Throughout the beginning months of 2004, one of the largest military scandals in U.S. history became the center of worldwide controversy. It has been said that the degrading acts by the U.S. military at Abu Ghraib were responsible for the suffering of innocent Iraqi civilians, the humiliation of the world's strongest defense, and for negatively affecting the United States' reputation in the world overall. Abu Ghraib, located 20 miles west of Baghdad, originally was one of the world's most notorious prisons during Saddam Hussein's time in power. "Men and women were jam-packed into the facility where weekly executions, torture, and terrible living conditions took place. In April of 2003, the prison complex was totally stripped …show more content…
The report further incriminated the 372nd military police company under Karpinski. "Taguba found that between October and December 2003, there were numerous instances of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses of prisoners." (43)
According to Taguba, Karpinski rarely visited the prisons during her tenure, and she reviewed and signed reports about claims of abuse without following up to make sure her orders were carried out. As a consequence, the abuse was allowed to continue and her staff developed a lenient and casual attitude towards protocol.
Seven soldiers including: "Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick II, Specialist Charles A. Graner, Sergeant Javal Davis, Specialist Megan Ambuhl, Specialist Sabrina Harman, Jeremy Sivits, and Private Lynndie England were all charged with dereliction of duty, maltreatment, aggravated assault, and battery" (Abu Ghraib). On April 8, 2005, Karpinski was formally relieved of command of the 800th Military Police Brigade and never subjected to any formal charges. Frederick's attorney and other witnesses do attest to taking orders from their superiors and Military Intelligence, but only these seven were tried and