Article 3, Section 1(c) of the Geneva Convention states that prisoners of war shall not, “at any time and in any place whatsoever” be subject to “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment.” [CAUTION: Images in the previous link are most certainly objectionable to (almost) everyone.]
The Guardian reports that it wasn’t just U.S. Soldiers who were involved in these violations of the Geneva convention, but also private contractors:
A military report into the Abu Ghraib case — parts of which were made available to the Guardian — makes it clear that private contractors were supervising interrogations in the prison, which was notorious for torture and executions under Saddam Hussein.
One civilian contractor was accused of raping a young male prisoner but has not been charged because military law has no jurisdiction over him.
(Links via This Modern World and Cursor)
UPDATE: Here is what Bush had to say:
“I shared a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated. I didn’t like it one bit,” President Bush said in Washington.
The people who are alleged to have carried out the abuse “do not reflect the nature of men and women we sent overseas”, Mr Bush added.
“That’s not the way we do things in America.”
The problem is, that is how we do things in America.
UDATE: Seymour Hersh’s article in the New Yorker:
The mistreatment at Abu Ghraib may have done little to further American intelligence, however. Willie J. Rowell, who served for thirty-six years as a C.I.D. agent, told me that the use of force or humiliation with prisoners is invariably counterproductive.
