“The Americans came to free the Iraqi people from Saddam — I didn’t expect this was going to happen. When they first came, it appeared that they were good, but this incident changed the entire picture of what Americans look like.”

—Hussein Mutar, an Iraqi imprisoned at Abu Ghraib, testifying in the trial of Specialist Charles A. Graner, Jr.

Yesterday, a military jury found Special Graner guilty on charges of assault, conspiracy, maltreatment of detainees, committing indecent acts, and dereliction of duty during his tenure as a prison official in Abu Ghraib. His sentencing is scheduled for today.

While the Bush administration continues to portray the Abu Ghraib scandal as the actions of a few, masochistic soldiers, it remains difficult to view the incident as an isolated one in light of the investigations of torture and human rights violations that now extend to Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, as well as Iraq.  The Bush administration continues to distance itself from previous legal speculation that torture techniques were permissible, but for Iraqis like Mr. Mutar, the damage has already been done.

llouison