WITNESSarchive

W–030 · Documentary photograph and sources

The Hooded Man

The prisoner was ordered to stand on a box and told that if he fell, he would be electrocuted. A hood covered his head; wires were attached to his hands; his feet were bare. This was how American service members abused an Iraqi man at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad in November 2003. A later military investigation established that the wires were not live.

1. 11:04 p.m.

In Sabrina Harman’s photograph, Ivan Frederick stands beside the prisoner, looking at a digital camera in his hands. The CID caption dates the frame to about 11:04 p.m. on 4 November 2003.
In Sabrina Harman’s photograph, Ivan Frederick stands beside the prisoner, looking at a digital camera in his hands. The CID caption dates the frame to about 11:04 p.m. on 4 November 2003.
Provenance and sources for frame 1

Displayed file: 1280 × 848 pixels. The source record discusses public-domain status; check which jurisdiction it covers. Full image record in Russian.

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The people taking the photographs were among those responsible for the abuse: US Army Specialist Sabrina Harman and Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick. Captions from the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, or CID, say that both photographed the prisoner “as a joke.”

CID’s chronology dates these two exposures to 4 November, at about 11:01 and 11:04 p.m. A military investigation gives the same day and mentions six photographs of the man on the box; two appear here. The charge brought at Frederick’s trial gives a different date, “on or about” 8 November. The records disagree.

In January 2004, military policeman Joseph Darby handed photographs from the prison to investigators. CBS first broadcast them on 60 Minutes II on 28 April. Images the guards had made inside the prison were now seen outside it.

In October, Frederick pleaded guilty to several charges of abusing prisoners. He was sentenced to ten years, reduced to eight under a pre-trial agreement. He was also demoted to private, forfeited his pay and was dishonourably discharged from the Army.

After publication, the identity of the hooded prisoner also became contested. Ali Shallal al-Qaisi said the man was him. CID rejected that claim: its investigative files identify the prisoner as Abdou Hussain Saad Faleh. The guards had a nickname for him: “Gilligan.”

2. 11:01 p.m.

The hooded prisoner stands barefoot with wires attached to his hands. Ivan Frederick made this photograph; the CID caption dates it to about 11:01 p.m. on 4 November 2003.
The hooded prisoner stands barefoot with wires attached to his hands. Ivan Frederick made this photograph; the CID caption dates it to about 11:01 p.m. on 4 November 2003.
Provenance and sources for frame 2

Displayed file: 1917 × 2560 pixels. The source record discusses public-domain status; check which jurisdiction it covers. Full image record in Russian.

commons.wikimedia.orgView image file