The problem is... it's entirely wrong.
That is Manadel al-Jamadi. He died during a brutal interrogation, thirty minutes of what is known as "Palestinian hanging." His interrogators didn't even know he was dead, choosing instead to believe al-Jamadi was "playing possum," until they attempted to reposition him. He's better known from these photos:
Manadel should serve as a textbook example of why we believe in legal rights. Picked up in the aftermath of a bombing in Iraq there was nothing ever presented, before his being picked up or afterwards during the investigation of his death, that linked him to the bombing or the Iraqi resistance. He never had a court where he could profess his innocence and never had a lawyer to do so either. Yet he was killed, needlessly.
We already know the excuse, though. A few bad apples, "shit happens" as Rumsfeld once said. But the evidence points to a more systemic pattern of abuse. Sy Hersh who broke the story with an investigative report in 2004 also detailed the existence of a systemic operation of prison interrogation abuse program called Copper Green. A book released in 2007 showed that torture was still occurring at Abu Ghraib fully a year after the photographs were released. That means it not only continued after General Taguba's internal investigation (prior the media publicity), but long after media publicity.
Al-Jamadi was only one of the more famous victims of Abu Ghraib, there are certainly several other deaths not only at Abu Ghraib but other American prison camps as well. Statements and primary source documents attest to other deaths happening and should be investigated. In the meantime, right-wingers should consider not denying the fact that the torture at Abu Ghraib was painful, humiliating, illegal, and deadly.
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