How did the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal become known and what was the immediate result?

The abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib was uncovered by Joseph Darby, a member of the military police. He asked Charles Graner for any pictures he could have to take home, and Graner handed him two CDs. One of the CDs was full of the sight-seeing type picture Darby was looking for, but the other disc contained pictures of prisoners being tortured. He was horrified and turned the discs over to the Army Intelligence at Abu Ghraib, which sparked an internal investigation. Darby’s identity was kept a secret. After the investigation began, there were boxes set up to pick up “contraband” and the soldiers were told that if they put photos and other “paraphernalia” in the boxes all would be forgotten. Once the story with the photos broke in the mainstream media, outrage was widespread. Rumsfeld dropped Joseph Darby’s name when he was supposed to be kept anonymous. Seven low-level soldiers were charged.

The reaction of high-level officials to the scandal breaking was mostly to dismiss it as the work of a “few bad apples” instead of representative of America’s attitude towards the treatment of prisoners in the War on Terror in general. However, the tolerance toward harsh and cruel behavior started at the top and trickled down. Maybe what appeared on paper to slightly push the boundaries looked far worse in reality. Maybe the idea of approving several harsher techniques for interrogation did not take into account that using two or three of these techniques at once could be immensely more harmful. However, it seems doubtful that an administration that had a legal team writing memos that found a way to stretch the boundaries of what constituted torture wasn’t at fault for what happened in Abu Ghraib. The soldiers who were charged and sentenced were scapegoats for the very high-ranking public officials who made public statements decrying their behavior.