Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse

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Satar Jabar standing on a box with wires connected to his body

Beginning in 2004, numerous accounts of abuse and torture of prisoners held in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq (also known as Baghdad Correctional Facility) came to public attention. The acts were committed by some personnel of the 372nd Military Police Company, CIA officers , and contractors involved in the occupation of Iraq such as CACI International.

As revealed by the 2004 Taguba Report a criminal investigation by the US Army Criminal Investigation Command had already been underway since May 2003 where four Soldiers from the 320th MP Battalion had been formally charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) with detainee abuse. In April 2004 reports of the abuse, as well as graphic pictures showing American military personnel in the act of abusing prisoners, came to public attention, when a 60 Minutes II news report (April 28) and an article by Seymour M. Hersh in The New Yorker magazine (posted online on April 30 and published days later in the May 10 issue) reported the story. The resulting political scandal damaged the credibility and public image of the United States and its allies in the prosecution of ongoing military operations in the Iraq War, and some critics of U.S. foreign policy argued that it was representative of a broader American attitude and policy of disrespect and violence toward Arabs. The U.S. Administration and its defenders argued that the abuses were isolated acts committed by low-ranking personnel, while critics claimed that authorities either ordered or implicitly condoned the abuses and demanded the resignation of senior Bush administration officials.

The U.S. Department of Defense removed seventeen soldiers and officers from duty, and seven soldiers were charged with dereliction of duty, maltreatment, aggravated assault, and battery. Between May 2004 and September 2005, seven soldiers were convicted in courts martial, sentenced to federal prison time, and dishonorably discharged from service. Two soldiers, Specialist Charles Graner, and his former fiancée, Pvt. Lynndie England, were sentenced to ten years and three years in prison, respectively, in trials ending on January 14 2005 and September 26 2005. The commanding officer at the prison, Brig. General Janis Karpinski, was demoted to the rank of colonel on May 5, 2005.

The abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib was in part the reason that on April 12 2006, the United States Army activated the 201st Military Intelligence Battalion, the first of four joint interrogation battalions.

Media coverage

60 Minutes II broadcast and aftermath

Private Lynndie England signals a "thumbs up" sign and points at a hooded, naked Iraqi prisoner.

In late April 2004, U.S. television news-magazine 60 Minutes II broke a story involving abuse and humiliation of Iraqi inmates by a group of U.S. soldiers. The story included photographs depicting the abuse of prisoners.

The news segment had been delayed by two weeks at the request of the Department of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers, because of heavy fighting in Iraq. In the report, Dan Rather interviewed Brig. Gen Mark Kimmitt, then-deputy director of Coalition operations in Iraq. Kimmitt stated,

The first thing I’d say is we’re appalled as well. These are our fellow soldiers. These are the people we work with every day, and they represent us. They wear the same uniform as us, and they let their fellow soldiers down... and if we can't hold ourselves up as an example of how to treat people with dignity and respect … We can't ask that other nations do that to our soldiers as well...So what would I tell the people of Iraq? This is wrong. This is reprehensible. But this is not representative of the 150,000 soldiers that are over here. I'd say the same thing to the American people... Don't judge your army based on the actions of a few.
— Gen Mark Kimmitt

At the same time, Kimmitt said: "I'd like to sit here and say that these are the only prisoner abuse cases that we're aware of, but we know that there have been some other ones since we've been here in Iraq."

Former Marine Lt. Col. Bill Cowan was also interviewed, stating: "We went into Iraq to stop things like this from happening, and indeed, here they are happening under our tutelage."

Rather interviewed Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Chip Frederick, a participant in the abuse, whose civilian job was as a corrections officer at a Virginia prison. Frederick stated, "We had no support, no training whatsoever. And I kept asking my chain of command for certain things...like rules and regulations,” says Frederick. “And it just wasn't happening." Frederick's video diary, sent home from Iraq, provided some of the images used in the story.

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Sgt. Ivan Frederick sitting on an Iraqi detainee between two stretchers

In the diary are listed detailed, dated entries that chronicle abuse and names, for example,

They stressed him out so bad that the man passed away. The next day the medics came in and put his body on a stretcher, placed a fake I.V. in his arm and took him away. This OGA (other governmental agency) was never processed and therefore never had a number.
— Ivan Frederick

and, "MI (Military Intelligence) has been present and witnessed such activity. MI has encouraged and told us great job that they were now getting positive results and information."

Hersh New Yorker article

A May 2004 article by Seymour M. Hersh in The New Yorker magazine explored the abuses in detail, and used as its source a copy of the Taguba report.

The New Yorker, under the direction of editor David Remnick, posted a report on its website by Hersh, along with a number of graphic and disturbing images of the torture taken by U.S. military prison guards with digital cameras. The article, entitled "Torture at Abu Ghraib," was followed in the next two weeks by two more articles on the same subject, "Chain of Command” and "The Gray Zone,” also by Mr. Hersh.

"It was only after CBS learned that The New Yorker planned to publish the pictures in its next issue that they went ahead with their report on April 28."

Hersh's undercover sources claimed that an interrogation program called "Copper Green" was an official and systemic misuse of coercive methods which, although deemed "successful" during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, would be heavily criticized in intelligence circles as an improper application to the context of fighting citizen-"insurgents" in Iraq. This theory, and the existence of "Copper Green" itself, has been denied by The Pentagon.

More evidence of torture

According to Donald Rumsfeld, many more pictures and videotapes of the abuse at Abu Ghraib exist. Photos and videos revealed by the Pentagon to lawmakers in a private viewing on the 12th of May, 2004, showed attack dogs snarling at cowering prisoners, Iraqi women forced to expose their breasts, and naked prisoners forced to have sex with each other, the lawmakers revealed. Members of the Senate reviewed photographs supplied by the Defense Department which have not been released to the public. They note that in addition to the abuses mentioned, some of the U.S. military guards had sex in front of the prisoners.

