Lifting the Hood

"They stretched my hands in this position and attached the wires to them", states Haj Ali. "It felt like my eyes were popping out. I couldn't stand it." He spent three months being physically and psychologically tortured at Abu Ghraib. Interrogators wanted him to use his knowledge as a community leader to inform on other people. "They said 'give us the name of anyone you hate and we'll see it as co-operation and help you.'" In a nearby cell, army general Abu Maan was also being interrogated. "They stripped me and took photos of me in degrading positions", he recalls.