Iranian TV drama blames Jewish character for Abu Ghraib abuse [p. 5]

By SIMON WILLIAMS
The latest Iranian TV show, titled Guantanamo or Remember Your Dreams, blames a fictional Jewish US Army major for the torture of inmates at Abu Ghraib prison in Bagdad in 2003-2004. Filmed in Lebanon, the drama purports to show how photographs of torture at Abu Ghraib became public, and how the evil Major Rosenthal was exposed through the efforts of equally fictive characters, including a former Guantanamo detainee, a US Army corporal and a Lawyers without Borders activist. (It can be viewed at www.memritv.org). Throughout the program, prisoners recall the inhumane treatment that they allegedly faced. "They put me in an iron cell and tied my hands. When they took the sack off my head, I found myself in a large green hall, surrounded by barbed wire. They left me there for three days," said Prisoner A. "They thought I was a member of Al-Qaida. They took turns beating me. The first, then the second, then the third, and then the fourth... For three days they gave me nothing to eat. Nothing. Then they put a sack over my head and moved me to a steel cell. There they banged my head against the bars of the cell, with all their might," he said. Another character, Prisoner B, talked about the use of techniques that conflicted with Islamic beliefs. "They used psychological methods on us, like naked female investigators, huge wild dogs, and other weapons," he said. "Abu Ghraib photographs are essentially snapshots, larky postcards of soldiers enjoying their power, as their implied message - 'Having a wonderful time... Wish you were here'" attests, said Arthur C. Danto of The Nation magazine. "The Jewish character of the US Army major was not coincidental" said Yotan Feldmer, who supplied the material to MEMRI. Guantanomo was blatantly anti-American and clearly directed toward the wider Arab world, Feldmer said, rather than just for the Iranian market. Unlike other Iranian material, Guantanamo is not in Farsi. In the real world, several US Army reservists have been sentenced to prison for abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib. Former Cpl. Charles Graner of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, who prosecutors described as the ringleader in the abuse, was sentenced to 10 years in military prison.