Hersh has made other claims about the abuses at Abu Ghraib. At the July 2004 conference of the ACLU, he stated that there are tapes of American soldiers sodomizing Iraqi boys, and that these tapes are being held by the Bush administration: "The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling, and the worst part is the soundtrack, of the boys shrieking," Notably, Hersh would revise this claim in his book Chain of Command, stating, "An attorney involved in the case told me in July 2004 that one of the witness statements he had read described the rape of a boy by a foreign contract employee who served as an interpreter at Abu Ghraib,” Hersh wrote. “In the statement, which had not been made public, the lawyer told me, a prisoner stated that he was a witness to the rape, and that a woman was taking pictures."

United States soldier Spc. Graner prepares to punch restrained prisoners

The New York Times, in a report on January 12, 2005, reported testimony suggesting that the following events had taken place at Abu Ghraib:

Urinating on detainees
Jumping on detainee's leg (a limb already wounded by gunfire) with such force that it could not thereafter heal properly
Continuing by pounding detainee's wounded leg with collapsible metal baton
Pouring phosphoric acid on detainees
Sodomization of detainees with a baton
Tying ropes to the innocent detainees' legs or penises and dragging them across the floor.

Sergeant Samuel Provance from Alpha Company 302nd Military Intelligence battalion, in interviews with several news agencies, reported the sexual abuse of a 16-year-old girl by two interrogators, as well as a 16-year-old son of an Iraqi general, who was driven through the cold night air on the open back of a truck after he had been showered and besmeared with mud in order to get his father to talk. He also pointed out several techniques used by interrogators that have been identified as being in violation of the Geneva Convention. He spoke to the media, even against direct orders, about what he knew about at the prison (largely from conversations and interactions with the interrogators). He explained that he did so because there was "definitely a cover-up" underway by the Army. He was administratively flagged and had his top secret clearance suspended in retaliation by the Army. A detailed statement by Sergeant Provance concerning these and numerous other abuses at Abu Ghraib and his treatment by the army is available.

In her video diary, a prison guard said that prisoners were shot for minor misbehavior, and claimed to have had venomous snakes bite prisoners, sometimes resulting in their deaths. By her own admission, that guard was "in trouble" for having thrown rocks at the detainees. Hashem Muhsen, one of the naked men in the human pyramid photo, said they were also made to crawl around the floor naked and that U.S. soldiers rode them like donkeys. After being released in January 2004, Muhsen became an Iraqi police officer.

It was discovered that one prisoner, Manadel al-Jamadi, died as a result of abuse, a death that was ruled a homicide by the military. One detainee has also made charges of rape under supervision of the soldiers.

Quotes from prisoners

They said we will make you wish to die and it will not happen They stripped me naked. One of them told me he would rape me. He drew a picture of a woman to my back and makes me stand in shameful position holding my buttocks.
— Ameen Saeed Al-Sheik, detainee No. 151362,

'Do you pray to Allah?' one asked. I said yes. They said, ' you. And him.' One of them said, 'You are not getting out of here health, you are getting out of here handicapped. And he said to me, 'Are you married?' I said, 'Yes.' They said, 'If your wife saw you like this, she will be disappointed.' One of them said, 'But if I saw her now she would not be disappointed now because I would rape her.'" "They ordered me to thank Jesus that I'm alive." "I said to him, 'I believe in Allah.' So he said, 'But I believe in torture and I will torture you.'
— Ameen Saeed Al-Sheik,

In an appearance on May 2 during a Face the Nation interview Chairman Myers said that he had not yet seen the Taguba report, although the report was then nearly a month old.

Reactions

Iraqi response

AsiaNews.it reported that Yahia Said, an Iraqi fellow at the London School of Economics, said:

he reception was surprisingly low-key in Iraq. Part of the reason was that rumours and tall stories, as well as true stories, about abuse, mass rape, and torture in the jails and in coalition custody have been going round for a long time. So compared to what people have been talking about here the pictures are quite benign. There’s nothing unexpected. In fact what most people are asking is: why did they come up now? People in Iraq are always suspecting that there’s some scheming going on, some agenda in releasing the pictures at this particular point.
— Yahia Said,

CNN reporter Ben Wedeman reported that Iraqi reaction to President Bush's apology for the Abu Ghraib abuses was "mixed". Specifically, he said:

Some people react positively, saying that he's come out, he's dealing frankly and openly with the problem and that he has said that those involved in the abuse will be punished. On the other hand, there are many others who says it simply isn't enough, that they -- many people noted that there was not a frank apology from the president for this incident. And, in fact, I have a Baghdad newspaper with me right now from -- it's called "Dar-es-Salaam." That's from the Islam Iraqi Islamic Party. It says that an apology is not enough for the torture of -- yes, the torture of Iraqi prisoners.
— Ben Wedeman,

Response of U.S. Government officials

U.S. President George W. Bush decried the acts and contended that they were in no way indicative of normal or acceptable practices in the United States Army.

On May 7, 2004, United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made the following statements before the Senate Armed Services Committee:

These events occurred on my watch. As secretary of defense, I am accountable for them. I take full responsibility. It is my obligation to evaluate what happened, to make sure those who have committed wrongdoing are brought to justice, and to make changes as needed to see that it doesn't happen again. I feel terrible about what happened to these Iraqi detainees. They are human beings. They were in U.S. custody. Our country had an obligation to treat them right. We didn't do that. That was wrong. To those Iraqis who were mistreated by members of U.S. armed forces, I offer my deepest apology. It was un-American. And it was inconsistent with the values of our nation.
— Donald Rumsfeld

He also was quoted:

We're functioning in a — with peacetime restraints, with legal requirements in a wartime situation, in the information age, where people are running around with digital cameras and taking these unbelievable photographs and then passing them off, against the law, to the media, to our surprise, when they had not even arrived in the Pentagon.
— Donald Rumsfeld,

File:Freedom4bush.jpg

An Iraqi opinion

Following Rumsfeld's testimony, several Senators responded:

Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican, South Carolina): "The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here."

