The Abu Ghraib Files

Salon.com has posted this important and comprehensive archive of all the publicly available photos and videos of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib. The photos and videos were part of the US Army’s own investigation into the abuses at the notorious prision, which the US recently announced it was shutting down. Salon has provided additional documentation that has to date not been made public. It is well worth reading the entire commentary, but here is an excerpt from the introduction:

Our purpose for presenting this large catalog of images remains much the same as it was four weeks ago when we first published a much smaller number of Abu Ghraib photos that had not previously appeared in the media. As Walter Shapiro wrote, Abu Ghraib symbolizes “the failure of a democratic society to investigate well-documented abuses by its soldiers.” The documentary record of the abuse has come out in the media in a piecemeal fashion, often lacking context or description. Meanwhile, our representatives in Washington have allowed the facts about what occurred to fester in Pentagon reports without acting on their disturbing conclusions. We believe this extensive, if deeply disturbing, CID archive of photographic evidence belongs in the public record as documentation toward further investigation and accountability.