Haunting
Added 10/19/2009
With all due respect to the reviewer who was so bitterly disappointed with the limited scope of this movie -- it doesn't identify any of the higher-ups who clearly enabled the abuses at Abu Ghraib -- this troubling documentary still reminds us of the ways a blighted tree bears rotten fruit.
I also wonder if that reviewer saw the DVD of S.O.P. Director Errol Morris' commentary here addresses many of the issues the reviewer raises, and indeed asks questions that any thoughtful American needs to consider.
These include: why were the photographs of abuses taken? According to letters home written by one of Rumsfeld's infamous "bad apples" at the time of the abuses, this soldier took the photos to document what was happening. To hide her intent, she would smile and give thumbs-up in the shots in which she appeared. Yet she also took the post-mortem photos of the prisoner killed by intelligence officers during interrogation -- none of whom have yet been held accountable for this murder of a prisoner not even proven guilty.
Another question Morris raises: did any of the harsh interrogation techniques yield valuable information? Apparently not -- Saddam himself was captured by soldiers on foot, unaided by prisoner confessions. The director also points out something that he claims is well known among the intelligence community: that the most effective Nazi interrogator -- the one who got useful information -- was the one who treated his interrogation subjects well. So much for Cheney's claim that harsh interrogation "works".
And finally: did the photographs help or hinder the investigation of abuses? On the one hand, they yielded irrefutable proof that prisoner mistreatment had occurred, defying the Geneva conventions and "basic human decency". At the same time, the only people who have yet been brought to justice were the whistle-blowers themselves -- the "bad apples" shown in the photos. This film makes it clear that the policies of prisoner mistreatment and degradation were already in place when the apples first came to the prison. In other words, the photos gave the higher-ups a visual scapegoat: see, those bad apples did this; they should be punished.
Meanwhile, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and all the "military intelligence" personnel go on to open self-laudatory libraries and make money giving speeches and writing memoirs.
Let us hope that the Obama Administration will root out the higher-ups who degraded the prisoners and disgraced America in the process. Until justice is done, every American is complicit in these shameful acts.
Yes, I cried tears of shame as I listened to Morris' sad commentary. I would like to think my response is not unique...
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Exploring the shadows and dark corridors of the Abu Ghraib episode
Added 10/5/2009
Engrossing and rife with the director's usual artistic flouishes, "Standard Operating Procedure" doesn't quite let those now infamous U.S. prison keepers at Abu Ghraib off the hook, but credibly purports that things were maybe a little more complicated than those equally infamous photographs seemed to indicate. Most chillingly, we see evidence that the most disquieting activities at the prison were the ones that weren't photographed, involving personnel who were too cagey and calculating to let themselves anywhere near a camera.
Due to Mr. Morris' balanced portrayal of the soldiers and honest attempt to get at the truth of the whole sorry mess, one actually comes to somewhat like- or at least feel a little sympathy for- the prison keepers who were interviewed, despite their unquestionably insensitive activities in the photographs. An audio commentary by Mr. Morris and a fascinating collection of deleted scenes further fuel the film's supposition that perhaps the net of blame should have been cast a little wider during that whole sad episode in the Iraq conflict.
"Standard Operating Procedure" looks and sounds great on standard DVD, with composer Danny Elfman's minimalist and haunting music somehow channeling the best work of Philip Glass, Mr. Morris' usual composer, on the moodily effective soundtrack.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Recipe for disaster.
Added 9/13/2009
Nutshell review - This documentary focuses on the story behind the photographs of prisoner abuse that occurred at Abu Grahib prison in Iraq. The core theme of this film is this; put a group of young soldiers in a violent war zone, give them power for which they are not ready, give them orders to do things for which they are not trained, throw in a bad apple (or two) and let them loose on prisoners in an insufficiently supervised environment. A recipe for disaster.
The film interviews the very soldiers accused of the abuse and shows the extensive photographic trail they themselves created leading up to their discovery. What is clear is that they did break the law. What is also clear is that there was a lack of oversight, supervision and a strong suggestion that other people further up the chain of command should have borne some responsibility but did not.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Imprisoned - The Paradox Of Trying To Maintain Ethical Behavior In Chambers Of Torture
Added 6/28/2009
This is an excellent film documenting abuses by the US Military and US Military Intelligence services at the Abu Ghraib prison during the Iraq War. For general background on the events at Abu Gharib, you can visit Wikipedia or do news article searches.