"It was pretty disgusting, not what you'd expect from Americans," said Senator Norm Coleman.

"I don't know how the hell these people got into our army," said Colorado Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell.

Senator James Inhofe, Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, felt that the events did not deserve moral outrage: "I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment are not there for traffic violations. If they're in cell block 1A or 1B, these prisoners — they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands. And here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals."

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld tried to avoid the question of whether U.S. soldiers had engaged in torture. He stated, "What has been charged so far is abuse, which I believe technically is different from torture. I'm not going to address the 'torture' word."

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Al Gore criticizing the Bush Administration on May 26, 2004

On May 26, 2004, Al Gore gave a sharply critical speech on the Iraq crisis and the Bush Administration. In the speech, Gore called for the resignations of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Director of Central Intelligence Agency George Tenet, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith, and Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen A. Cambone for encouraging policies that led to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners and fanned hatred of Americans abroad. Gore also called the Bush administration's Iraq war plan "incompetent" and called George W. Bush the most dishonest president since Richard Nixon. Gore commented; "In Iraq, what happened at that prison, it is now clear, is not the result of random acts of a few bad apples. It was the natural consequence of the Bush Administration policy."

Criticism of Rumsfeld grew during the ensuing scandal. Democratic senators John Kerry, Joe Biden and Jon Corzine called for Rumsfeld to resign. Their call for Rumsfeld's resignation was joined by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, George Miller, Tom Harkin, and the Congressional Black Caucus. John McCain said that he had "no confidence" in the Secretary of Defense, his fellow Republican senator Trent Lott said that he was "not a fan of Secretary Rumsfeld."

Media

*The Economist* calls for Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation

Several periodicals, such as The New York Times and The Boston Globe also called for Rumsfeld's resignation. The cover of The Economist, which had backed President Bush in the 2000 election, carried a photo of the abuse with the words "Resign, Rumsfeld." Perhaps most notably, The Army Times claimed that Rumsfeld's role in the scandal "amount to professional negligence," wrote "shame... on the chairman and secretary ," and insinuated that Rumsfeld was a "moron."

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said, "This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You ever heard of emotional release?"

From a discussion with Jim Lehrer of PBS, Shibley Telhami, author of The Stakes about Arab and Muslim perceptions of U.S. policy toward the Middle East, and Fouad Ajami, director of Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies:

FOUAD AJAMI: There are probably more anger, more simulated contrived anger outside Iraq than inside Iraq.

Some of the people angry at Abu Ghraib never uttered a word, never uttered a word in Cairo or Nablus or Amman about anything that Saddam did to the people of Iraq, to the Shia, to the Kurds. They have nothing to say about the massacres and the horrors in the southern Sudan that are committed by the Arab Muslims towards the Christians. It's selective rage. It's really selective rage. They were waiting for us. We simply played into their hands with this episode.

JIM LEHRER: Selective rage, professor?
SHIBLEY TELHAMI: No question that it is. Obviously it is going to be used by militants as a useful tool. But the reality of it is, you know, it is rage -- even if it's selective. The difference is this. Look, we are explaining the war in Iraq on the basis of bringing about democracy and human rights. That has become our primary explanation for what we're doing. So there's a huge difference in explaining what we're doing in those terms and then what we're doing in fact on the ground. That's the problem.
I think when you see these pictures, it reinforces the assumption that people had that this has always been a... an occupation of an Arab land for different strategic purposes. It's not just the content of the sexual symbols that are in there. So I think there's a difference between, you know, when we are doing it and when Mubarak is doing it.
— Fouad Ajami, Jim Lehrer, Shibley Telhami,

World

"The torture? A more serious blow to the United States than September 11. Except that the blow was not inflicted by terrorists but by Americans against themselves." — Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, foreign minister of The Vatican.

Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the influential London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi, was quoted as saying "The liberators are worse than the dictators. This is the straw that broke the camel's back for America."

From a legal declaration by Ronald Schlicher of the US State Department: "The Bahraini English-language Daily Tribune wrote on May 5 2004, 'The blood-boiling pictures will make more people inside and outside Iraq determined to carry out attacks against the Americans and British.' The Qatari Arabic-language Al-Watan predicted on May 3 2004 that because of the images, 'The Iraqis now feel very angry and that will cause revenge to restore the humiliated dignity.'"

On May 10, 2004, swastika-covered posters of Abu Ghraib abuse photographs were attached to British and Indian graves at the Commonwealth military cemetery in Gaza City. Thirty-two graves of soldiers killed in World War I were desecrated or destroyed.

Purported retaliation

On May 11, 2004, a video was released purporting to be of the beheading of Nick Berg, a U.S. civilian who went to Iraq seeking work repairing antennas. The video is presented as the work of an Islamist militant group headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a noted Al-Qaeda member in Iraq. The unidentifiable figures claim to have committed the murder in retaliation for the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

Convictions and courts-martial

Several soldiers have been convicted of various charges relating to the incedents, all including dereliction of duty:

Col. Thomas Pappas was relieved of his command on May 13, 2005 after being administratively punished for two instances of dereliction, including that of allowing dogs to be present during interrogations.
Spc. Charles Graner was found guilty on January 14, 2005 of conspiracy to maltreat detainees, failing to protect detainees from abuse, cruelty, and maltreatment, as well as charges of assault, indecency, adultery, and obstruction of justice. On January 15, 2005, he was sentenced to ten years in federal prison.
Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick pled guilty on October 20, 2004 to conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees, assault and committing an indecent act in exchange for other charges being dropped. His abuses included making three prisoners masturbate. He also punched one prisoner so hard in the chest that he needed resuscitation. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, forfeiture of pay, a dishonorable discharge and a reduction in rank to private.
Sgt. Javal Davis pled guilty February 4, 2005 to dereliction of duty, making false official statements and battery. He was sentenced to six months in prison, a reduction in rank to private, and a bad conduct discharge.
Spc. Jeremy Sivits was sentenced on May 19, 2004 by a special court-martial to the maximum one-year sentence, in addition to being discharged for bad conduct and demoted, upon his plea of guilty.
Spc. Armin Cruz of the 325th Military Intelligence Battalion was sentenced on September 11, 2004 to eight months confinement, reduction in rank to private and a bad conduct discharge in exchange for his testimony against other soldiers.
Spc. Sabrina Harman was sentenced on May 17, 2005 to six months in prison and a bad conduct discharge after being convicted on six of the seven counts. She had faced a maximum sentence of 5 years.
Spc. Megan Ambuhl was convicted on October 30, 2004, of dereliction of duty and sentenced to reduction in rank to private and loss of a half-month’s pay.
Pvt. Lynndie England was convicted on September 26, 2005, of one count of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating detainees and one count of committing an indecent act. She was acquitted on a second conspiracy count. England had faced a maximum sentence of ten years, but was sentenced on September 27, 2005, to just 3 years. She received a dishonorable discharge.
Sgt. Santos Cardona was convicted of dereliction of duty and aggravated assault, the equivalent of a felony in the U.S. civilian justice system. He served 90 days of hard labor at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. He was transferred to a new unit and was promoted to Sergeant. He is currently assigned to the 23rd MP Company that is presently staged in Kuwait as of November 2006. He has arrived in Kuwait with his unit and has been selected to train Iraqi police.
Spc. Roman Krol pled guilty on February 1, 2005 to conspiracy and maltreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib. He was sentenced to ten months confinement, reduction in rank to private, and a bad conduct discharge.
Spc. Israel Rivera, who was present during abuse on October 25, is under investigation but has not been charged and has testified against other soldiers.
Sgt. Michael Smith was found guilty on March 21, 2006 of two counts of prisoner maltreatment, one count of simple assault, one count of conspiracy to maltreat, one count of dereliction of duty and a final charge of an indecent act, and sentenced to 179 days in prison, a fine of $2,250, a demotion to private, and a bad conduct discharge.

Related personnel

Brig. General Janis Karpinski, commanding officer at the prison was demoted to colonel on May 5, 2005, which also effectively ends her chances for future career advancement. In a BBC interview, Janis Karpinski said she is being made a scapegoat, and that the top U.S. commander for Iraq, Gen Ricardo Sanchez, should be asked what he knew about the abuse, as according to her, he said that prisoners are "like dogs". However, a spokesman for Geoffrey Miller, who commanded the Guantanamo camp and now commands Abu Ghraib, called Karpinski's allegations "categorically false," and said no directive to treat detainees "like dogs" was made at either Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib.

Donald Rumsfeld stated in February 2005 that he had, as a result of the Abu Ghraib scandal, twice made an offer to President George W. Bush to resign the office of Secretary of Defense, and that both offers were declined.

Jay Bybee, the author of the Justice Department memo defining torture as activity producing pain equivalent to the pain experienced during death and organ failure, was nominated by President Bush to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where he began service in 2003.

Michael Chertoff, who as head of the Justice Department's criminal division advised the Central Intelligence Agency on the outer limits of legality in coercive interrogation sessions, was selected by President Bush to fill the cabinet-level vacancy at Secretary of Homeland Security created by the departure of Tom Ridge.

Alberto Gonzales, who described provisions of the Geneva Conventions that provide prisoners "commissary privileges, scrip, athletic uniforms, and scientific instruments" as "quaint," and wrote that the "new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners," was nominated by President Bush as the Attorney General of the United States, the nation's chief law-enforcement official. He was confirmed on February 3, 2005.

Carolyn Wood CPT. Wood was head of the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion from Fort Bragg. In August 2002 nine interrogation techniques not approved by military doctrine or included in Army field manuals were added after Chris Mackey and his team turned over the detention unit in Bagram to the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion. Chris Mackey had trained with Wood before she got her command at Bagram. He says that while he was “gravely disappointed” when he found out about her changes to the interrogation rules, he understands what might have been going on. “After she took over, the stakes got very high,” he says. “We went from losing three or four soldiers a month to scores of them. She must have been under a tremendous amount of pressure.”“But there was horrible incompetence at the leadership and oversight level. People were aware of what we were doing because we were open. was practically a Disney ride, with lots of higher-ups and officials coming through. But the common response we got was, Aren’t you kind of babying them?”

Two inmates in December 2002 were tortured and beaten to death in cells down the hall from her office. "Hung by their arms from the ceiling and beaten so severely that, according to a report by Army investigators later leaked to the Baltimore Sun, their legs would have needed to be amputated had they lived. The Army’s Criminal Investigation command launched an inquiry, but few people outside Afghanistan took notice." "In August, a former Bagram interrogator told a Knight-Ridder journalist that at the time of the two deaths screams and moans could easily be heard from interrogation rooms at Bagram, and that Wood must have been aware of the abuse, as the interrogation rooms were near her office. In any case, by virtue of her position, Capt. Wood should have been aware that abuse was taking place. We are concerned that, as at Abu Ghraib, the U.S. government appears more interested in blaming abuses on low-level personnel than in investigating the role of commanding officers and civilian officials." When she transferred to Abu Ghraib in August 2003, Wood is reported to have "posted her own list of 'interrogation rules of engagement,' which were inconsistent with those later issued for Iraq by the top American commander, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, according to Congressional officials. The Geneva Convention didn't apply to Woods methods of interrogation. The Fay-Jones report states "The JIDC October 2003 SOP (Standard operational procedure), likewise created by CPT Wood, was remarkably similar to the Bagram (Afghanistan) Collection Point SOP. Prior to deployment to Iraq, CPT Wood's unit (A/519 MI BN) allegedly conducted the abusive interrogation practices in Bagram resulting in a Criminal Investigation Command (CID) homicide investigation....from December 2002, interrogators in Afghanistan were removing clothing, isolating people for long periods of time, using stress positions, exploiting fear of dogs and implementing sleep and light deprivation. Interrogators in Iraq, already familiar with the practice of some of these new ideas, implemented them even prior to any policy guidance from CJTF-7. (Combined Joint Task Force Seven headed by LTG Ricardo S. Sanchez) These practices were accepted as SOP by newly-arrived interrogators. Some of the CJTF-7 ICRPs neither effectively addressed these practices, nor curtailed their use." "At Abu Ghraib, interrogation operations were also plagued by a lack of an organizational chain of command presence and by a lack of proper actions to establish standards and training by the senior leaders present" In both prison facilities the officers who carried out the abuses were under the command of CPT. Wood and she has never been held accountable.

