Abu Ghraib Timeline

April 1, 2003

Red Cross issued a report to Coalition headquarters in Qatar complaining of the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners of war at the detention center in Umm Qasr. Red Cross officials made frequent complaints about prison conditions in Iraq and the mistreatment of detainees to Pentagon officials throughout 2003.

July 1, 2003

Amnesty International criticizes U.S. military for subjecting Iraqi prisoners to “cruel, inhumane, or degrading” conditions.

August 31-September 9, 2003

Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller leads a survey team on intelligence, interrogation, and detention operations in Iraq.

September 6, 2003

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld tours Abu Ghraib with Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski.

September 2003

Pentagon issued one-page directive to military interrogators in Iraq. Entitled “Interrogation Rules on Engagement,” it gave permission to use techniques such as sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, and stress positions.

October 12, 2003

A new “Interrogation and Counter-Resistance Policy” is issued in wake of Miller visit/report.

October 13-November 6, 2003

Maj. Gen. Donald J. Ryder. Army provost marshal, assesses detention and corrections operations in Iraq.

October 15, 2003

372nd MP Company of the 320th MP Battalion takes over Tiers 1A and 1B at Abu Ghraib.

October 18-31, 2003

Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski sent Lt. Col. Jerry L. Phillabaum, the 320th MP Battalion’s commander, to Kuwait to rest.

October-December, 2003

“Numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees”in Tier 1A at Abu Ghraib (from Taguba’s report).

October 25, 2003

Photograph of Pfc. Lynndie R. England holding leash tied to the neck of a naked detainee lying on the floor. [image date stamped October 24, 2003]

November 1, 2003

Associated Press distributes major story by charles J. Hanley about alleged abuse at three Irqi POW camps, including Abu Ghraib, based on interviews with former POWs.

November 4, 2003

CIA detainee Manadel Al-Jamadi died during interrogation.  He was reportedly resisting arrest and a SEAL Team member butt-stroked him on the side of the head. His body was packed on ice for 24 hours and eventually taken out of the prison on a stretcher with fake intravenous drip in his arm. According to Capt. Donald Reese, Col. Pappas, Lt. Col. Stev Jordan, and a female major were present during the interrogation.

November 5, 2003

Maj. Gen. Ryder files report concluding that there were potential system human rights, training, and manpower issues that needed immediate attention. He also says that military police (Mps) should not assist in making prisoners more pliable to interrogation; their job is to keep prisoners safe. At least two detainees escape from Tier #A at Abu Ghraib.

November 7-8, 2003

Several detainees escape from Camp Ganci at Abu Ghraib.

November 8, 2003

Seven prisoners were brought into Tier 1A foe allegedly starting a riot in the outside tents in the prison’s compound. Many of the most infamous abuses, including stacking naked Iraqis into a human pyramid and forcing prisoners to perform or simulate sex acts.

November 19, 2003

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez orders control of Abu Ghraib to be transferred from Karpinski’s unit to the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade.

November 24, 2003

Riot and shootings of twelve detainees (three fatally) at Camp Ganci, at Abu Ghraib. Nine MPs of the 320th MP Battalion are wounded when insurgents dressed at Iraqi police enter prison. Spec. Luciana Spencer, 205th MI Brigade, forces a detainee to strip and to stay in his cell naked in the Tier 1A Facility holding military intelligence targets. Lt. Col. Steven l. Jordan failed to present abuses that evening.

December 12, 2003

Date stamp on photographs of Iraqi detainees being harassed by Army dogs. The use of dogs for interrogations was approved by Col. Pappas.

December 17, 2003

Detainee shot after assaulting an MP at Camp Ganci, at Abu Ghraib.

January 13, 2004

Specialist Joseph M. Darby, soldier in 372nd MP Company at Abu Ghraib, leaves a disc of abuse photographs on the bed of a military investigator. Photographs were being swapped from computer to computer throughout the 320th Battalion. Gen. John Abizaid, the head of U.S. command in Iraq, called Donald Rumsfeld and told him about the images.

January 14, 2004

Photo and video evidence was taken to Baghdad and locked up in a U.S. military safe. Staff Sergeant Ivan L. Frederick II began writing in his journal hours before Army officials began questioning him and searching his quarters. He mailed copies to his mother, father, uncle, and sister, and decide not to send it via e-mail for fear that the Army would see it first.

January 15, 2004

Red Cross met with Secretary of State Colin Powell to discuss prisoner abuse in Iraq. Powell was knowledgable about the subject and claimed he had brought up the issue during meetings with high-level Pentagon officials.

January 16, 2003

Central Command issues five-sentence press release about investigation into mistreatment of prisoners.

January 17, 2004

Phillabaum suspended as commander of 320th; Capt. Donald J. Reese suspended as commander of 372nd. Karpinski given memorandum of admonishment and later suspended from duty.

January 19, 2004

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez asks his supervisors for investigation of 800th MP Brigade from November 1, 2003, to the present.