This film is valuable not only because it reveals more information about the events, but also because it allows some of the Military personnel involved to tell their own stories. These stories may be true or they may simply be self-serving tales (the soldiers coloring their involvement in a light most favorable). It is fascinating to watch the people involved as they shape and reveal their involvement, actions, and justifications.
The film gives some sense of the timing of events and the long hours, days, and weeks of conduct. The film also shows video footage of the events, video that is less known than the photos.
It takes courage to admit you've participated in unethical or criminal actions. I admire the courage and decisions of everyone who agreed to participate in telling their own stories.
The events at Abu Ghraib are horrific. Corruption often comes because leadership is either corrupt or indifferent to corruption. It's difficult to be less corrupt than the leadership you are required to follow.
Abu Ghraib was a place where people became marred, damaged, and imprisoned - both the guards and the inmates.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
S.O.P. or S.O.B's.
Added 2/18/2009
Standard Operating Procedure is an inexpensively made documentary of Americans who committed atrocities against people they were there to liberate instead of humiliate or obliterate. There are interviews with the cast of characters who participated in these degradations, including one sergeant who reported abuse, a chastened piece of trailer trash named Lynndie England, and Brigadier General (BG) Janis Karpinski. The most sickening part of all were the pictures of inmates forming pyramids and pictures of female soldiers smiling over a corpse, or another with a leash on a detainee. The music, effective, sets the mood for the viewer to open up a can of whoopas on some fellow Americans for their brutality and stupidity.
The film's strength is that it makes me ask myself what I would have done. Having been a junior cavalry officer thirty years ago, I have to ask myself, would I have followed orders or would I have treated the detainees within the articles of the Geneva Convention? Would I have been like the enlisted man who decided to punish one detainee because he had been told that he was brought in for rape? Would I have stood up to the civilians, military intelligence, or the C.I.A. who came through there like it was Times Square? Or, would have been like one sergeant who refused to participate and reported what he saw to his officer who did nothing?! These images tempered my thoughts and my outrage, because I know what I would do at this age, but what would I have done at twenty-eight?
BG Karpinski seemed set up to fail by having all the responsibility, but no authority, a sure sign that you will fry if anything goes wrong. She is in charge of a prison that has a capacity for 200 that very quickly reaches 2000. She is in charge of several prisons over a wide geographical area. She is ordered not to release anyone. This includes people thrown in there for street altercations and other non-terrifying acts. Major General Miller arrives with Carte Blanche from (?) to bring the same "correction techniques" from Guantanamo Bay to Abu-Ghraib.
The part of the film that could make any viewer want to down a seltzer water with a Pepto Bismol chaser or punch a bag, was the sickening rationale given by some some enlisted for what they did. The woman who smiled broadly over the corpse of a dead Iraqi general defended her photo with, "I always smile for pictures." There was the once cocky Lynndie England explain how she was duped and seduced by SPC Graner who would later deny that her baby was his. The most poignant was a staff sergeant who admitted that we had lost our way, that we knew why we were in Kuwait in 1991, but forgot why we were in Iraq in 2003.
This movie loses its charm for me because it doesn't add to what I already know. It's what I suspect and don't know that is important: How come no one higher than staff sergeant was convicted by court martial? When will those who gave the orders be brought to justice? As a signatory of the Geneva Convention we have agreed that if any country indicts, say, our former president or secretary of Defense, we are duty bound to hand them over or try them ourselves.
The sad news is that due to popular ignorance, many people feel that military prison is somehow harsh or harsher than civilian ones. It isn't. (I've known of one soldier sentenced to thirty years, paroled after three). That means that tormentors, such as Graner might be out much sooner than you think, and people like Rumsfeld, Yoo, Bush, and Cheney are not going at all.
With this story, my need for self-flagellation as a relief for masochistic feelings of national guilt is coming to an end. I know what happened. Now I just want justice. I want those who promulgated such orders to be brought to it. In fact it should be.
Standard Operating Procedure.
Other Recommendations:
Mayer, Jane, "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals," Doubleday, 2008
Miles, Steven, M. D., "Oath Betrayed: Torture Medical Complicity, and the War on Terror."
