In 2003, Battalion 1-68, part of the 4th Infantry Division, set up a small jail for Iraqis captured on suspicion of insurgent activity. One soldier from this unit, Sergeant Adam James Gray, seemed especially upset by the prisoner abuse. In August 2004, he was found dead in his barracks in Fort Wainwright, Alaska. For more than three years, Joshua E.S. Phillips investigated Adam’s death with the support of Adam’s mother, Cindy. Gray’s story reveals that it is not only CIA agents or prison guards in now-infamous sites like Abu Ghraib who participate in abuse, but ordinary soldiers who never expected to engage in interrogation and torture, or to pay the psychological price for it.

In this talk, author Joshua E.S. Phillips provides a unique insight into the hearts and minds of the men who put their lives - and their sanity - on the line in the war on terror.

Reviews of None Of Us Were Like This Before (Publication Date: October)
“This shattering book is a journey into the heart of American darkness. What Joshua Phillips makes
shockingly clear is that the misbehaviour of some of our best soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan came about because of a failure of military leadership and because political leaders lacked the courage to admit the word ‘torture.’”— Richard Rodriguez

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Joshua is based in New York City and has reported from Asia and the Middle East. His writes for many publications including the Washington Post, Newsweek and Salon. His radio
features have been broadcast on NPR and the BBC. In 2009, Phillips received the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award and the Newspaper Guild’s Heywood Broun Award for his American Radio Works documentary What Killed Sergeant Gray.

Joshua started reporting on U.S. interrogation methods in late 2003 during the war on terror, interviewing former detainees throughout the Middle East and Afghanistan. Most former participants in abuse are unwilling to admit what they have done. But in 2006, Phillips located some members of a unit who said they abused detainees in Iraq and shifted the focus of his research when it became clear that they too were haunted by their experiences, suffering from trauma, depression and anxiety – in short, tortured minds. The psychological damage that abuse inflicts cuts both ways.

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Author Event
Joshua E.S. Phillips
Wed, Oct 6, 7pm

Entrance Fee: £5
Concession: £3**
** Students, retirees and unemployed
Note: Entrance fee includes a glass of wine and ticket is redeemable for a £2 off purchase of the author's book