It is 20 years since torture and terrible abuses by the US military began at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Reports of what was happening soon emerged, and an internal military report found “numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses”. But it was not until April 2004 that shocking photos were leaked showing the extent of the depravity, including personnel taunting naked prisoners and a hooded man attached to electric wires.
George W Bush, the then president, apologised. Donald Rumsfeld, the then secretary of defence, dismissed the perpetrators as “bad apples” and said that he had found a way to compensate Iraqi detainees who had suffered grievous and brutal abuse. Yet a new report from Human Rights Watch finds that the US government has apparently failed to compensate or provide other redress for victims tortured and abused at Abu Ghraib and other US-run prisons in Iraq, and that there is no clear path to pursuing claims.
