MAY 18, 2004

POLITICS
Prisoner abuse: ethics, morals and religion

Prisoner abuse in Iraq has is raising wrenching questions, all related to how humans treat each other. It is an essential moral, ethical and religious issue that millions of experts, scholars and advocates devote their lives to. ReligionLink offers extensive background and expert interview sources.

Why it matters
Religions advocate care for the powerless and the imprisoned. Christians point out that Jesus himself was a torture victim.

Angles for reporters
There are lots of opportunities for local, national and international angles on stories related to prisoner abuse in Iraq. Here are some places to start:

• Human rights advocates, organizations and research and teaching centers have extensive experience dealing with similar issues. Sources are provided throughout this issue.

• Torture survivors' treatment programs, advocacy centers, and research institutions exist in every state. Sources are provided throughout this issue. Some may be able to recommend victims of prisoner abuse who are willing to be interviewed.

• Religious organizations, both national and local, have always been involved in caring for the imprisoned and working for their fair treatment. Many local congregations of all faiths have active prison ministries. How do members' experience in U.S. prisons shape how they react to what's happened in Iraq?

• Ethicists can address what is morally right and wrong, either from a secular or religious perspective, depending upon their background. Military ethicists study what is appropriate during times of war. Ethicists can be found at seminaries, universities and other organizations.

• Some of the prisoners mistreated in Iraq are Muslim. An Oct. 9, 2003, ReligionLink tip about Muslims in U.S. prisons offers resources

• Psychiatrists and psychologists can talk about the mental effects of prisoner abuse on both victims and perpetrators.

Skip to background

Click the map for interview sources in your state and region

National sources

• James Turner Johnson teaches religion at Rutgers University in New Jersey and has written extensively on just war, morality and warfare and Islam. He is a former editor of the Journal of Religious Ethics and an editor of the Journal of Military Ethics. Contact 732-932-9637, jtj@rci.rutgers.edu.
• Sanford Levinson is W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law and Professor of Government at the University of Texas School of Law and editor of the forthcoming book Torture (Oxford University Press, 2004). Contact 512-232-1351, slevinson@mail.law.utexas.edu.
• Taha Jabir Alalwani is president of The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Leesburg, Va., and holds the Imam Al-Shafi'i Chair in Islamic Legal Theory. His expertise includes human rights in Islam. Contact 703-779-7477.
• M. Cherif Bassiouni is president of the International Human Rights Law Institute and law professor at DePaul University in Chicago. Read about the institute's International Criminal Court-Arab World Project. Read about the institute's efforts to educate people about human rights in the Arab world. Contact 312-362-5919, cbassiou@depaul.edu.
• Glen H. Stassen is a professor of Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., who specializes in war, peace and ethics and the author of Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War (Pilgrim Press, 2004). He says that policies encouraged pressure on prisoners and removed needed checks and balances. Contact 626-304-3733, gstassen@fuller.edu.
• Albert C. Pierce is the director of the Center for the Study of Professional Military Ethics at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. He served in the U.S. Defense Department and was a defense correspondent for NBC News. Contact 410-293-6085, acpierce@gwmail.usna.edu.
• David L. Perry is a professor of ethics at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. Contact 717-245-4815, david.perry@carlisle.army.mil.
• Psychologist Philip Zimbardo is one of the authors of the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment and retired professor of psychology at Stanford University. Read "A Situationist Perspective on the Psychology of Evil: Understanding How Good People Are Transformed into Perpetrators," a 2003 paper by Zimbardo, past president of the American Psychological Association, on the Stanford University Web site. Contact Zimbardo through Jack Hubbard at Stanford News Service: 650-725-1294, jhubb@stanford.edu.
• Human Rights Watch is an independent, nongovernmental organization that investigates human rights abuses and advocates for their end. Read Human Rights Watch's compilation of background information on U.S. detention facilities in Iraq. See links and reports about torture. Human Rights Watch is based in New York, with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. It lists human rights information by country. Contact 212-290-4700.
• The National Council of Churches USA sent a letter May 11, 2004 advising changes in Iraq to end the violence. The NCC represents 36 Protest and Orthodox member communions. Contact media liaison Carol Fouke, 212-870-2252, cfouke@ncccusa.org
• The Anti-Defamation League, the National Congress of Jewish Women (contact Sammie Moshenberg 202-296-2588; sammie@ncjwdc.org) and the Action Center of Reform Judaism (contact Alexis Rice or Beth Kalisch 202-387-2800) all made statements condemning prisoner abuse in Iraq.
• Mahdi Bray is executive director of the Freedom Foundation, the public affairs arm of the Muslim American Society, a national grassroots religious, social, and educational organization. Contact 202-496-1288.
• Sayyid M. Syeed is secretary-general of the Islamic Society of North America, which condemned the killing of Nicholas Berg. Contact 317-839 -8157, syeeds@isna.net.

