[barend]

it's not a musical but here's the story:

Post body:

Abu Ghraib abuses tapped to theatre
By Rana Husseini in Amman 
Monday 08 November 2004, 10:38 Makka Time, 7:38 GMT

A New Middle East seeks to relive the Abu Ghraib horrors on stage

As the trials and courts martial of US military personnel involved in the Abu Ghraib prison abuses get under way, the Arab world is finding new ways to grapple with the issue.

Arab media pundits took to criticising the US for what they saw as its double standards - on the one hand espousing democractic principles and, on the other hand, allowing torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prison inmates.

Live television talk shows were flooded with callers from the Arab world who expressed their outrage and shock at the Abu Ghraib abuses.

In Jordan, however, a theatre director decided to take the issue one step further.

Director Muhammad Shawaqfa, 47, wanted to capture the anger and frustration of the "Arab street" directed at the "biased US policy in the Middle East" and its "unjust war in Iraq".

His theatre production, A New Middle East, has resonated with Arab audiences because of its strong anti-interventionist and pro-Arab undertones.

One recurrent theme that he follows through from one scene to the next is the premise that things happen in the Middle East only if the US wills it.


Gripping scenes

"I wanted through this play, and especially the Abu Ghraib scene, to tell everyone, look, this is the democracy that the US is talking about in the Middle East," Shawaqfa told Aljazeera.net.

Writers also described it as a "sad and funny play at the same time because it reminded us of our miserable situation".

The play spares none of the graphic pains associated with Abu Ghraib prison.

"I miss my dog back home," says Lynndie England as she holds a cigarette in one hand and drags an Iraqi detainee with a dog leash in the other.

Then she lets out a wild and menacing laugh, which rings through the halls of Abu Ghraib prison.

Audience members watching were gripped by the intensity and the depravity of the scene.

"This scene was very tough on me - to depict her [England] character because I am against torture and the killing of anyone," actress Suhair Fahd told Aljazeera.net speaking about the role she is playing at the Amoun Theatre in Amman, Jordan.

"I felt I needed to show the world the horrific abuses that were taking place at the prison and I studied England's character carefully and discovered that she was enjoying the abuse against Iraqi prisoners," Fahd added.

Torture and abuse

The play reveals the importance of the Abu Ghraib scandal to contemporary Arab society and may shed insight into growing anti-US feelings in the region.

Newspapers critics agree, saying the play, which started showing in July 2004 and is playing through the month of Ramadan, highlights the gap between the rich and the poor and blames "American democracy [for] causing this gap".

For example, an actor in the role of a US soldier is seen escorting an Iraqi prisoner with a plastic bag wrapped around his head. He pulls the plastic bag off his head, asks the prisoner to drink water, then kills him, laughing out loud.

The issue of human rights is a particularly sensitive one in the region. Play critic for Jordan's daily Al Rai newspaper Jamal Iyad believes the US passed laws and policies after 11 September 2001 which restricted human rights and some freedoms.

Arab defiance

Arab reaction to US influence in the region is personified in the character of Uncle Ghafil, played by Hussein Tubaishat, a popular veteran of Jordanian soap operas. In one of the scenes, he throws US dollar notes in the face of a US producer writing a screenplay which embraces "western objectives of destroying the Arab nation and its moral system".

"Take your dollars because we will continue to fight and resist until the last drop of our blood," Uncle Ghafil yells at the producer. In a scene, which ostensibly shows the fate of those who speak out against US politics in the Middle East, it is the character of Uncle Ghafil who is now tortured and abused.

But in a line which plays well with Arab audiences, he declares he "does not fear anything any more".

Vox populi

Despite its controversial and somewhat macabre scenes, the play has become popular with Arab audiences.

Amir Statiya, 29, said he enjoyed the play because "it said a lot of the things that we were unable to say".
                                       
A 25-year-old mother who took her five-year-old said the play reflected the views of the Jordanian street, but was saddened in some parts "because it reminded us of the US and Israeli oppression".

"I wanted to tell the Jordanian audience that this is your future as the US wants it," Shawaqfa said.

The play continues its run until next spring.

pics at :http://english.aljaz...4F1EB12B6CA.htm

"sad and funny"? i have to see this play....

but how long before all the actors are dragged off to the prison they're portraying?

i hope the portrayal of Lynndie England is as gripping as they say...
for i would like people to be reminded that having a baby doesn't make you any less of a murderous bitch who should be imprisoned and told that you can't convince the world that you can be ordered by a superior officer to smile!

thanks to J m HofMarN for pointing this one out...

[J m HofMarN]

The funny thing is this is the Arab equivalent of reality TV. American reality TV portrays Americans being conceited, fat, self important bastards. Arab reality tv portrays Arabs being sexually abused by Americans. The sad thing is both of these representations are perfectly accurate and appropriate...

