Tony Lagouranis

Specialist Tony Lagouranis (born c. 1969) is a former United States Army soldier, best known for claiming to have participated in torture as an interrogator during the occupation of Iraq. Some of his claims are not from first-hand knowledge; these claims are considered hearsay.

He was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and graduated from high school in 1987 in New York City, going on to study Ancient Greek at St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Arabic at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California.cite web|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/28/opinion/edmckelvey.php|title='We Were Torturing People For No Reason'|author=Tara McKelvey|date=2007-03-29|publisher=International Herald Tribune|accessdate=2007-07-18]

For roughly 10 months in 2004, Lagouranis was stationed in Abu Ghraib prison (Lagouranis was only at Abu Ghraib for a month and a half--source: http://www.democracynow.org/2005/11/15/former_u_s_army_interrogator_describes) near Baghdad and a for a short time in the Iraqi city of Mosul, where he claims to have observed and took part in a number of interrogation techniques including diet-alteration, the use of military dogs to induce terror, inducing hypothermia (with associated involuntary rectal thermometer readings), sleep deprivation, and the presence of ghost detainees.cite web|url=http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/15/1632233|title=Former U.S. Army Interrogator Describes the Harsh Techniques He Used in Iraq, Detainee Abuse by Marines and Navy Seals and Why “Torture is the Worst Possible Thing We Could Do”|date=2005-11-15|publisher=Democracy Now!|accessdate=2007-07-18]

Lagouranis is one of a handful of Iraq War veterans who provided first hand accounts of the torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners by members of the US military.cite web|url=http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Veteran_sergeant_accounts_US_torture_coverup|title=Veteran sergeant accounts US torture coverup|publisher=Wikinews|date=2004-12-08|accessdate=2007-07-18] cite web|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/27/AR2005092701527.html|title=A Matter of Honor|author=Ian Fishback|publisher=Washington Post|date=2005-09-28|accessdate=2007-07-18] (Others have given given similar accounts while shielding their identities.cite web|url=http://hrw.org/reports/2005/us0905/|title=Leadership Failure - Firsthand Accounts of Torture of Iraqi Detainees by the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division|publisher=Human Rights Watch|date=September, 2005|accessdate=2007-07-18] cite web|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/torture/view/|title=Frotnline: The Torture Question|publisher=PBS|date=2005-10-18|accessdate=2007-07-18] ) In his op-ed for the "New York Times", titled "Tortured Logic", he argues that senior officers and politicians are successfully evading the responsibility they should bear for the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and elsewhere.cite web|title=Tortured Logic|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/28/opinion/28lagouranis.html?ex=1298782800&en=4783b895701b8e75&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss|author=Tony Lagouranis|publisher=New York Times|date=2006-02-28|accessdate=2007-07-18] His book, "Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interrogator's Dark Journey through Iraq" (co-authored with Allen Mikaelian), was published June 5, 2007.

Filmography

*2006 - ""
*2007 - "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib"

External links

* [http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/torture/ Comprehensive article in "Chicago Reader" about Tony Lagouranis]
* [http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/1281626881.html?dids=1281626881:1281626881&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jun+4%2C+2007&author=Laura+Blumenfeld+-+Washington+Post+Staff+Writer&pub=The+Washington+Post&edition=&startpage=A.1&desc=The+Tortured+Lives+of+Interrogators%3B+Veterans+of+Iraq%2C+N.+Ireland+and+Mideast+Share+Stark+Memories]

ee also

References