'Offers a front row seat at the courts martial of those accused in America's notorious prison abuse scandal.' -Adam Zagorin, senior correspondent, Time Magazine 'A must-read for all those committed to restoring a sense of honor to our country and the Armed Forces of the United States following the national embarrassment of Abu Ghraib. The unlawful directives and policies issued by the senior civilian leaders in the Department of Defense, and their flawed strategy that took our nation to war, set the conditions for abuse that would have disastrous consequences on the war in Iraq and the future of the Middle East. Amazingly, as of this writing, senior leaders have yet to be held accountable. Read this book, become better informed, and energize your elected officials to do the right thing.' -Major General John Batiste, U.S. Army (Retired) S. G. Mestrovic's story of three principal trials-those of convicted soldiers Lynndie England, Javal Davis, and Sabrina Harman-stands among the most poignant trial narratives ever told. During the trials Mestrovic, an expert witness on behalf of the three soldiers, had access to documents and records unavailable to the press and the public. He reveals the evidence, some suppressed from testimony, that the abuse at Abu Ghraib is part of a widespread pattern of abuse, imported from Guantanamo, that made its way to Afghanistan and Iraq.

The poignant story of three principal Abu Ghraib trials, those of convicted soldiers Lynndie England, Javal Davis, and Sabrina Harman.

On April 28, 2004, 60 Minutes II broadcast the now-infamous photos of prisoner abuse by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib. The news quickly spread worldwide, undermining the U.S. presence in Iraq. Despite several Department of Defense investigations and eleven courts-martial convictions, important questions remain about the events at Abu Ghraib. Who are these soldiers? How involved were top administration officials and army generals in the abuses? Were the soldiers simply following orders? Do these photographs depict a new American interrogation policy? Christopher Graveline and Michael Clemens provide the answers. No one has investigated the true story behind the events at Abu Ghraib as thoroughly as the authors. Only six people had complete knowledge of the Abu Ghraib investigation and prosecutions; Graveline and Clemens are two of them. They give readers unprecedented access to the inner workings of the investigation leading to the trials of PFC Lynndie England, Cpl. Charles Graner, and others. Complete with actual arguments of counsel, testimony, and evidence, this groundbreaking book puts the reader in the middle of the investigation and the subsequent trials, revealing one of the darker episodes in American military history.

In March 2003 the United States military launched an invasion of Iraq. Months afterwards rumors began circulating about human rights violations in military prison facilities throughout occupied Iraq. In January 2004, an Army MP serving in Abu Ghraib Prison left a disc containing photographs of prisoner abuse on the bed of a military investigator. The photographs were infamous the moment they came to public attention, and the face of the Iraq War was re-drawn to be that of sadistic American soldiers. However, soldiers have lived and bled and died protecting the human rights of detainees at Abu Ghraib. The present work details the courage, resolve, and mercy of the soldiers of the 344th Combat Support Hospital, Army reservists from New York who were also present at the Twin Towers scene on September 11, 2001.

Women war criminals are far more common than we think. From the Holocaust to ethnic cleansing in the Balkans to the Rwandan genocide, women have perpetrated heinous crimes. Few have been punished. These women go unnoticed because their very existence challenges our assumptions about war and about women. Biases about women as peaceful and innocent prevent us from "seeing" women as war criminals—and prevent postconflict justice systems from assigning women blame. Women as War Criminals argues that women are just as capable as men of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. In addition to unsettling assumptions about women as agents of peace and reconciliation, the book highlights the gendered dynamics of law, and demonstrates that women are adept at using gender instrumentally to fight for better conditions and reduced sentences when war ends. The book presents the legal cases of four women: the President (Biljana Plavšic), the Minister (Pauline Nyiramasuhuko), the Soldier (Lynndie England), and the Student (Hoda Muthana). Each woman's complex identity influenced her treatment by legal systems and her ability to mount a gendered defense before the court. Justice, as Steflja and Trisko Darden show, is not blind to gender.

When states are threatened by war and terrorism, can we really expect them to abide by human rights and humanitarian law? David P. Forsythe's bold analysis of US policies towards terror suspects after 9/11 addresses this issue directly. Covering moral, political, and legal aspects, he examines the abuse of enemy detainees at the hands of the United States. At the center of the debate is the Bush Administration, which Forsythe argues displayed disdain for international law, in contrast to the general public's support for humanitarian affairs. Forsythe explores the similarities and differences between Presidents Obama and Bush on the question of prisoner treatment in an age of terrorism and asks how the Administration should proceed. The book traces the Pentagon's and CIA's records in mistreating prisoners, providing an account which will be of interest to all those who value human rights and humanitarian law.

Fallgirls provides an analysis of the abuses that took place at Abu Ghraib in terms of social theory, gender and power, based on first-hand participant-observations of the courts-martials of Lynndie England and Sabrina Harman. This book examines the trials themselves, including interactions with soldiers and defense teams, documents pertaining to the courts-martials, US government reports and photographs from Abu Ghraib, in order to challenge the view that the abuses were carried out at the hands of a few rogue soldiers. With a keen focus on gender and sexuality as prominent aspects of the abuses themselves, as well as the ways in which they were portrayed and tried, Fallgirls engages with modern feminist thought and contemporary social theory in order to analyse the manner in which the abuses were framed, whilst also exploring the various lived realities of Abu Ghraib by both prisoners and soldiers alike. Providing a unique perspective and a thorough theoretical examination of the events, their framing and depiction, this book will be of interest to sociologists, feminists, and social and political theorists concerned with cultural studies, political communication and gender and sexuality.

Blackwater, Abu Ghraib and other scandals in Iraq were presaged by the murderous Operation Iron Triangle in May 2006 when US soldiers were ordered to kill all Iraqis of military age. The soldiers were imprisoned; the officer was merely reprimanded. Mestrovic details the American leadershipOCOs fake commitment to the Geneva Conventions and the rule of law, fake due process for defendants, fake goals of promoting democracy, and compulsion to repeat our errors in Vietnam. The Blackwater scandal involved killing unarmed Iraqis in accordance with rules of engagement that were apparently similar to the case analyzed in these pages."

The line between punishment and torture can be razor-thin—yet the entire world agreed that it was definitively crossed at Abu Ghraib. Or perhaps not. George W. Bush won a second term in office only months after the Abu Ghraib scandal was uncovered, and only the lowest-ranking U.S. soldiers involved in the scandal have been prosecuted. Where was the public outcry? Stephen Eisenman offers here an unsettling explanation that exposes our darkest inclinations in the face of all-too-human brutality. Eisenman characterizes Americans’ willful dismissal of the images as “the Abu Ghraib effect,” rooted in the ways that the images of tortured Abu Ghraib prisoners tapped into a reactionary sentiment of imperialist self-justification and power. The complex elements in the images fit the “pathos formula,” he argues, an enduring artistic motif in which victims are depicted as taking pleasure in their own extreme pain. Meanwhile, the explicitly sexual nature of the Abu Ghraib tortures allowed Americans to rationalize the deeds away as voluntary pleasure acts by the prisoners—a delusional reaction, but, The Abu Ghraib Effect reveals, one with historical precedence. From Greek sculptures to Goya paintings, Eisenman deftly connects such works and their disturbing pathos motif to the Abu Ghraib images. Skillfully weaving together visual theory, history, philosophy, and current events, Eisenman peels back the political obfuscation to probe the Abu Ghraib images themselves, contending that Americans can only begin to grapple with the ramifications of torture when the moral detachment of the “Abu Ghraib effect” breaks down and the familiar is revealed to be horribly unfamiliar.