Abu Ghraib

Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq became infamous in 2004 for torture photographs taken there by U.S. soldiers in late 2003. The photographs provoked a sustained Strategic Political Communication (SPC) response from the U.S. administration of George W. Bush (2001–2009) to deflect public attention away from its ongoing covert policy of using torture to extract intelligence for the war on terror. SPC comprises political communication that is manipulative in intent; it uses social scientific techniques and heuristic devices to understand human motivation, human behavior, and the media environment to inform effectively what should be communicated and what should be withheld, with the aim of taking into account and influencing public opinion and creating strategic alliances and an enabling environment for government policies, both at home and ...