role of media; human rights violations; prisons

• 2004, human rights violations in the form of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, including torture, reports of rape, sodomy, and homicide of prisoners held in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq (also known as Baghdad Correctional Facility) came to public attention. 
• These acts were committed by military police personnel of the United States Army

Lynndie England holding a leash attached to a prisoner, known to the guards as "Gus", who is lying on the floor

This image of a prisoner being tortured has become internationally famous, eventually making it onto the cover of The Economist 

 

 

 

 

•  In 2004, articles describing the abuse, including pictures showing military personnel appearing to abuse prisoners, came to public attention, when a 60 Minutes II news report 
• article by Seymour M. Hersh in The New Yorker magazine reported the story
• removed seventeen soldiers and officers from duty
• and eleven soldiers were charged with dereliction of duty, 

compare this with halden

inexcuseable; justice was swift and necessary...many were jailed for these offences...would we expect anything but harsh punishment for such abuses....even if they were abusing criminals