Mission & Justice

Sandra Hall; 3/7/08
Film; Genre; Documentary; Run Time 116 minutes; Rated MA 15+; Country: Australia; Director: Errol Morris; Rating: stars-4

It was the photograph of the hooded figure standing on a box with electrical wires dangling from his wrists that first alerted the world to the cruelties of Abu Ghraib. So bizarre was this image that it was at first difficult to comprehend. Was it a still from a horror movie or something out of a museum of medieval barbarities? The answer was swift in coming as more photographs flashed on to our television screens. Suddenly we were being ushered into the world of modern counter-terrorism - a place where the moral compass swings in disorienting directions. You will get the idea if I tell you that the treatment meted out to the man on the box was eventually judged to be “standard operating procedure”.

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Leila Fadel; 11/6/08

Iraqi MPs say the United States is demanding 58 bases as part of a proposed “status of forces” agreement that will allow US troops to remain in the country indefinitely. Leading members of the two ruling Shiite parties said in a series of interviews that the Iraqi Government rejected this proposal, along with another US demand that would effectively hand over the power to determine if a hostile act from another country constitutes aggression against Iraq. MPs said they feared this power would drag Iraq into a war between the US and Iran. “The points that were put forth by the Americans were more abominable than the occupation,” said Sheikh Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, a leading MP from the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.

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