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CPT volunteers have talked to released detainees. All reported that they were housed in overcrowded tents without proper clothes or toilet facilities, particularly in the initial detention centers to which they were taken. CPT volunteers saw handcuffed prisoners being led around with black plastic bags over their heads at an army base near Balad on December 24, 2003. This sort of treatment—and worse—is often reported by released detainees. Such treatment violates the 4th Geneva Convention (Article 85) and angers detainees and their families, causing increased security risks to Coalition forces from an increasingly-alienated populace.

Ten of the 72 Iraqi detainees CPT talked to reported abuse by Coalition forces and/or contracted workers. Abuses included electrocution and prying off a toenail.

"There are many more photographs and indeed some videos," Rumsfeld said last week. "If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse. … I looked at them last night and they're hard to believe. And so be on notice."

In other words, this story looks like it will be around for a long time. Christian organizations that see themselves at war with the culture of death, who are proud to call themselves moralists, may want to start thinking about how they can speak directly about the images the world can't get out of its mind.

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May (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48