What happened at Abu Ghraib?

Interrogators called the shots at Abu Ghraib. The power went to the heads of the people overseeing the detainees. The torture became "part of the job" and "normal" for them. A riot broke out at Abu Ghraib in 2003 and this enraged the MPs who were now responsible for the detainees and a part of the interrogation staff. In the fall of 2003 the abuse was caught on camera by the MPs themselves.

 

After the prison riot broke out one of he MPs said, "it set everybody off." This enhanced the aggression and abuse in the facility while justifying it in their minds and they just kept reminding themselves of what the detainees had done.  

 

During the interrogations the abuse was eminent as well. The detainees were yelled at, abused, made to crawl and "scrape their genitals on the floor." The interrogations were conducted with the same abuse. 

*The reading: Seymour M. Hersch, "Torture at Abu Graib" notes:

"The military-intelligence officers have "encouraged and told us, 'Great job,' they were now getting positive resulted and information, " Frederick wrote. "CID has been present when the military working dogs were used to intimidate prisoners at MI's request." At one point, Frederick told his family, he pulled aside his superior officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Phillabaum, the commander of the 320th M.P. Battalion, and asked about the mistreatment of prisoners. "His reply was "Don't worry about it."