks for Coalition supplies. The same Iraqi inmates that torture, rape and murder innocent people go to prison, and are treated better then any inmate in Iraq ever was. The good news is, the Iraqi justice system is swift. The accused is given a trial, sentenced, and executed in 30 days.

You will have noted the photos I posted, and I will try to explain some of them. The photo with the drawing of the ant is calling Saddam a coward. Apparently the Ant is a sign of cowardice. I think my friend Malkie has an ant tattoo on his penis. The photo of me holding a piece of paper is some art work by an unknown inmate. The translator or the person who was with me that spoke a little English says that it is a scripture from the Koran. I now have those two items in my scrapbook. That is correct. I plundered Iraqi treasures with deep historical value. I have the photo to prove where I got them and being the capitalist that I am, I will most likely sell them on Ebay. The metal pipes in the blackened room are the furnace controls where the inmates were burned after hanging. The photo of me with the shovel is the kitchen area where the rice and bread are made. While I was visiting, the Saudi inmates were on a hunger strike. You will see the food in bags by the doors. The Saudis demanded that one of their inmates be released from his cell to prepare the food for the others. This request was denied, and the hunger strike began. Two days later, they decided food prepared by Iraqis is sufficient. One photo shows 65 hash marks on the wall. We know that some lucky person lasted at least 65 days at Abu Ghraib. And the photo of the long hall way is the famous cell block where the game of naked twister was photographed.

I hope I was able to bring some of you a little insight into a very profound part of Iraqi history. The story of Abu Ghraib is longer and more complex, but again, I am neither an expert nor an historian. I am merely a man that was given a tour and history lesson by those that have first hand knowledge. If you have specific questions, please leave them in a comment or on the tag board and I will ask my colleagues at the prison for what ever information they have on your subject.

Fight the good fight. Fight with Honor, Fight to win.

Jaybird