The Final Report of the Independent Panel to Review DoD Detention Operations did specifically absolve senior U.S. military and political leadership from direct culpability:

"The Panel finds no evidence that organizations above the 800th MP brigade or the 205th MI Brigade-level were directly involved in the incidents at Abu Ghraib." In fact, BG Karpinski's immediate operational supervisor and LTG Sanchez' deputy, Major General Walter Wojdakowski was subsequently appointed as Chief of the US Army Infantry School and Fort Benning. COL Pappas's boss, MG Barbara Fast was subsequently appointed as Chief of the US Army Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca. Pappas and Karpinski were relieved of command but Wojdakowski and Fast became the Chiefs of their respective branches. The senior lawyer for LTG Sanchez and his legal representative on the Detainee Release Boards along with BN Karpinski and MG Fast, COL Marc Warren has since been selected for promotion to Brigadier General.

U.S. policy on interrogations and torture

Spc. Charles Graner poses over Manadel al-Jamadi's corpse.

Reaction from the U.S. administration characterizes the Abu Ghraib torture scandal as an isolated incident uncharacteristic of American actions in Iraq; this view is widely disputed, notably in Arab countries, but also by organizations such as the International Red Cross, which says that it has been making representations about abuse of prisoners for more than a year. A former military intelligence officer with experience at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib alleges (see external link - "Cooks and drivers...") a systematic failure caused by a combination of inexperienced troops arresting innocent Iraqis, who are then interrogated by inexperienced interrogators determined to break these apparent hard cases. The U.S. military's interrogation techniques and treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib are consistent with its treatment of noncombatants in past conflicts, including for example in Vietnam (see Phoenix Program) and with its training of military personnel of U.S. allies (see School of the Americas).

International law

The United States has ratified the UN's Convention Against Torture and the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions. However, the Third and Fourth Geneva conventions both state in Article 2: "The High Contracting Parties shall furthermore be bound by the Convention in relation to the said Power, if the latter accepts and applies the provisions thereof". Since Iraq did not apply the protections of the Geneva Conventions to American POW's throughout Gulf War I (e.g. abuse of 17 American POW's at the now-infamous Abu Ghraib, by the Iraq Intelligence Service) and Gulf War II (e.g. the well-known story of Jessica Lynch's unit), it may be argued that Iraq lost its protections under these particular documents (but not others) long before the USA even took possession of the Abu Ghraib prison. The Bush Administration, however, takes the position that, in the words of Alberto R. Gonzales, counsel to the President: "Both the United States and Iraq are parties to the Geneva Conventions. The United States recognizes that these treaties are binding in the war for the liberation of Iraq." ("The Rule of Law and the Rules of War", New York Times (op-ed piece), May 15 2004). But, the Administration claims that prisoners taken in Afghanistan did not qualify as prisoners of war under international law.

The Convention Against Torture defines torture in the following terms:

Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him... information or a confession, punishing him for an act he... has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him.
— United Nations Convention Against Torture, (Article 1)

One of the most famous pictures is of a hooded prisoner dressed in a KKK-like costume, standing on a box with electrical wires connected to various parts of his body. Satar Jabar (charged with carjacking, not terrorism) was reportedly told that he would be electrocuted if he fell off the box. While the army claims that the wires were not live and that the prisoner at no time faced actual electrocution, only the threat thereof, the prisoner himself later stated in an interview after his release that the wires were live, and electric shocks were applied many times.

If the prisoner believed the deception and was sincerely convinced that he faced the possibility of execution, then the situation would seem to constitute "mental suffering" as defined in the Convention. The motivation of the act would also appear to have been to obtain a confession or to intimidate or coerce him – purposes referred to in Article 1. Debate lies in the Convention's use of the adjective "severe" to qualify the suffering and the difficulties inherent in determining whether the suffering felt by the photographed prisoner was severe or mild.

In contrast, the actions shown in this photograph and most of the others would appear to constitute the "other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" proscribed by Article 16 of the Convention Against Torture. Some of the acts described in the Taguba report also qualify.

The International Committee of the Red Cross stated in its confidential February 2004 report to the coalition forces that prisoners deemed to have an "intelligence" value were systematically "subjected to a variety of harsh treatments which in some cases was tantamount to torture".

Some legal experts have said that the United States could be obligated to try some of its soldiers for war crimes. Under the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions, prisoners of war and civilians detained in a war may not be treated in a degrading manner, and violation of that section is a "grave breach". In a November 5, 2003 report on prisons in Iraq, the Army's provost marshal, Maj. Gen. Donald J. Ryder, stated that the conditions under which prisoners were held sometimes violated the Geneva Conventions.

