Orchestrated Horror

The United States’ involvement with the Middle East after the 9/11 attacks reflected failed deterrence and counterterrorism, destabilizing the region, inability to distinguish between civilians and combatants, and attempts to push democracy, leading to the country’s distaste and attitudes. Illegally detaining Iraqi citizens adds to the list of how our military can abuse its power. 

This image is one of the most infamous images that reflected the horrors and abuse committed by the United States Army and Central Intelligence Agency to Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison. The series of human rights violations and war crimes committed by the US Army and CIA during the early stages of the Iraq war were under the Bush administration. Fueled by the DOJ, Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, and Janis Karpinski, chief officer of the US Army Reserve, allowed immense torture, corruption, and atrocities of innocent and illegally captured Iraqi civilians. 

This image and other abuse and torture photographic evidence that resurfaced in 2003 by an army personnel whistleblower publicized these photos and shocked the world. The image of the prisoner is known as Abdou Hussain Saad Faleh, who, along with the other thousands of prisoners, was subjected to humiliation, physical and sexual abuse, and psychological torture by American soldiers. He is pictured standing on a food ration box, with electrodes attached to his fingertips, neck, and genitals. He is wearing a cloak on his body and a trash bag on his face, posing with his arms resembling Jesus on the cross. 

The photo manipulation I created was to show how the photographic torture of Abu Ghraib under Google Images is always censored or pixelated due to its sensitive and disturbing nature. This translates to how its complexity and purpose of being censored reflect how an act so awful and obscene can become committed by a group of individuals meant to protect us. I added images of the prison scandal, army generals, US involvement in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, and Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush in each pixel. This new interpretation of the image symbolizes every intricate detail sadistic individuals orchestrated how every image represents one horror to another meant to be covered, hidden, or forgotten about to protect the image and reputation of the United States. 

Original Image: known as Abdou Hussain Saad Faleh, photographer unknown

Manipulated Image:

Dropbox of images