Background
TORTURE
• Read a Feb. 20, 2004, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly story about the ethics of torture.
• Read a Jan. 9, 2003, story in The Economist, "Is Torture Ever Justified?"
• Read an October 2003 Atlantic Monthly story: "The Dark Art of Interrogation."
• Read a March 13, 2003, story in The Nation, "In Torture We Trust?" about reports of systematic abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
• The U.S. Congress first passed the Torture Victims Relief Act in 1998 and reauthorized it in November 2003. Read information about it from the Center for Victims of Torture.
• Read the U.N. Convention Against Torture.
• A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Oct. 5-6, 2001, found that many Americans supported extraordinary measures as means of dealing with terrorism. The United States has an official policy against assassinating or torturing foreign leaders or non-American citizens suspected of criminal activity. There has been some talk of changing this policy in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. This CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll shows 77 percent of Americans would be willing to allow the U.S. government to assassinate known terrorists, and 52 percent would be willing to allow the government to assassinate leaders of countries that harbor terrorists. Americans were less supportive of torture than of assassination, as 45 percent said they were willing to allow the government to torture known terrorists if they know details about future attacks in the United States.
• U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement includes treatment of torture survivors.
• Read a report on torture in the United States prepared by the Coalition Against Torture and Racial discrimination, a working group of non-government civil and human rights groups in the U.S.
• Christians Against Torture, a nonprofit based in Wales, lists Bible references on why Christians' faith calls them to care for the conditions in which prisoners are held and for those who are tortured.

WORLDWIDE
• The U.S. State Department publishes human rights reports by country. The latest report documents human rights conditions for the year 2002.
• Amnesty International is a worldwide movement that promotes universally recognized human rights. Contact 212-807-8400.
• The Torture Survivors Network lists links to torture survivors' organizations and resources around the world.
• The Immigration and Refugee Services of America (IRSA) defends human rights, builds communities, fosters education, promotes self-sufficiency, and forges partnerships through service and advocacy programs.
• The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) provides protection and assistance to the world's refugees. When first created by the United Nations General Assembly in 1951, UNHCR was charged primarily with resettling 1.2 million European refugees left homeless in the aftermath of World War II. Today, 22.7 million people in over 140 countries fall under UNHCR's concern.
• The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), founded in 1946, advocates and works for the protection of children's rights. UNICEF "is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and strives to establish children's rights as enduring ethical principles and international standards of behavior towards children."
• Since 1958, the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) has identified refugees at greatest risk and given them a voice. Refugees are people who have lost everything: their homes, their belongings, their freedom, and their loved ones. Often, all that they have left are their inherent rights as human beings. The work done by USCR helps refugees get the protection and assistance they need to survive.
• The World Organization Against Torture, USA is based in Washington, D.C. Contact 202-861-6494 , woatusa@woatusa.org.

STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT
• Read about the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971 and view a slide show of the experiment, which put ordinary Stanford University students in the position of guarding "inmates" - other students - while, unknown to the participants, their behavior was videotaped. Psychologist Philip Zimbardo, one of the experiment's authors, says today that the sexual degradation of Iraqi prisoners of war by guards reminds him of the behavior of the "guards" in the experiment. As the guards on the night shift became bored, they used the prisoners for amusement. Zimbardo recalls that "guards" got "prisoners" to simulate sodomy and other homophobic behaviors, stripped them naked for various offenses, removed their sheets and mattresses and put them in solitary confinement for excessive periods. The researchers ended the study a week early because of abuse by the student guards.
• Read a 1997 Stanford University press release describing the experiment and telling what became of the researchers who conducted it.