January 21, 2004

CNN reports that U.S. male and female soldiers reportedly posed for photographs with partially unclothed Iraqi prisoners and that the focus of the Army’s investigation is Abu Ghraib.

Mid-January 2004

Thirteen detainees detail abuse and sexual humiliation suffered at the hands of U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib during the holy month of Ramadan. They provided accounts of how the non-famous photographs were staged. Eight of the detainees identified Specialist Graner and five others identified him by description. (These reports were excerpted by the Washington Post on May 21, 2004.)

January 31, 2004

Maj. Gen. Antonio M Taguba appointed to conduct formal investigation into 800th MP Brigade.

February 23, 2004

Seventeen U.S. soldiers suspended from duties pending outcome of investigation.

February 24, 2004

International Committee of the Red Cross provides the Coalition Authority with a confidential report on detention in Iraq. Portions of the report are published by the Wall Street Journal on May 7 without ICRC consent.

March 2004

Frederick’s uncle William Lawson sent an e-mail to retired colonel David Hackworth’s website. That e-mail eventually put Lawson in touch with people at CBS’s 60 Minutes II. He also contacted seventeen members of Congress with virtually no response.

March 3, 2004

Taguba report completed and forwarded to Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan, commanded of ground forces in Iraq. Report suggests members of the 372nd MP Company and intelligence operatives as the abusers. Taguba agreed with Ryder that MPs should not play any role in the interrogation of prisoners. Taguba did not include the photographs in his report, which was not meant for public release.

March 20, 2004

Brig Gen. Mark Kimmitt Announces that charges have been filed against six soldiers: Staff Sergeant Ivan L. Frederick II, known as Chip; Specialist Charles A. Graner; Sergeant Javal Davis; Specialist Megan Ambuhl; Specialist Sabrina Harman; and Private Jeremy Sivits.

April 9, 2004

Article 32 hearing in case against Sergeant Frederick, at Camp Victory, near Baghdad.

April 12, 2004

CBS informs Pentagon that it is planning to broadcast photographs of prison abuse.

April 14, 2004

Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, calls Dan Rather to request a delay in broadcast, saying the pictures will incite violence against U.S. troops and could endanger the 90 Western hostages held by Iraqi militants. CBS agrees. Myers calls a week later and obtains another delay.

April 28, 2004

Rumsfeld briefs Congress on Taguba report. CBS’s 60 Minutes II shows photos of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. (60 Minutes II probably obtained the images around April 14, before they obtained Taguba’s report. They were in touch with Seymour Hersh, who aided with the authentication of the photos.) Bush, Rumsfeld, and Myers say this is the first time they have seen any of the photographs.

April 29, 2004

A reporter for the Baltimore Sun shows some of the Abu Ghraib photographs to Terrie England, who immediately recognizes her daughter Lynndie R. England as one of the soldiers. The mother dismisses what she sees as “stupid kid things—pranks.”

April 30, 2004

Hersh’s “Torture at Abu Ghraib” appears on The New Yorker’s website (May 10, 2004 issue). The article reveals contents of Taguba’s report.

Early May

C.I.A. confirms that some of its officers hid Iraqi prisoners from watchdog groups like the Red Cross.

May 3, 2004

White House spokesman Scott McClellen says that Bush still has not seen or been briefed on the Taguba report. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) asks Pentagon officials to testify before his committee the next day.

May 4, 2004

Rumsfeld says those responsible will be brought to justice and widens investigations of prisons outside Iraq and Afghanistan. National security advisor Condoleezza Rice tells the Arab world that the abuses will be investigated and the perpetrators punished. Army officials give Senate committee a private briefing.

May 5, 2004

President Bush appears on two Arab television channels, saying those responsible for the abuses will be brought to Justice. U.S. Army issues report on Iraqi prisoner abuse and discloses that it is conducting investigations of 10 prison deaths in U.S. custody in Afghanistan and Iraq—beyond two already ruled homicides—plus another ten abuse cases. (The number grows by two on May 5, when the CIA says it is investigating more cases.)

Pfc. Lynndie England is transferred to Fort Bragg in Fayetteville , North Carolina before being charged due to her pregnancy. According to England, Specialist Graner is the father of the child.

May 6, 2004

Washington Post publishes four additional abuse photographs dated December 12, 2003. Rush Limbaugh dismissed photos taken of prisoners at Abu Grhaib, saying “it is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation.”

May 7, 2004

Seventh soldier, Private Lynndie England, is charged.  Rumsfeld testifies before a Senate panel and confirms that videotapes of abuses at Abu Ghraib exist as well as numerous additional photos of an American soldier beating one prisoner almost to death, apparently raping a female prisoner, and acting inappropriately with a dead body. Some of the videotapes taken by U.S. soldiers show Iraqi prisoners raping young boys.

May 9, 2004

Hersh’s “Chain of Command” appears on The New Yorker’s website (May 17, 2004 issue).

May 10, 2004

Posters of Abu Ghraib abuse photographs covered with swastikas were attached to British and Indian graves at the Commonwealth military cemetery in Gaza City. Thirty-two graves of soldiers killed in World War I were desecrated or destroyed.