Some of the accused soldiers' families or attorneys have already made clear an intention to argue that the practices at Abu Ghraib were directed by higher-ranking military officers or by the Central Intelligence Agency. Under the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal, this "defense of superior orders" is not a defense for war crimes, although it might influence a sentencing authority to lessen the penalty. Under U.S. law, the War Crimes Act of 1996 makes it a federal crime to violate certain provisions of the Geneva Conventions. The Act punishes any American, military or civilian, who commits a "grave breach" of the Geneva Conventions. A grave breach, as defined by the Geneva Conventions, includes the deliberate "killing, torture or inhuman treatment" of detainees. Violations of the War Crimes Act that result in death carry the death penalty.

Executive Order

On December 21, 2004, the American Civil Liberties Union released copies of FBI internal memos they had obtained under the Freedom of Information Act concerning alleged torture and abuse at Guantanamo Bay, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. One memo dated May 22, 2004 was from someone whose name was blanked out but was described in the memo as "On Scene Commander -- Baghdad". He referred explicitly to an Executive Order that sanctioned the use of extraordinary interrogation tactics by U.S. military personnel. The methods explicitly mentioned as being sanctioned are sleep deprivation, hooding prisoners, playing loud music, removing all detainees' clothing, forcing them to stand in so-called "stress positions," and the use of dogs. The author also claimed that the Pentagon had limited use of the techniques by requiring specific authorization from the chain of command. The author identifies "physical beatings, sexual humiliation or touching" as being outside the Executive Order. This was the first internal evidence since the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse affair became public in April, 2004 that forms of abusive coercion and torture of captives had been mandated by the President.

Details

See also Taguba's report.

Death certificates repeatedly stated that prisoners had died "during sleep", and of "natural reasons". Iraqi doctors are not allowed to investigate even when death certificates are obviously forged. No reports of investigations against U.S. military doctors who forged death certificates have been reported.

On 7 May 2004, International Committee of the Red Cross Operations Director Pierre Krähenbühl stated that the ICRC's inspection visits to Coalition detention centers in Iraq did "not allow us to conclude that what we were dealing with... were isolated acts of individual members of coalition forces. What we have described is a pattern and a broad system." He went on to say that some of the incidents they had observed were "tantamount to torture".

U.S. and UK armed forces are jointly trained in so-called resistance to interrogation (R2I) techniques. These R2I techniques are taught ostensibly to help soldiers cope with or resist torture by the enemy. On May 8, 2004, The Guardian reported that, according to a former British special forces officer, the acts committed by the Abu Ghraib Prison military personnel resemble the techniques used in R2I training. Also related are pride-and-ego down techniques to make captives more willing to cooperate.

The same report states that:

The U.S. commander in charge of military jails in Iraq, Major General Geoffrey Miller, has confirmed that a battery of 50-odd special "coercive techniques" can be used against enemy detainees. The general, who previously ran the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, said his main role was to extract as much intelligence as possible.
— The Guardian

Most accept the particular acts committed at the prison leading to the initial broadcast report were unauthorized, but as has been shown, they were not isolated incidents. These or similar incidents of torture and humiliation were routine, systemic and widespread, had been occurring for over a year, and some of them were official policy.

Alfred W. McCoy history professor and author of a book on torture in the Philippine armed forces, has noted similarities in the abusive treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and the techniques described in the CIA's 1963 "KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation" manual and asserts that what he calls "the CIA's no-touch torture methods" have been in continuous use by the CIA and U.S. military intelligence since that time.

A May 25, 2004 article by Hersh in The New Yorker suggests a connection between the Abu Ghraib incidents and a chain of decisions and events set into play by high administration officials following the 9/11 attacks, specifically to a "special access" or "black ops" program known as Copper Green. According to Hersh, officials concerned with extracting intelligence information from terrorists stretched the bounds of interrogation to or beyond the extreme legal limits. Subsequently, methods which were originally intended to be used only on high value Taliban and Al Qaeda "enemy combatants" came to be improperly used on Iraqi prisoners. The Department of Defense immediately characterized Hersh's report as "outlandish, conspiratorial, and filled with error and anonymous conjecture".

Documents obtained by the Washington Post show that the senior U.S. military officer in Iraq Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez authorized the use of military dogs, temperature extremes, reversed sleep patterns and sensory deprivation as interrogation methods in Abu Ghraib. In an interview for her hometown newspaper The Signal, General Karpinski claimed to have seen unreleased documents from Rumsfeld that authorized these tactic for Iraqi prisoners. Both Sanchez and Rumsfeld have denied authorization.

Ongoing news

In September 2005, U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ordered the release of new Abu Ghraib torture photos.

In December 2005, John Pace, human rights chief for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), criticized the US military's practice of holding prisoners in Iraq in its own facilities such as Abu Ghraib prison. In an interview with Reuters, Pace claimed that Abu Ghraib was not mandated by UN Resolution 1546, according to which the US government has claimed a legal mandate permitting its ongoing occupation of Iraq, including holding prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Pace said,

All except those held by the Ministry of Justice are, technically speaking, held against the law because the Ministry of Justice is the only authority that is empowered by law to detain, to hold anybody in prison.
Essentially none of these people have any real recourse to protection and therefore we speak ... of a total breakdown in the protection of the individual in this country.
— John Pace

On April 29 2006, Steven L. Jordan became the highest ranking Army officer to have charges brought against him in connection with the Abu Ghraib abuse.

Rumsfeld okayed abuses says former U.S. general

In November 2006, the former US Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, in-charge of Abu Ghraib prison until early 2004, told Spain's El Pais newspaper she had seen a letter apparently signed by Donald Rumsfeld which allowed civilian contractors to use techniques such as sleep deprivation during interrogation. "The methods consisted of making prisoners stand for long periods, sleep deprivation ... playing music at full volume, having to sit in uncomfortably ... Rumsfeld authorized these specific techniques." She said that this was contrary to the Geneva Convention and quoted the same "Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind". According to Karpinski, the handwritten signature was above his printed name and in the same handwriting in the margin was written: "Make sure this is accomplished". There have been no comments from either the Pentagon or US Army spokespeople in Iraq on Karpinski's accusations.

