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'Standard Operating Procedure' at Abu Ghraib

In <em>Standard Operating Procedure</em> Errol Morris and Philip Gourevitch investigate the prisoner abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib.
Marco Di Lauro
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In Standard Operating Procedure Errol Morris and Philip Gourevitch investigate the prisoner abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib.
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In 2004, CBS News aired a series of shocking photographs from Abu Ghraib prison, revealing the torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of American soldiers.

When filmmaker Errol Morris and writer Philip Gourevitch saw those graphic images, they wanted to understand what happened and why. They embarked on a new project, Standard Operating Procedure, a film and a book that incorporate 200 hours of interviews with the soldier photographers present at Abu Ghraib.

Philip Gourevitch talks with Neal Conan about Standard Operating Procedure, in which soldiers explain how they rationalized their actions, creating a troubling portrait of the human capacity for violence and cruelty.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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