7-18-08, 10:06 am

Standard Operating Procedure Directed by Errol Morris

Original source: Morning Star

If there's one thing that Errol Morris has proved since his first documentary about a pet cemetery in Gates of Heaven (1978), it is that he doesn't adopt standard operating procedure.

He shifts between documentation and dramatic reconstruction, claiming that he wants to present his facts by employing the cinematic techniques associated with fictional films.

Understandably, it has inflamed some critics, since the use of docudrama often employs emotional emphasis that undermines the claim that we are being presented with unimpeachable facts.

This is very pertinent to Morris's latest film about a photograph that has become the most iconic image of the war in Iraq, since it appears to symbolize the terror being exercised by the US in the Abu Ghraib interrogation centre.

Almost everybody will be aware of the photo. It pictures a hooded figure standing on a box with electrical wires attached to the arms. However, unlike the traumatized figure of Phan Thi Kim Phuc in Vietnam, the Iraqi has no identity.

In fact, apart from being called 'Gilligan' by his jailers, we know nothing of him. That's why the picture has taken on the status of an icon, since it stands for all the invisible individuals tortured by the US regime.

Morris uses the image as an introduction into his investigation of Abu Ghraib. He interviews almost all of those involved in the photographs except the victims.

Although, after they give their testimony, it becomes increasingly clear that you could describe them all as victims, since they have all suffered from the presidential practice of passing the buck.

This is stated from the start, especially by Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who was relieved from her position in command of the 800th military police and demoted to colonel.

Almost everybody will be aware of Lynndie England, since she has been demonized for having posed with prisoners, one masturbating and another appearing to be dragged around on a leash.

However, if it wasn't for the fact that Sabrina Harman had taken some of the photographs and sent them to her husband with an account of their atrocities, we might never have known anything about the affair.

Alas, there is no interview with the principal male character Corporal Charles Graner, since he's still serving out his 10-year sentence.

What is clear is that they were all carrying out orders, humiliating prisoners before they were handed over to the oxymoronic military intelligence, which carried through further torture that often led to horrifying deaths.

One such case was shown in the horrendous images of Manadel al-Jamadi, whose badly beaten corpse was photographed by Harman and written about for the first time by Jane Meyer in The New Yorker.

According to civilian contractor Tim Dugan, who was employed to interrogate the prisoners, there was a difference between the criminal death of al-Jamadi and the standard operating procedures that were practiced on Gilligan.

Certainly, Abu Ghraib was no Gilligan's Island, as it is clear that the US has countenanced such procedures ever since it decided to embark on its empire-building in defiance of Geneva conventions.

Of course, we can question the authenticity of the photograph and the efficacy of Morris's film. But we cannot deny that the US has been practicing such breaches of human rights ever since its genocide against Native Americans.

Morris says: 'The smoking gun is Abu Ghraib itself. The seven bad apples are a sideshow. It is all part of a much bigger picture.' As military policeman Javal Davis says, 'The worst stuff was not in the photographs.'

Thankfully, there are people who refuse to be bound by Tinseltown's standard operating procedures. Morris is one and has joined a group that includes Nick Broomfield and Alex Gibney.

They have certainly fingered the real war criminals in Washington.

From Morning Star