[Madam Corvax]

Took 5-year-old to see this musical??? Aren't these things rated too? What a splendid outset of education will this child receive.

And Barend - No, Lynndie England is not a murderous bitch. I am sure you have heard about this experiment with American college students who were divided into prison guards and prisoners and played their role. They were 1970 hippies, all for love and freedom. And after one week the guards started to abuse prisoners - their own colleagues. And only some of the "guards", very few of them rebelled against the inhumane treatment of "prisoners'. And these guys, I repeat, were not "murderous bitches" they were average.

But you see, this is even more scary, because put in extreme circumstances quite a substantial percentage of people will actually behave like Lynndie England. Like Nazi officers in concentration camps in Poland during WWII. They all claimed to love their family, and they were not specially selected for their cruelty. It was the circumstance that freed the beast in them. After the war they went on to live .. normally.

Were Lynndie England a murderous bitch, it would be fine. Such people can be isolated, re-scialised. But can you really do it with half of the population?

And I personally know people who I strongly suspect would behave like Lynndie England, would they ever be put in her situation. And they are considered normal people, respected even. That is what I find so sad about people in general.

[J m HofMarN]

Madam- I know what you mean. Having power over others will corrupt people, that's why I've always tried to avoid power. I guess it's a matter of willpower and stolidness. I think that's one of the enduring messages of Tolkien's works.

[civilian_number_two]

I'm not sure this Lynndie's story is comparable to that experiment, MC. That experiement showed that in situations where people were not really sure what was going on, and where they were given persistent orders in a time-limited situation, they tend to follow orders. I also do not think it was ever proven that some of the people didn't see through it and go forward out of spite.

This Lynndie gal is I think more an example of the gang-initiated bully. Seeking popular acceptance, some assholes will do anything. You're right; these folks are pretty common as well, as extremists regimes worldwide have proven. But they can't fall back on "orders" as their excuse, unless ollie North really did reverse the conclusions of the Nuremberg trials.

Of course, if you can fall back on "orders" as your excuse, then we have a mandate to put on trial the guys who gave the orders. Anyone remember why that didn't happen in the Iran/Contra affair? Ronald Reagan sure didn't!

[J m HofMarN]

You know, there's a bounty on North's head at the moment and he's wanted in France and a few Caribbean countries. Talk about harboring terrorists- he gets secret service protection! I hope I meet the bastard someday.

[Madam Corvax]

Civ- yes, there is something to that what you say. They thought that by bringing women into military service they bring „gentleness” into the army. Sadly it did not work that way. It actually slammed the old notion that women are by nature more gentle and peace loving than man. As we can observe in this example, women can be as ruthless and cruell as men, therefore it is upbringing rather than actural biological propensity that makes women meek and less agressive. The „buddy” culture demanded women to be as though as man to prove themselves and it is the most horrible way to „prove” that women are equal to men.

But I should say it only added to the clue of this episode – that given power over another human being, given orders and notion that they are somehow lesser than you -a perfectly normal human being – in normal circumstances, that is - can turn into a monster.

And I am pretty sure there was something about being given orders. The army had a pair of investigators, some non-military guys hired from a private company who were the brain of the torture and abuse. Needless to say, they were allowed to walk free.

And what sort of superior offices is that who allows such things to happen? I can’t believe that they did not know. – they must have. If they turned a blind eye, they are equally guilty.

I hope you understand that I am not defending Lynndie, not at all. It is just that such things happened before.

[SimeSublime]

Madam- I know what you mean. Having power over others will corrupt people, that's why I've always tried to avoid power.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I disagree. If I was given the power, I would grasp it with two hands fully expecting to be corrupted, but knowing that I could at least improove things somewhat before that happened.

[J m HofMarN]

I doubt that I could resist its appeal, thus my avoidance.

[barend]

'murderous' was a harsh word...

but seriously... this woman is a cow! you can claim you were ordered to shoot civilians, you claim you were ordered to torch a village...

but you can't claim you were ordered to have fun with brutalizing innocent men who's only crime was being born in a different country, and being of 'military age', and living in a place that is the most financialy benificial place to attack for the leader of an unchallenged power...

no... i resent her existance. the only thing worse than an evil asshole is the herd conformist who follows it... it's those people who make a bad society. it's those people who make a bad world.its those people who allow all the terrible things that happen to be tolerated...

she took part in the torture, humiliation, and needles maiming of innocent men who were dragged out of thier homes in the middle of the night wthout warning or provication... by troops who had no reason to be in the country at all...

weapons of mass imagination
and the mothers of intervention.

honestly...
:yuck:

[Hannibal]

NOT ALL ARE "GOOD GERMANS" SOME CHOOSE TO "JUST SAY NO"

Can a hero be someone who refuses to fight? :


US Soldier Seeks Refugee Status in Canada
Private Refused to Fight in "Dehumanizing" War
By JONATHAN FRANKLIN

Pte Hinzman said: "I signed up to defend my country, not carry out acts of aggression."
US army private Jeremy Hinzman fought in Afghanistan and considers himself a patriot. But when his unit was ordered to Iraq, he refused to go and embarked on a radical journey that could make legal history.

