Iraq: The Scandal's Growing Stain

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Taguba's report supports the contention of MPs like Frederick that the soldiers were told that inflicting such indignities would "set the conditions" for favorable interrogation by military-intelligence officers, CIA officers and private contractors. Taguba concluded that a quartet of military-intelligence officers and civilian contractors "were either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuse at Abu Ghraib." According to testimony from another accused abuser, Sergeant Javal Davis, military-intelligence officers essentially egged the guards on: "Loosen this guy up for us. Make sure he gets the treatment." Davis testified that military-intelligence officers praised Specialist Charles Graner, another of the accused, for his efforts, using "statements like 'Good job, they're breaking down real fast.'"

On March 20, the military announced that Frederick, Harman, Davis, Graner, Specialist Megan Ambuhl and Private Jeremy Sivits of the 372nd Military Police Company were being held in Iraq and charged with conspiracy, dereliction of duty, assault, maltreatment and indecent acts. A seventh soldier, Lynndie England, the jaunty G.I. Jane in many of the photos, who is now pregnant, was sent to Fort Bragg, N.C., where she was later charged with the same offenses. Six soldiers up the chain of command were given formal reprimands that will end their military careers, and one was less severely admonished. Although Taguba recommended firing the two civilian contractors, their U.S. companies say the Pentagon has made no such formal requests yet. The Justice Department is trying to figure out if the private contractors can be prosecuted under any U.S. law.

Devastating as it is, the Taguba report only addresses one set of abuses. Though U.S. officials insist that the Abu Ghraib crimes were rare instances of misconduct, the problem may well be more widespread. Britain's Ministry of Defense is investigating 12 cases of civilian death, injury or mistreatment in Iraq at the hands of British soldiers, and is considering action against troops for six deaths. Charges of mistreatment of Iraqi detainees by four British soldiers are also being investigated.

Freed detainees have scores of horror stories to tell. Though most of the accounts have not been corroborated, the scandal makes anything seem possible. Nabil Shakar Abdul Razaq al-Taiee, 54, a retired electrical worker who was arrested last December, told TIME that as recently as March, he witnessed soldiers beating prisoners, including a mentally unstable man who was thrown in a shipping container and pummeled and taunted for days. Another former prisoner, Mohammed Unis Hassan, was arrested by U.S. forces for looting a bank last July. He told TIME of a seven-month odyssey through the prison system that included beatings, humiliation and soldiers having sex with female detainees. At the Baghdad airport holding pen, he laughed at interrogators who asked if he knew which terrorists were exploding bombs. When he failed to provide information, they beat him with a cable or a riot stick on the back of the legs. He saw U.S. soldiers strip the clothes off a fellow inmate and put their feet on his head, making him lie naked on the ground for hours. Mohammed claimed that prisoners, angered by the death of an old man forced to lie on his face, loosened a tent pole and hit a U.S. soldier so hard that "he died."