Incidents Grew in Severity, Military Abuse Report Says

Will he be held Accountable for Anything?

Forty-four separate incidents are graphically recounted in the new Army report on abuse committed by U.S. soldiers against Iraqis in their custody at the Abu Ghraib prison. They include direct physical assault of inmates, required nakedness, forced sexual posing and an alleged sexual assault. Most of the major incidents are already known, either through  previous reports or in media accounts.  Many were powerfully documented in the photographs that leaked out in the  spring, spurring a series of Pentagon investigations and congressional hearings. But the report yesterday is likely to stand as the definitive encyclopedia of abuse at Abu Ghraib. The abuse began in September 2003 amid an erupting insurgency that surprised U.S. commanders and strapped some Army units. In the following months, as described by investigators, Abu Ghraib went over the edge. "What started as nakedness and humiliation, stress and physical training (exercise), carried over into sexual and physical assaults by a small group of morally corrupt and unsupervised soldiers and civilians," the report says. [more ]