However, Karpinski has been exposed for lying to the media in order to cover up the abuses in the first place. On October 2003, when allegations of torture in the new Iraqi prisons began to surface. Karpinski insisted that prisoners under her watch were treated "humanely and fairly". In an interview with the St. Petersburg Times in December 2003, Karpinski said conditions in the prison were even better than many Iraqi homes, and joked that the prisoners were treated so well that she was "concerned they wouldn't want to leave" .

In January 2004, the details of her misconduct began to become known. Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez formally suspended Karpinski and sixteen other soldiers with undisclosed reprimands. An investigation was started into the abuse, and Karpinski left Iraq for reasons that were explained at the time as part of "routine troop rotations". She was later demoted to the rank of colonel for her negligence in this case.

Previously unreleased photographs

In February 2006, previously unreleased photos and videos were broadcast by SBS, an Australian television network. According to initial reports, the Bush administration is attempting to prevent release of the images in the US, arguing that their publication could provoke antagonism towards them. According to BBC World News, the photographs were probably taken around the same time as the previously released photographs, and include some of the same prisoners and convicted soldiers from the earlier images. These newly-released photographs depict prisoners crawling on the floor naked, being forced to perform sexual acts, and being covered in feces. Some images also show homicide and corpses, some shot in the head and some with slit throats. BBC World News stated that one of the prisoners, who was reportedly mentally unstable, was considered by prison guards as a 'pet' for torture.

The UN conveyed hope that the pictures would be investigated immediately but the Pentagon stated that the images "have been previously investigated as part of the Abu Ghraib investigation."

Five of the newly released pictures can be seen on this webpage. SBS claims not to have published the most shocking pictures due to the degree of their depravity, an example being the Sodomy photo.

On March 15, 2006, Salon.com published the most extensive documentation of the abuse. The source who gave the CID material to Salon magazine is familiar with the CID investigation.

The DVD containing the material includes a June 6 2004, CID investigation report written by Special Agent Seigmund. That report includes the following summary of the material: "A review of all the computer media submitted to this office revealed a total of 1,325 images of suspected detainee abuse, 93 video files of suspected detainee abuse, 660 images of adult pornography, 546 images of suspected dead Iraqi detainees, 29 images of soldiers in simulated sexual acts, 20 images of a soldier with a Swastika drawn between his eyes, 37 images of Military Working dogs being used in abuse of detainees and 125 images of questionable acts."

Abu Ghraib is now in the process of officially closing as of March 9 2006.

Popular culture

The 2006 Turkish movie Valley of the Wolves Iraq depicts events which happened in Abu Ghraib prison in detail. This was the first depiction of the Abu Ghraib incident in film.

The 2004 U.S. pornographic movie Gag Factor 15 by JM Productions contains a scene with Ashley Blue parodying torture at Abu Ghraib involving rough deepthroating. On May 31 2006, the company as well as its principal Mike Norton and distributors were indicted for distribution of obscenity by the U.S. federal government. Gag Factor 15 was one of the 4 named movies in the indictment.

The 2006 film "Children of Men" depicts the futuristic Bexhill Refugee Camp in England with scenes identical to several images from Abu Ghraib.

References

General references:

Seymour M. Hersh, Chain of Command : The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib, HarperCollins 2004

Footnotes:

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040510fa_fact
Army Activates First Interrogation Battalion, an April 2006 press release from the American Forces Press Service
^ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/27/60II/main614063.shtml
^ http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=7926
"1,800 new pictures add to US disgust". The Guardian. May 13, 2004. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/features/11719/index3.html
Kate Zernike (12 January 2005). "Detainees Depict Abuses by Guard in Prison in Iraq". New York Times. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/07/14/kidnap/index.html
http://www.humanrightsfirst.info/pdf/06214-usls-provance-statment.pdf
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=542742004
^ Higham, Scott, and Stephens, Joe, "New Details of Prison Abuse Emerge", Washington Post, May 21 2004
"Listening to the Iraqi people", AsiaNews.it, May 15, 2004
Live At Daybreak, transcript, CNN.com, May 6, 2004
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/08/iraq/main616338.shtml
http://www.harpers.org/WeeklyReview2004-05-18.html
http://breaking.examiner.ie/2004/05/13/story147437.html
"GOP senator labels abused prisoners 'terrorists'". CNN. May 12, 2004. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
Adam Hochschild (May 23, 2004). "What's in a Word? Torture". New York Times. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
http://www.moveonpac.org/goreremarks052604.html
"Lott Joins Republican Critics of Rumsfeld". Washington Post. 17 December 2004.
"Donald Rumsfeld Should Go". The New York Times. 7 May 2004.
"Rumsfeld must go". Boston Globe. 7 May 2004.
"Editorial: A failure of leadership at the highest levels". Army Times. 17 May 2004.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/magazine/23PRISONS.html?pagewanted=3&ei=5007&en=a2cb6ea6bd297c8f&ex=1400644800&partner=USERLAND
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/06/opinion/meyer/main616021.shtml
http://mediamatters.org/items/200405050003
"Arab Views discussion", NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, transcript, PBS, May 5, 2004
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20040512/ap_on_re_eu/vatican_prisoner_abuse
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7B60B034-9225-403E-A6B7-8520FF9009B8.htm
http://www.aclu.org/Files/OpenFile.cfm?id=18838
http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=939300&tw=wn_wire_story
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3806713.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3810791.stm
^ http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/03/03_2005_Bazelon.html
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/12/10/afghan9838.htm
A few bad apples? video, CBC, November 16 2005
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Aug2004/d20040824finalreport.pdf
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5412316/site/newsweek/
The War Crimes Act of 1996; The Nation June 28 2005, http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0629-28.htm
http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/FBI.121504.4940_4941.pdf
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/19913leg20050712.html
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040507/325/et2ck.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3694521.stm
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1212199,00.html
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37858
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35612-2004Jun11.html
http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/signal/iraq/sg070204.htm
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9530938/
Quoted in The Age, 6 December, 2005, http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/america-abusing-mandate-in-iraq/2005/12/05/1133631201911.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002960310_ghraib29.html
"Rumsfeld okayed Abu Ghraib abuses according to former US general" - CBS News
"Rumsfeld okayed abuses says former U.S. general" - ABC News
- "Rumsfeld okayed abuses says former US Army general" Reuters News
http://smh.com.au/news/world/the-photos-america-doesnt-want-seen/2006/02/14/1139890737099.html#
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18162096-29277,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4715540.stm
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2041780,00.html
http://www.forbes.com/finance/feeds/afx/2006/02/15/afx2527490.html
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18166472-26619,00.html
http://www.elmundo.es/albumes/2006/02/15/torturas_irak/index.html
http://salon.com/news/abu_ghraib/2006/03/14/introduction/index.html
JM Productions Indicted on Federal Obscenity Charges AVN News, 31 May 2006.
JM, Five Star Issue Statement About Obscenity Charges AVN News, 5 June 2006.

