I led the criminal investigation into the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. AMAA

I was one of the first to look into the allegations of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib in late 2003/2004. The official investigation started in 2004 when we received the now world famous photographs. It took about 6 months after the case started before anyone outside of the Department of Defense cared - though a press release was done at the outset and was reported on by Barbara Starr of CNN. It wasn't until the pictures were leaked that everything blew up as far as media/world attention was concerned.

So, ask me almost anything - some things I can't/won't discuss, but that's probably a very small minority of questions.

I've contacted the Mods to verify my identity. (verified)

Edit 1245 EST - Off to bed - Not feeling well and tired to boot. Will try and answer more questions tomorrow. Thanks for a great first time at an IamA.

1145AM: Been answering questions for a little while now. Also, link to verification, since quite a few people seem to have difficulty finding it: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/zj9uv/i_led_the_criminal_investigation_into_the_abu/c6531kf

1220: Wow! Front page! Trying to wade through the questions and answer as many as possible.

Comments: 1378 • Responses: 4  • Date: 

Gorignak148 karma

In your opinion, what would have been done if the photos were never taken, or just never surfaced?

anon2u127 karma

This is a great question!

If it were not for the photos, probably not much would have been done, simply for lack of credible proof. For instance, if your main victim is a person who came to Iraq to commit jihad on America, killed 4 US Army Soldiers after planting an IED, and then claimed the guards made him get in a naked pyramid, who would have believed him?

dlman104 karma

Tell us what you think about Graner and England -- as people, and as participants in this.

anon2u174 karma

I partially discussed this in another answer, but to summarize - Graner is probably one of the most evil people I have encountered - as close to the textbook definition of a psychopath as I have met. England is a poor, uneducated and none too bright girl who was manipulated by Graner at every level, but still had the presence of mind to know what she was doing was wrong.

regularbastard55 karma

We're the soldiers involved mean, malicious, stupid, or good people making a bad decision in shitty circumstances?

anon2u68 karma

Honestly, it was mostly mean, malicious and stupid. Boredom probably played a role as well but even the explanation didn't make sense, i,e. "Intelligence officers told us to". If that was the case, why on earth would you be taking pictures of it?