Among about 1000 images shot on digital cameras and stored on compact discs by US military police during their time in Iraq were pictures of Americans tying up and humiliating Iraqi prisoners, simulating sex acts and posing over the bodies of wounded and dead Iraqis.
The new pictures appeared just hours after a tour for journalists through Abu Ghraib led by Major-General Geoffrey Miller, the prison’s new commanding officer.
The tour was an attempt to show how Major-General Miller’s new regime had succeeded in eliminating the worst of the excesses at Abu Ghraib – but the damage-limitation exercise backfired badly when hundreds of prisoners begged journalists to get them out of the jail.
“Take us home!” one screamed. “End this tragedy!” implored another. “Is this the freedom and democracy they promised?” shouted yet another.
