Immediately after the September 11th attacks on the United States Soil, the U. S government responded by going to Iraq and taking the war to the terrorists. The U. S troops set foot in Iraq in the year 2012. The Abu Ghraib prison camp was established in the year 2003 in the province of Abu Ghraib. This detention camp was used to hold Iraqi civilians who were captured during the war hence, sort of a prison. The detention camp was situated 28miles west of Baghdad which was the capital city of Iraq. It was located on a 280 acres piece of land. It held approximately 3000 prisoners while some lived in tents and others in high security lock.
The first recorded inmate to die in the prison camp died in November 2003. From then on, photos of Iraqi prisoners were leaked to the internet between November and December 2003. These photos contained naked Iraqi men being tortured by the American soldiers in the detention camp. On January 2004, a Spc. Joseph M. Darby is reported to have discovered a CD-ROM with photos of Iraqi prisoners being abused, and he reported the matter to his superiors which resulted in an investigation. Thereafter on April 4th 2004, General Antonio Taguba who was charged into investigating the 800th Military Police Brigade released his report to Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez claiming misconduct in the unit.
On April 28th 2004, the media outlet to air the news ’60 Minutes II’ broadcasted images of Iraqi detainees in the camp being tortured and humiliated by American soldiers. Later on, various media groups including ‘The New Yorker’ published articles including the details and images of the Taguba report which involved abuse at the prison. Once this was out in the public, the major scandal started with various leaders citing different parts of the story, some denying the allegation some accepting them.
Works Cited
CNN LIBRARY. "Iraqi Prison Abuse Scandals Fast Facts." CNN 30 Sept. 2013: n. pag. Print.