External links

WARNING: Some links contain explicit material

Australian news report containing video of abuse
transcript of report
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4977986
Salon exclusive: The Abu Ghraib files
Abu Ghraib abuse slideshow with commentary.
Formless video on the tortures
Abu Ghraib legal news and resources, JURIST
Abu Ghraib Information - Many Abu Ghraib resources: photos, articles, books
TheMemoryHole.org - contains other photos not included in this article.
Globalsecurity.org - graphic photos of instances of prisoner abuse.
Salon.com - all 279 photos and 19 videos from Abu Ghraib
DocsThatInspire.com Audio interview with Rory Kennedy, director of the documentary film, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

Reports

Taguba Report (Article 15-6 Investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade): Wikisource:US Army 15-6 Report of Abuse of Prisoners in Iraq, on GlobalSecurity.org.

- note that "Graner" is written "Granier"

Fay-Jones Report ("The Investigation of Intelligence Activities at Abu Ghraib" by Lieutenant General Anthony R. Jones and Major General George R. Fay, published August 25 2005): PDF on US Army site
Testimony of Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees (prepared remarks). May 7, 2004
Report by Amnesty International. March 18, 2004
Schlesinger Report ("Final Report of the Independent Panel to Review DoD Detention Operations."). August 24, 2004.
The Road to Abu Ghraib by Human Rights Watch. June 9, 2004.
Q&A: Reed Brody on the Road to Abu Ghraib by Human Rights Watch. July 8, 2004.
Military Investigations into Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody Human Rights Watch. July 16, 2004.
Guantanamo Bay Inquiry, FBI, January 2, 2007.

News, press releases

Inchiesta Sigfrido Ranucci, Rai News 24 February 22,2006
A few bad apples?, CBC, November 16, 2005
A few bad apples? video, CBC, November 16, 2005
Memo Reveals Bush OK'd Torture
Guantanamo on steroids - Describes the situation at Abu Ghraib under US control before the abuse became publicly known. Report by Jen Banbury, March 3, 2004. (Salon)
Abuse of Iraqi POWs by GIs probed. April 29, 2004. (CBS / 60 Minutes)
"Iraq: Torture not isolated -- independent investigations vital", April 30, 2004 (Amnesty International) - Amnesty International says that the Abu Ghraib torture is not an isolated case
UK troops in Iraqi torture probe (BBC, 1 May 2004)
Interview with Hayder Sabbar Abd - One of the abused prisoners. (The Guardian, 6 May 2004) Google cache version
"Private contractor lifts the lid on systematic failures at Abu Ghraib jail", The Guardian, 7 May 2004 - 'Cooks and drivers were working as interrogators'
Torture at Abu Ghraib (New Yorker, 10 May 2004) by Seymour M. Hersh, original article.
1800 new pictures add to US disgust (Guardian, 13 May 2004)
Commonwealth military cemetery vandalism (Yahoo News)
The Boston Globe, op-ed, May 14th 2004: Alfred W. McCoy asserts similarities between Abu Ghraib abuse and CIA KUBARK "no-touch torture" (his term) methods.
- KUBARK Counterintelligence Manual cited by McCoy and a 1983 CIA manual which provides readers with detailed descriptions of coercive techniques "so that you may avoid them."
General Granted Latitude At Prison (Washington Post, June 12 2004)
"Abu Ghraib, USA", Alternet, 6 August 2004 - Abu Ghraib vs abuses in US prisons
US commander 'allowed prison abuse' (Friday 27 August 2004, Aljazeera)
Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib - Interview with Seymour Hersh by Democracy Now! on September 14 2004.
- Hersh, Seymour M. Chain of Command : The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib, HarperCollins, 2004, ISBN 0-06-019591-6
Wikinews:Veteran sergeant accounts US torture coverup (Wikinews, 8 December 2004)
Journalists Among Those Abused by US Troops - (IFEX)
"In Good Conscience", Alternet, 10 January 2005 - interview with Aidan Delgado, a soldier who worked at Abu Ghraib prison
"When Doctors Go to War" 10 January 2005, blog
"Intelligence, Inc.", Alternet, 7 March 2005 - on the role of private military contractors in abuse scandal
U.S. calls deaths of 26 prisoners homicides International Herald Tribune, March 16, 2005
Editorial: Patterns of Abuse, New York Times, May 23, 2005.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=15598
http://www.pentagon.mil/news/Mar2005/20050317_221.html "Medics at Abu Ghraib Helping to Win Iraqis' Hearts, Minds" - By Donna Miles, American Forces Press Service
Full dossier of Abu Ghraib torture files, Salon.com
Pentagon Not Pursuing Guantanamo Report; Guardian Unlimited, UK

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