Standard Operating Procedure

An utterly original literary and intellectual collaboration by two of our keenest moral and political observers has produced a nonfiction Heart of Darkness for our time: the first full reckoning of what actually happened at Abu Ghraib prison, based on hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with the Americans involved. Standard Operating Procedure reveals the stories of the American soldiers who took and appeared in the iconic photographs of the Iraq war-the haunting digital snapshots from Abu Ghraib prison that shocked the world-and simultaneously illuminates and alters forever our understanding of those images and the events they depict. Drawing on more than two hundred hours of Errol Morris's startlingly frank and intimate interviews with Americans who served at Abu Ghraib and with some of their Iraqi prisoners, as well as on his own research, Philip Gourevitch has written a relentlessly surprising account of Iraq's occupation from the inside out-rendering vivid portraits of guards and prisoners ensnared in an appalling breakdown of command authority and moral order. What did we think we saw in the infamous photographs, and what were we, in fact, looking at? What did the people in the photographs think they were doing, and why did they take them? What was standard operating procedure and what was being creative when it came to making prisoners uncomfortable? Who was giving orders, and who was following them? Where does the line lie between humiliation and torture, and why and how does that matter? Was the true Abu Ghraib scandal a result of an expos or a cover-up? In exploring these questions, Gourevitch and Morris have crafted a nonfiction morality play that stands toendure as essential reading long after the current war in Iraq passes from the headlines. By taking us deep into the voices and characters of the men and women who lived the horror of Abu Ghraib, the authors force us, whatever our politics, to reexamine the pat explanations in which we have been offered-or sought-refuge, and to see afresh this watershed episode. Instead of a few bad apples, we are confronted with disturbingly ordinary young American men and women who have been dropped into something out of Dante's Inferno. Standard Operating Procedure is a book that makes you think and makes you see-an essential contribution from two of our finest nonfiction artists working at the peak of their powers.

Review :
?Here, author and journalist Gourevitch and documentary filmmaker Morris have compiled the complete story of Abu Ghraib, from Iraqi prison to prison of occupying American forces, and the crimes its walls concealed?only some of which were revealed in photographs that hit the global media in 2003. Drawing from Morris's lengthy interviews with the soldiers who photographed and participated in prisoner abuse, the authors render in clear detail the horror and inhumanity of Abu Ghraib, for prisoner and guard alike: ?Inexperienced, untrained, under attack, and under orders to do wrong, the low-ranking reservist MPs who implemented the nefarious policy... knew that what they were doing was immoral, and they knew that if it wasn't illegal, it ought to be.? From the squalid conditions to the lack of regulations to the appalling acts that jolted the world, this chronicle of unconscionable behavior, and the political maneuvering that took place in its aftermath, is as much a page-turner as any fic aHere, author and journalist Gourevitch and documentary filmmaker Morris have compiled the complete story of Abu Ghraib, from Iraqi prison to prison of occupying American forces, and the crimes its walls concealedaonly some of which were revealed in photographs that hit the global media in 2003. Drawing from Morrisas lengthy interviews with the soldiers who photographed and participated in prisoner abuse, the authors render in clear detail the horror and inhumanity of Abu Ghraib, for prisoner and guard alike: aInexperienced, untrained, under attack, and under orders to do wrong, the low-ranking reservist MPs who implemented the nefarious policy... knew that what they were doing was immoral, and they knew that if it wasn't illegal, it ought to be.a From the squalid conditions to the lack of regulations to the appalling acts that jolted the world, this chronicle of unconscionable behavior, and the political maneuvering that took place in its aftermath, is as much a page-turner as any fictional thriller. Companion to Morrisas documentary film of the same name, this deft piece of reportage will stir readersa anger, at both the actions and the consequences; not only was the torture purposeless (aNobody has even bothered to pretend otherwisea), but ano soldier above the rank of sergeant ever served jail time... [and] Nobody was ever charged with torture, or war crimes, or any violation of the Geneva Conventions.a A thorough, terrifying account of an American-made abedlam, a the latest from Gourevitch is as troubling, and arguably as important, as his 1998 Rwanda investigation "We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families,"a a"Publishers Weekly" (starred review) aThis book has to be read.a a"Newsweek" aA tightly knit and damning narrativea] one of the most devastating of the many books on Iraq.a a"New York Times Book Review" aPhilip Gourevitchas exemplary book will take its toll for years.a a"The New York Observer" aFascinating.a a"The Economist" aGourevitchas eye for telling detail evokes the best of "The New Yorker" traditionaCapote's "In Cold Blood," Hersey's "Hiroshimaa] Standard Operating Procedure" is essential reading for our time.a a"The Tennessean" aAs much a page-turner as any fictional thrillera] A thorough, terrifying account of an American-made abedlam, a the latest from Gourevitch is as troubling, and arguably as important, as his 1998 Rwanda investigation "We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families,"a a"Publishers Weekly" a[A] gut wrenching morality checka aNPRas "Talk of the Nation" aAdmirablea] remarkable powera aMichiko Kakutani, "The New York Times" aA compelling storya] [Gourevitch] is a master of looking more closely, which means both more sympathetically and more criticallya] Gourevitchas account takes us outside the frame, giving us the chance to understand the dynamic of the unit in which violence and romance were S.O.Pa] The book shows how lawlessness became the law.a a"The Los Angeles Times" aRemarkable.a a"The Denver Post" aGourevitcha]brings to this study of the Abu Ghraib scandal the same graceful balancing of reportage and insight that marked his extraordinary book on the Rwandan genocide, "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families"a] the shocks arrive throughlanguage alone.a a"Time Out NY"