Posted by Mark J. Pelavin, Associate Director

By now, we have all seen the horrifying pictures of detainees being abused at Abu Ghraid prison in Baghdad. But this week, as the United States prepares to close that now-infamous facility, and as a major new U.S. military offensive is underway, it is an appropriate time to take a new, honest, look at those abuses. The internet magazine Salon.com has done a consistently powerful job of covering this story. An index of their Abu Ghraib coverage is available.

This week they posted an archive of 279 photos and 19 videos of Abu Ghraid abuse first gathered by the Army's Criminal Investigation Command (CID) along with information drawn from the CID's own timeline of the events depicted. Salon acquired extensive documentation of the CID investigation -- including this photo archive and timeline -- from a military source who spent time at Abu Ghraid and who is familiar with the Army probe. I urge you to read it.

The material is hard to look at it, and hard to read. And that makes it all the more important to do so. The danger of forgetting is all too real.