After shocking images of detainee abuse at the US Military’s Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were published in April of 2004, political and military leaders condemned the abuse and promised swift action and accountability. As part of its response, the Army created an on-the-ground investigative team in Iraq, the Criminal Investigative Command’s Detainee Abuse Task Force.
But as a joint investigation by The Nation, The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute and PBS’s Need to Know discovered, the DATF has managed to accomplish surprisingly little in the way of holding private contractors and military personnel involved in abuse accountable. In “Inside the Detainee Abuse Task Force,” Joshua E.S. Phillips reveals that the Army’s attempt at accountability after Abu Ghraib has been a whitewash.
PBSPBS is a private, nonprofit corporation, founded in 1969, whose members are America’s public TV stations—noncommercial, educational licensees that operate nearly 360 PBS member stations and serve all 50 states, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa.