From a reader:
Jonah,
As repellant as the new Abu Ghraib photos and videos sound, they at least make it less probable that this goes up the chain of command. I can conceive of officers telling guards to frighten or humiliate prisoners to soften them up for interogation. (I’m not saying that’s what happened, but it’s at least plausible.) But ordering guards to have sex with each other in front of prisoners? That’s the weirdest “torture” I ever heard of. It might reinforce Muslim attitudes about Western decadence, but I don’t see it eliciting much information.