A Quote by Philip Zimbardo

Whether we consider Nazi Germany or Abu Ghraib prison, there were many people who observed what was happening and said nothing. At Abu Ghraib, one photo shows two soldiers smiling before a pyramid of naked prisoners while a dozen other soldiers stand around watching passively. If you observe such abuses and don't say, "This is wrong! Stop it!" you give tacit approval to continue. You are part of the silent majority that makes evil deeds more acceptable.

Philip Zimbardo

Quote Topics

Abu Ghraib Acceptable Approval Around Before Consider Continue Deeds Dozen Evil Germany Give Happening Majority Makes Many More Naked Nazi Nazi Germany Nothing Observe Observed Other Part People Photo Prison Prisoners Pyramid Said Say Shows Silent Silent Majority Smiling Soldiers Stand Stop Tacit Two Watching Were Whether While Wrong

Quote Author

Philip Zimbardo
American - Psychologist
Born: March 23, 1933

I did a piece where I was talking about torture at Abu Ghraib, and I embroidered my hand with the image of the hooded Abu Ghraib prisoners who'd been tortured using a needle and thread. I know that meeting a Holocaust survivor when I was eight and seeing the tattoo on her arm from her time in the camps influenced my piece about Abu Ghraib.

Jill Soloway

I was ordered not to go out to Abu Ghraib after dark early on, because Abu Ghraib was extremely dangerous.

Janis Karpinski

In light of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, critics are arguing that abuses of Iraqi prisoners are being produced by a climate of disregard for the laws of war.

John Yoo

Regrettably, it has become clear that torture of detainees in United States custody is not limited to Abu Ghraib or even Iraq. Since Abu Ghraib, there have been increasing reports of torture.

Marty Meehan

We can guess that the unacceptable conduct of the soldiers at Abu Ghraib resulted in part from the dangerous state of affairs on the ground in a theater of war.

John Yoo

The day after the prison was transferred to the military intelligence command, they had an entire battalion - 1,200, 1,500 soldiers - arrive at Abu Ghraib just for force protection alone.

Janis Karpinski

The vast majority of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, even after interrogation, had no further intel value whatsoever.

Janis Karpinski

If they conducted a raid in this room, you'd all be policed up. They'd take all of you to Abu Ghraib and turn you over to the soldiers. Maybe there's only one or two of you in this group who was a known associate or had any piece of information that they are trying to exploit.

Janis Karpinski

Each of the Iraqi children killed by the United States was our child. Each of the prisoners tortured in Abu Ghraib was our comrade. Each of their screams was ours. When they were humiliated, we were humiliated. The U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq - mostly volunteers in a poverty draft from small towns and poor urban neighborhoods - are victims just as much as the Iraqis of the same horrendous process, which asks them to die for a victory that will never be theirs.

Arundhati Roy

American journalists and politicians made a perfect spectacle of themselves in discussing the Abu Ghraib prison controversy.

Tony Snow

It seems nothing good comes out of Abu Ghraib.

Richard Engel

When those pictures of Abu Ghraib came out, I thought, my gosh, this is like the tiger cages for prisoners in Vietnam all over again. Only we were actually doing it ourselves, we weren't hiring another government to do it.

Tom Harkin

Even if you are a liberal in the Muslim world, when you see Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, and you see all the other reports of abuses by American forces, it's very hard to get up and say, "We should simulate the American ways," because this is the face of America now in the Muslim world, for many Muslims.

Yaroslav Trofimov

What's happened at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is one of the grossest violations of human rights under the Geneva Conventions that we have record of. It is simply monstrous.