Abu Ghraib was waiting to happen

‘‘Most of the time, I felt my life was in danger,’’ said Sgt William Savage Jr, a Florida corrections officer sent to Abu Ghraib as a reservist with the 320th Military Police Company. ‘‘I always thought something was going to happen.’’

There were early warnings that a combination of conditions inside Abu Ghraib produced a culture of licentious behaviour and abuse. Confusion was high. Morale was low. The checks and balances established to hold soldiers accountable during the vagaries of war were virtually non-existent. By the fall of 2003, rumours of abuse began to circulate. Sgt Blas Hidalgo heard them while working the guard towers of Abu Ghraib as a member of the 320th Military Police Company. He dismissed the talk as made-up military gossip. ‘‘It sounded too crazy,’’ he said.

The problems at Abu Ghraib, which have unleashed an international scandal and shaken the Bush administration, were foreshadowed by experiences in at least one earlier prison camp set up by US forces after the invasion in March 2003. As US troops marched north, Camp Bucca near Basra, quickly became the largest facility for Iraqi PoWs. On May 12, four soldiers were charged with beating prisoners after transporting them to Camp Bucca.

By May end, several thousand members of the 800th Military Police Brigade were told they would manage the Iraqi prison system and its detention facilities. ‘‘Morale suffered, and over the next few months, there did not appear to have been any attempt by the command to mitigate this morale problem,’’ Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba said in his report.

— LAT-WP