Joshua Casteel

December 27, 1979 (age 32)

Sioux Falls, South Dakota , United States

He enlisted in the Army in May 2002 and was trained as an interrogator at Fort Huachuca and in the Arabic language at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. Casteel served with the Army"s 202nd Military Intelligence Battalion as an interrogator at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and claimed to have conducted over 130 prisoner interrogations. His unit arrived in Iraq in 2004, six weeks after revelation of prisoner abuses by United States personnel at the prison. The Army approved his application for conscientious objector and granted him an honorable discharge in 2005. Casteel graduated from the University of Iowa in 2008 with a dual Master of Fine Arts degree in playwriting and non-fiction writing. As a public speaker on religious and political matters, Casteel addressed audiences in the United States, Ireland, Sweden, Italy and the United Kingdom. He was featured in the documentary films Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers and Soldiers of Conscience. In 2008, excerpts of Casteel"s emails from Iraq were published in Harper"s Magazine and in book form by Essay Press. An oncologist told Casteel"s mother that "Joshua died of lung cancer without having any of the conventional risk factors such as smoking, asbestos exposure or radiation. I am quite sure we did not have anyone younger with lung cancer those five years I worked at the Virginia." Casteel"s family believes his cancer was the result of exposure to toxins released by a burn pit he slept near for six months in Iraq. He was a University of Chicago Divinity School graduate student at the time of his death.

Joshua Casteel

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playwright Army soldier

Background

He was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in a Christian Evangelical family.

Career

He enlisted in the Army in May 2002 and was trained as an interrogator at Fort Huachuca and in the Arabic language at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. Casteel served with the Army"s 202nd Military Intelligence Battalion as an interrogator at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and claimed to have conducted over 130 prisoner interrogations. His unit arrived in Iraq in 2004, six weeks after revelation of prisoner abuses by United States personnel at the prison. The Army approved his application for conscientious objector and granted him an honorable discharge in 2005.

Casteel graduated from the University of Iowa in 2008 with a dual Master of Fine Arts degree in playwriting and non-fiction writing.

As a public speaker on religious and political matters, Casteel addressed audiences in the United States, Ireland, Sweden, Italy and the United Kingdom. He was featured in the documentary films Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers and Soldiers of Conscience. In 2008, excerpts of Casteel"s emails from Iraq were published in Harper"s Magazine and in book form by Essay Press.

An oncologist told Casteel"s mother that "Joshua died of lung cancer without having any of the conventional risk factors such as smoking, asbestos exposure or radiation. I am quite sure we did not have anyone younger with lung cancer those five years I worked at the Virginia." Casteel"s family believes his cancer was the result of exposure to toxins released by a burn pit he slept near for six months in Iraq.

He was a University of Chicago Divinity School graduate student at the time of his death.

Achievements

Casteel won an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point but dropped out in his first term there.

Membership

He was an active member of Iraq Veterans Against the War and the author of several plays performed in the United States and abroad, including Returns and The Interrogation Room.

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Joshua Casteel

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