May 12, 2004

Senators and representatives are shown slide show of unreleased images of forced sodomy Lynndie England having sex with other U.S. soldiers in front of prisoners, prisoners cowering in front of attack dogs, Iraqi women being forced to expose their breasts, naked prisoners tied up together, prisoners being forced to masturbate, and a prisoner repeatedly smashing his head against a wall.

May 15, 2004

Hersh’s “The Gray Zone” appears on The New Yorker’s website (May 24, 2004 issue).

May 19, 2004

Specialist Sivits receives the maximum penalty—one year in prison, reduction in rank, and a bad conduct discharge—in the first court-martial stemming from mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. He destified against some of his fellow guards, including Graner and England. Graner is arraigned along with Staff Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II and Sgt. Javal S. Davis.

ABCNEWS obtained two new photos taken by Sergeant Frederick at Abu Ghriab. The photos show Specialist Graner and Specialist Harman giving the thumbs-up sign over the body of Manadel Al-Jamadi, who was allegedly beaten to death by CIA employee on November 4, 2003.

May 21, 2004

Video of prison violence, mentioned in Taguba’s report, released. Washington Post publishes excerpts from reports of previously secret mid-January 2004 interrogation of thirteen detainees that describe how some of the photographs were staged. The Post also obtains hundreds of so-far-unreleased photos and short digital videos. In the photographs, a soldier cocks his fist as he holds a hooded detainee in a headlock in a pile of detainees. He is later seen kneeling on the pile, flexing his muscles and smiling. Another soldier holds a black baton as a naked prisoner, cuffed at the ankles and smeared with a brown substance, walks down a hallway. Four photographs show detainees being frightened by unmuzzled dogs. Other photographs include scenes of soldiers engaging in consensual sex. One video shows five hooded and naked detainees stand against a wall, masturbating, as two hooded men crouch at their feet. Another shows a man handcuffed to a cell door repeatedly slams his head into the metal, leaving a trail of blood. On the Washington Post website, Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. describes the newspaper’s decision not to publish many of the images of abuse either in the paper or on the website because they are “so shocking and in such bad taste, especially the extensive nudity.” Newsweek  published a copy of a January 9, 2002 memo written by Department of Justice lawyers John Yoo and Robert J. Delahunty on its website. The memo argues that no international laws—including the normally observed laws of war—applied to the United States at all because they did not have any status under federal law.

May 22, 2004

Washington Post publishes statements from U.S. soldiers accused of prison abuses in Abu Ghraib. In these statements, the soldiers describe photographing detainees on the night of November 8, 2003.

May 24, 2004

Rumsfeld bans the use of cameras by U.S. military personnel in Iraq.

May 27, 2004

NBC News obtains additional photographs of three naked male detainees being interrogated.

June 11, 2004

Documents obtained by the Washington Post show that Lt. Gen. Sanchez authorized the use of military dogs, temperature extremes, reversed sleep patterns, and sensory deprivation as interrogation techniques at Abu Ghraib.

June 23, 2004

White House disavows the January 9, 2002 Justice Department memorandum by Yoo and Delahunty that argues that it is permissible to torture terrorism suspects.

August 13, 2004

Specialist Megan Ambuhl is arranged on charges in Iraq.

August 20, 2004

Writing in The Lancet, bioethicist Steven Miles called for an investigation into the role of doctors and nurses in the torture program that was exposed at Abu Ghraib. He cited evidence that doctors or medics covered up the abuse by falsifying death certificates.

August 23, 2004

Specialist Graner and Specialist Harman appear in front of judge in Mannheim, Germany for their arraignment. Graner’s next hearing will be held in Baghdad on October 21.

August 24, 2004

An independent panel headed by James R. Schlesinger, the former defense secretary, is the first to assign responsibility for the abuse of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba to senior Pentagon officials including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The report states that officials were aware of the problems at the detention facilities and failed to address them.

August 25, 2004

Army report by Gen. Paul J. Kern, Lt. Gen. Anthony R. Jones, and Maj. Gen. George R. Fay reveals that military intelligence soldiers played a major role in directing and carrying out forty-four abuses at Abu Ghraib. According to the report, Lt. General Ricardo S. Sanchez approved the use of severe interrogation practices in Iraq. The 171-page report recommends punishing the two top military intelligence officers at the prison, Col. Thomas M. Pappas and Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, and three other military officers involved in interrogations as well as civilian contract employees. This supports Taguba’s conclusions from his March 2004 report. Eleven military police soldiers—seven of whom have already been charged—were involved in the abuses, and two Army medics failed to report the misconduct they witnessed.  The senior officers will not face charges.

August 30, 2004

Defense attorneys for Pfc. Lynndie England use the two Pentagon reports released the previous week to show that their client and other low-ranking MPs were following approved military intelligence procedures. The Article 32 hearing will investigate the nineteen charges against England. If convicted, England could face up to thirty-eight years in prison.

Complied by Erin Barnett

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