The Abu Ghraib Convictions: A Miscarriage of Justice

Abstract

In April 2013, an independent, nonpartisan panel completed its investigation of the Bush Administration’s detention and interrogation practices and confirmed the harm to the nation and violations of international law. The details of the most high-profile scandal in Iraq provide paramount lessons with respect to those interrogation policies. The depravity that transpired at Abu Ghraib prison propagated in the global media and left an indelible impression after CBS 60 Minutes first displayed images of U.S. military police abusing nude Iraqi prisoners. Several low-level soldiers were subject to penal and disciplinary punishment, but agitation from the episode has lingered. After a dozen Pentagon investigations on general and specific interrogation and detainee abuse, often with different explanations for wrongdoing, polls revealed that the American public still wanted an investigation of top officials. Human rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, presently contend that responsibility should be assessed on top officials for issuing directives for interrogation if evidence warrants it. What transpired at Abu Ghraib is but a vivid example of abuses that were systematic and rampant at several other locations, but the case of Iraq is unique due to the sweeping detention policies and clear applicability of the Geneva and Hague Conventions. Irrespective of the location of the wrong, international human rights or humanitarian law should have applied at every time during invasion and occupation and provided clear structure for conduct. With those mandates, chain of command culpability, reduced constitutional rights of military personnel, and rules, norms, and obligations of troops to the military chain of command, this article emphasizes that it was unreasonable to place low-level military personnel in such an exceptionally uncompromising position and that it is potentially impossible to fairly assess their culpability without the involvement of top officials.