Gibney, Alex, "Taxi to The Dark Side," DVD.
Kennedy, Rory, "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib." DVD
0 out of 3 people found this helpful.
|
Haunting
Added 10/19/2009
With all due respect to the reviewer who was so bitterly disappointed with the limited scope of this movie -- it doesn't identify any of the higher-ups who clearly enabled the abuses at Abu Ghraib -- this troubling documentary still reminds us of the ways a blighted tree bears rotten fruit.
I also wonder if that reviewer saw the DVD of S.O.P. Director Errol Morris' commentary here addresses many of the issues the reviewer raises, and indeed asks questions that any thoughtful American needs to consider.
These include: why were the photographs of abuses taken? According to letters home written by one of Rumsfeld's infamous "bad apples" at the time of the abuses, this soldier took the photos to document what was happening. To hide her intent, she would smile and give thumbs-up in the shots in which she appeared. Yet she also took the post-mortem photos of the prisoner killed by intelligence officers during interrogation -- none of whom have yet been held accountable for this murder of a prisoner not even proven guilty.
Another question Morris raises: did any of the harsh interrogation techniques yield valuable information? Apparently not -- Saddam himself was captured by soldiers on foot, unaided by prisoner confessions. The director also points out something that he claims is well known among the intelligence community: that the most effective Nazi interrogator -- the one who got useful information -- was the one who treated his interrogation subjects well. So much for Cheney's claim that harsh interrogation "works".
And finally: did the photographs help or hinder the investigation of abuses? On the one hand, they yielded irrefutable proof that prisoner mistreatment had occurred, defying the Geneva conventions and "basic human decency". At the same time, the only people who have yet been brought to justice were the whistle-blowers themselves -- the "bad apples" shown in the photos. This film makes it clear that the policies of prisoner mistreatment and degradation were already in place when the apples first came to the prison. In other words, the photos gave the higher-ups a visual scapegoat: see, those bad apples did this; they should be punished.
Meanwhile, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and all the "military intelligence" personnel go on to open self-laudatory libraries and make money giving speeches and writing memoirs.
Let us hope that the Obama Administration will root out the higher-ups who degraded the prisoners and disgraced America in the process. Until justice is done, every American is complicit in these shameful acts.
Yes, I cried tears of shame as I listened to Morris' sad commentary. I would like to think my response is not unique...
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Exploring the shadows and dark corridors of the Abu Ghraib episode
Added 10/5/2009
Engrossing and rife with the director's usual artistic flouishes, "Standard Operating Procedure" doesn't quite let those now infamous U.S. prison keepers at Abu Ghraib off the hook, but credibly purports that things were maybe a little more complicated than those equally infamous photographs seemed to indicate. Most chillingly, we see evidence that the most disquieting activities at the prison were the ones that weren't photographed, involving personnel who were too cagey and calculating to let themselves anywhere near a camera.
Due to Mr. Morris' balanced portrayal of the soldiers and honest attempt to get at the truth of the whole sorry mess, one actually comes to somewhat like- or at least feel a little sympathy for- the prison keepers who were interviewed, despite their unquestionably insensitive activities in the photographs. An audio commentary by Mr. Morris and a fascinating collection of deleted scenes further fuel the film's supposition that perhaps the net of blame should have been cast a little wider during that whole sad episode in the Iraq conflict.
"Standard Operating Procedure" looks and sounds great on standard DVD, with composer Danny Elfman's minimalist and haunting music somehow channeling the best work of Philip Glass, Mr. Morris' usual composer, on the moodily effective soundtrack.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Recipe for disaster.
Added 9/13/2009
Nutshell review - This documentary focuses on the story behind the photographs of prisoner abuse that occurred at Abu Grahib prison in Iraq. The core theme of this film is this; put a group of young soldiers in a violent war zone, give them power for which they are not ready, give them orders to do things for which they are not trained, throw in a bad apple (or two) and let them loose on prisoners in an insufficiently supervised environment. A recipe for disaster.
The film interviews the very soldiers accused of the abuse and shows the extensive photographic trail they themselves created leading up to their discovery. What is clear is that they did break the law. What is also clear is that there was a lack of oversight, supervision and a strong suggestion that other people further up the chain of command should have borne some responsibility but did not.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
