The Arabist

The Arabist

By Issandr El Amrani and friends.

Egypt inspired by Abu Ghraib?

This story headlined "Abu Ghraib Tactics Inspire Torture in Neighbour Egypt" has been making the rounds. Frankly, it sounds ridiculous -- Egyptian police did not need Abu Ghraib to happen to start torturing people. They've been doing it by themselves for a while. There may be cases of officers boasting about imitating Abu Ghraib, but it really sounds like the human rights activist interviewed in this piece is just trying to milk the Abu Ghraib to get journalists' attention on the long-standing problem of torture in Egypt. Shame they wouldn't pay attention otherwise.