May, 2008

Zoriah Test

This is a test.

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An Iraqi man sits in a chair in small wood shack with
no windows and little ventilation. A torn shirt blindfolds his eyes
and his wrists are tightly bound with plastic, military handcuffs. He
sits perfectly still even as he hears the door open.

An American soldier sits in front of the man and
pulls off his blindfold as his eyes struggle to adapt to the light.
“What were you doing walking along the highway? Don’t you know that is
a restricted area?” After a masked Iraqi translator speaks to the man
in Arabic he replies “my car was broken down, I had to walk.”“We
found nearly four thousand US dollars in your pocket, why do you have
so much money” asks the interrogator. “I own a computer shop. I had to
go and pick up a shipment in another city, there are receipts for my
order along with the money” the man responds. The soldier is getting
frustrated and obviously does not believe the man. “That’s bullshit,
no one carries that much cash…what were you doing with that money? Is
it for weapons, are you buying weapons.”

As the man shakes his head, the translator begins to
explain to the interrogator that most Iraqis do not have bank accounts
or credit cards and actually do most of their business in cash. That,
and the fact that with only one hour a day of electricity, few banks
are even open. The story does not seem to sink in and the interrogator
continues on the same path for quite a while, before finally realizing
that the mans story will not change.

Another soldier uses a biometric device to scan the
man’s retina, fingerprint and enter his personal data on the small
screen. I walk outside with the interrogator. I ask him what will
happen next and he replies “we don’t have anything on him, we will
probably just release him tomorrow if we cant get anything else out of
him.”The next day the man is driven back to where he was picked up
and given back his money and personal belongings. I ask the
interrogator how many detainees they bring in each day and what
percentage, in his personal opinion, are actually guilty. “Sometimes
we only bring in a few guys a day, sometimes we can take in a couple
hundred. In my opinion, less than 1% of them have done something
wrong.”A couple of weeks later while stationed at another base
with a different platoon, I find out that a group of detainees are
about to be released. Although formally forbidden to take photos of
ANY detainees under ANY circumstances, I am close with the unit and
they invite me along.The detainees, still blindfolded and cuffed
are led into a convoy of armored vehicles. We set out to drop the men
off in the area that they had been taken into custody the day before.
It is about a fifteen minute drive and the sun is beginning to set.

“This is it, this is where we picked them up” says
one of the soldiers as the convoy pulls off to the side of the road in
a residential neighborhood. The detainees are led out of the vehicles
and lined up against a wall. Their blindfolds are taken off and when
the men realize that they are being released they begin to cry with
relief. They look absolutely exhausted, their clothes filthy and torn
with a look of fear and confusion on their eyes.

As the soldiers escort the detainees back to their
homes, a crowd of friends and relatives begins to gather on the
streets. There is screaming, crying and hugging as the community sees
the missing men are alive. Two women faint and are held up by their
husbands and sons.

One man starts screaming in English “why did you do
this? Why did you take them? They are graduate students at the
University. These are not terrorists they are students! Why did you
take them? What did you do to them?

In Iraq, if someone does not come home by nightfall,
the family fears the worst. When they have not returned by the next
morning, they assume that their loved ones are dead. When finally
reunited, it is a truly emotional experience. When detainees are held
indefinitely, the family often never knows they were taken into custody
and assumes they have been killed and that they will not see them
again. Under the US Patriot Act, detainees can be held indefinitely
without any trial or any opportunity to speak with or notify their
families.

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This story is featured in its entirety on the following sites:

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Color: www.warphotographer.org

Black and White: www.diariesofashooter.com

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Zoriah - Iraq Detainees