THE GRAY ZONE.(the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal can be traced back to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's alleged approval of expansion of a secret interrogation program )

Hendrik Hertzberg on the laws of war

Seymour M. Hersh's first report on the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by the U.S. Army

Seymour M. Hersh on how the Department of Defense mishandled the disaster

The Abu Ghraib prison pictures

The New Yorker's complete coverage of the conflict in Iraq

The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld's decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of elite combat units, and hurt America's prospects in the war on terror.

According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, the Pentagon's operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details of this account last week, said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld's long-standing desire to wrest control of America's clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A.