Private first class Hinzman left the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, taking his wife and son to Canada. Officially, he is awol (absent without leave), and, instead of fighting insurgents, he is battling the US military in the Canadian courts.

This month Pte Hinzman, 25, filed legal papers to become the first US soldier objecting to the Iraq war to be granted refugee status in Canada. His case is expected to be a test of new Canadian immigration laws and the country's traditional role of accepting refugees from the US military.

An estimated 250 Americans every year seek refugee status in Canada, the vast majority making mental health claims, according to Jeffrey House, a Toronto criminal defence lawyer who represents Pte Hinzman.

"This is the first time a soldier from the Iraq war is seeking protection. He does not want to fight in Iraq and he will do any lawful thing to stay in Canada."

If he returns to the US, Pte Hinzman could be prosecuted as a deserter, according to Sergeant Pam Smith, a spokes woman for the 82nd Airborne. "We don't have time to go and track down people who go awol," she told the Associated Press. "We're fighting a war."

On the telephone from Toronto, Pte Hinzman said: "I signed up to defend my country, not carry out acts of aggression."

He hopes other soldiers will refuse to serve in Iraq and come to Canada: "I think I am the first, but I encourage others to do the same. I do not want to sound seditious, but there is strength in numbers."

Pte Hinzman told the Fayetteville Observer that he had liked the subsidised housing and groceries offered by the army and the promises of money for college. "It seemed like a good financial decision," he said. "I had a romantic vision of what the army was."

From the start of basic training, he was upset by the continuous chanting about blood and killing, and what he called the dehumanisation of the enemy. "It's like watching some kind of scary movie, except I was in it," he said.

"People would just walk around saying things like 'I want to kill somebody'."

Human rights lawyers and religious counsellors in the US predict that the case is the start of a huge wave of protests and legal moves by military personnel and their families.

Volunteers at the GI Rights Hotline, a legal aid centre for soldiers, are receiving about 3,500 calls a month from military personnel looking to leave the armed forces.

With a growing number of dead and wounded, the Pentagon is struggling to maintain troop levels in Iraq. Nearly 40% of those now deployed are national guard or reserve troops. "These guys are not going to re-enlist, that is for sure," said Giorgio DeShaun Ra'Shadd, a lawyer in Centennial, Colorado, who represents several military families. "Soldiers are fighting to get out of the service."

In late January the Pentagon cancelled retirement dates for an estimated 40,000 soldiers. This unilateral move postpones soldiers' return to civilian life.

Military families erupted in protest at the decision and immediately launched websites and demonstrations.

"Can the US president with the signature of a pen indenture tens of thousands of US citizens? That is the question we are now investigating," said Luke Hiken, a lawyer in San Francisco. "This is a tremendous militarisation of civilian families. Soldiers are now being asked to stay for two more years. This takes civilian families and turns them into military families."

Based on his work with US military personnel in Germany, Mr Hiken estimates that there are "thousands" of soldiers who want to escape from Iraq. "When they brought them home for vacation in the US, about 15%-20% simply never went back. They stayed with their families."

Pte Hinzman said his family was part of his reason for going awol.

"I vowed to myself, to my wife and son, that I would not go to Iraq. To me it was a war fought on false pretenses. Dr Blix [the former chief UN weapons inspector] went time and time again [to Iraq] and he said there are no weapons of mass destruction.

"They are exploiting the events of September 11, based on greed and our need for oil."

Jonathan Franklin writes for The Guardian of London.

[Hannibal]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot:

http://www.impeachbush.tv/

[IMG] :16,604

This post has been edited by Hannibal: 21 November 2004 - 02:19 PM

[J m HofMarN]

I wonder if this play is part of how the Iraqis will celebrate the liberation of their country? I especially hope they quote Bush when he said "I will close down the torture room, the rape rooms" (rape room being perhaps the silliest thing ever. I mean, really, did Saddam actually have a room in his palace with a big sign over the door reading "rape room?")

Of course I'll bet anything the play won't be performed in Iraq because people are using their freedom of speech. The people of Iraq are free to speak out against the occupation and if they do they're freely massacred, many of them while actually worshipping in their mosques like what just happened yesterday.

Hannibal- That was actually very informative, I'd heard of soldiers trying to find ways to escape but never any of them doing it successfully. I wonder why the US dosnt ever get any Canadian refugees...

[SimeSublime]

Thanks for that Hannibal, really good to read. I hope he has the best of luck in the courts.