"We will be paid back for this"

CBS's 60 Minutes has broadcast images of US soldiers abusing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison

There are shots of the prisoners stacked in a pyramid, one with a slur written on his skin in English.

In some, the male prisoners are positioned to simulate sex with each other. And in most of the pictures, the Americans are laughing, posing, pointing, or giving the camera a thumbs-up.

The allegations of mistreatment go beyond humiliating photos to psychological torture, murder, and rape. National Guardsmen assisted civilian interrogators to "fear up" prisoners. Sometimes they did this with beatings, sometimes with humiliation, and sometimes they did it by attaching wires and telling prisoners they would be electrocuted if they lied. They're even taking pages from Saddam's book - the Army apparantly has photos of a prisoner with electrodes attached to his genitals. And then there's this bit:

Part of the Army's own investigation is a statement from an Iraqi detainee who charges a translator - hired to work at the prison - with raping a male juvenile prisoner: "They covered all the doors with sheets. I heard the screaming. ...and the female soldier was taking pictures."

There is also a picture of an Iraqi man who appears to be dead -- and badly beaten.

To its credit, the US Army is prosecuting those involved - they at least understand what the Geneva Convention means, even if their Commander-in-Chief doesn't. Not that everyone there is a POW - Abu Ghraib is where "security detainees" go; those disappeared in the middle of the night, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, or arrested for chanting anti-coalition slogans. Every Iraqi has a story about their friend who was detained and sent to Abu Ghraib; every Iraqi therefore is eventually going to know what has gone on there. And, as one of CBS's interviewees says, "[the US] will be paid back for this."

Finally, consider this: the day job of one of those being court-martialled by the Army... is as a prison guard. No surprises there then.