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The Man Beneath The Hood Speaks
Out: “They tortured me, they
humiliated me"
 An
interview with Shalal el Kaissi, who has
become a symbol of U.S. torture .
by PAOLA COPPOLA
Translated from an article
in La
Repubblica, by Mary Rizzo
09/14/05 "ICH" -- -- “They tortured me, they
humiliated me, they have destroyed me inside. I want that what has
happened to me never happens again, that everyone knows what those
months in Abu Ghraib were like. This is my new life: to denounce
that which is happening in the Iraqi prisons, to defend the rights
of those who are inside of them”. Former prisoner number 151716
of the prison of shame speaks. The man who has been recognised in
one of the photo-symbols of the violence of Abu Ghraib: the hooded
prisoner, standing balanced on a cardboard box, his shoulders to
the wall, with his arms opened and the fingers of his hands
connected to electrical wires.
Ali Shalal el Kaissi, 42 years old, was arrested in October of
2003 in a car park near the mosque of El Amariyah and was
imprisoned with the accusation of being part of the guerrilla
movement. In the disgusting jargon of his torturers, he was “Clawman”,
due to a noticeable burn mark on his hand. He was released January
of 2004 and, several months later, founded together with another
12 persons, “The association of the victims of American
occupation prisons".
Invited to speak at the Conference on Iraq organised by the
Anti-Imperialist Camp this October, Hajj Ali (“Hajj is a title
that is given to those who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca)
knows of the American pressures on the visas which have been
denied to the other Iraqis. He is still awaiting a response: “I
don’t know if I will be allowed to attend,” he says. In these
days he is in Amman, in Jordan, where he has frequented a
formation course for humanitarian operators.
When did you see the photo of the hooded man for the first
time and did you recognise yourself?
“The volunteers of an Iraqi association that deals with human
rights showed me the photos taken at Abu Ghraib. It was a shock, a
personal destruction. I suffered that which you see in the images:
they covered my head, tortured me and made me undergo such strong
pressure. They photographed me many times. But others established
that that prisoner was me: human rights organisations and even
journalistic investigations, one from the American broadcaster
PBS, and another from a magazine, “Vanity Fair”.
When were those pictures taken?
”As soon as I arrived at Abu Ghraib, they took me to the
building where the cells were. The second month of imprisonment
was when the torturing began and in the same period they also
started to take pictures. I wouldn’t know how to say with
precision the day because I had lost all cognition of time”.
What was the hardest moment during your months of
imprisonment?
“When they put me on a cardboard box, with electrical wires
attached to my hands. And when they left me naked for fifteen
days. And, in the background on a loudspeaker they made me hear a
song in continuation, By the Rivers of Babylon (by Bony M. ed
note). I thought I was losing my mind.”
What did they ask you during the interrogations?
“They wanted to know if I was fighting against the occupation.
But also if I knew people in the area in which I lived: I had the
impression that they were searching for someone who would become a
collaborator, they wanted information. They wanted me to become
“their eyes” in the region. But I didn’t know anything, and
I did not respond to the questions. In that way, they began the
torture. They always asked me the same things, they repeated them
dozens of times, I think it was a strategy to make me talk. The
interrogations were conducted by persons who said to have worked
in Gaza and in the West Bank.”
After your release did you denounce that which had
happened to you?
“They released me prior to the scandal of the photos, telling me
that my arrest was a mistake. I denounced that which they did to
me to the Iraqi authorities, but they sent me away accusing me of
having invented it all.”
What effect does it have on you to be a symbol of the
torture of Abu Ghraib?
“That photo itself for me is a torture, and I would prefer to be
remembered for other things. But, I want that which has happened
to me to never happen to anyone else. That is why I founded an
association, that has nothing to do with political parties. I work
to defend the rights of those in prison, to give former prisoners
material and psychological help, to be a witness to that which is
happening in Iraq.”
Do you believe that in the last year, after the violence
of Abu Ghraib was exposed, the conditions of the prisoners has
improved?
“No. I believe that when the telecameras enter into the prisons
the situation seems better, but I am always receiving emails from
family members of prisoners who denounce abuse and violence, and
not only in the prisons run by the Americans. In the zone of Al
Garma there are also women and children imprisoned, fifteen in
all. The worst part of all of this is that in 99% of the cases the
prisoners are innocent and they are then released. But in the
meantime, in prison they have lost their dignity.”
Translated from an article
in La
Repubblica, by Mary Rizzo - Visit her Blog
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