THE IRAQI PRISONER ABUSE SCANDAL pdf download

The Iraqi Prisoner Abuse Scandal by Michael J. Martin

THE IRAQI PRISONER ABUSE SCANDAL

From the Book

During the first week of May 2004 horrific photographs of American soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison were re¬ leased to the public.

 The photos caused shock and outrage—both inside the United States and around the world. Seeking an explanation, Congress called Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“Let me begin by stating the obvious,” said Senator Jack Reed speaking to Rumsfeld at the witness table.

“For the next 50 years, in the Islamic world and many other parts of the world, the image of the United States will be that of an American dragging a prostrate, naked Iraqi across the floor on a leash.”

Reed’s opening statement, of course, was only a prediction—no one knows for sure how the scandal will affect the United States over time.

But there was little doubt that what had gone on inside a notorious prison just west of Baghdad had, at least temporarily, seriously hurt America’s cause in the war on terrorism.

That was obvious a few weeks later in the pained faces of members of Congress as they emerged from a darkened room in which they had just spent three hours viewing eighteen hundred slides and several videos of the abuses at Abu Ghraib.

During those three hours they studied images of soldiers sexually assaulting Iraqi prisoners.

Other photos showed American soldiers terrifying naked prisoners with attack dogs or humiliating them in front of grinning female guards.

Even more shocking photos showed soldiers grinning and laughing alongside dead Iraqis whose bodies had been mutilated. Perhaps worst of all, no