Killing of Manadel al-Jamadi

Manadel al-Jamadi was an Iraqi national who died in United States custody at Abu Ghraib prison on November 4, 2003, while undergoing interrogation by a Central Intelligence Agency officer. He had been apprehended by U.S. Navy SEALs as a suspect in the October 27, 2003 bombing of Red Cross offices in Baghdad, an attack that killed 34 people, including one U.S. soldier, and wounded more than 200. Al-Jamadi was brought into the prison around 4:00 a.m., naked from the waist down, wearing a purple shirt and jacket with a sandbag over his head, and answering questions in Arabic and English.

According to accounts from military personnel, al-Jamadi died after a roughly 30-minute interrogation during which he was suspended from a barred window by his wrists, which were bound behind his back — a method later described in news reports as "Palestinian hanging" and condemned by human rights groups as torture. The CIA interrogator reportedly believed al-Jamadi was "playing possum" and called for guards to reposition him, at which point he was found dead. Specialist Dennis Stevanus recalled that the CIA interrogator and translator were "nervous" and did not know what to do after discovering the body. Specialist Jason Kenner, a military police officer, said al-Jamadi arrived in good health and was later found dead, and described a dispute between CIA and military personnel over responsibility for the body.

Captain Donald Reese, commander of the 372nd Military Police Company, testified that al-Jamadi was described as combative during interrogation, and that the corpse was kept overnight and later moved in an apparent effort to conceal the death from other detainees. Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick wrote to his family that interrogators had "stressed" al-Jamadi until he died. A U.S. Army military autopsy determined the death to be a homicide caused by a blood clot resulting from trauma.

Al-Jamadi's case became widely known in 2004 amid the broader Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, when photographs surfaced showing U.S. Army specialists Sabrina Harman and Charles Graner posing next to his body. In 2011, then-Attorney General Eric Holder opened a full criminal investigation into al-Jamadi's death; in August 2012, Holder announced that no criminal charges would be filed. Separately, Lieutenant Colonel Steven L. Jordan was court-martialed in connection with the broader Abu Ghraib abuses and was acquitted, after his superior officer, Thomas Pappas, received immunity in exchange for testimony.