Volume 51, Number 15 · October 7, 2004
Abu Ghraib: The Hidden Story
By Mark Danner
Final Report of the Independent Panel to Review DoD Detention Operations (The Schlesinger Report)
by James R. Schlesinger, Harold Brown, Tillie K. Fowler, and General Charles A. Horner (USAF-Ret.)
August 2004, 102 pp. plus appendices
AR 15-6 Investigation of the Abu Ghraib Detention Facility and 205th Military Intelligence Brigade
by Major General George R. Fay
August 2004, 142 pp.
Out of the interlocking scandals and controversies symbolized by Hooded Man and Leashed Man, the pyramids of naked bodies, the snarling dogs, and all the rest, and known to the world by the collective name of Abu Ghraib, one can extract two 'master narratives,' both dependent on the power and mutability of the images themselves. The first is that of President Bush, who presented the photographs as depicting 'disgraceful conduct by a few American troops, who dishonored our country and disregarded our values'—behavior that, the President insisted, 'does not represent America.' And the aberrant, outlandish character of what the photographs show—the nudity, the sadism, the pornographic imagery—seemed to support this 'few bad apples' argument, long the classic defense of states accused of torture.
Review, 8725 words
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