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

The photographs perviously mentioned would eventually backfire an all the M.P.s involved in the abuse. Specialist Darby was trying to collect memorabilia from historic sites to bring back home when he discovered a disc of photos from Grainer that contained all evidence of the abuse. He immediately reported it to the CID, which immediately launched an investigation of the Abu Ghraib prison and the tactics of intelligence extraction used there.

What happened next could only be described as explosive. The photographs were leaked to the American news media, and suddenly the photographs were plastered on every news broadcast and web site. Everywhere someone looked, the images of American military torture were facing them. This instantly spread overseas and was broadcasted internationally for the entire world to see-including Iraqi civilians. Protests broke out all over the country over the torture their citizens were suffering in Abu Ghraib. These citizens, most of which were innocent and held without charge, were not apart of al-Qaeda, and were therefore protected by the Geneva Conventions as international law abiding citizens under the protection of Iraq. They were not proven to be acting as unlawful militants, and should not have been left at the mercy of the United States' disregard of international laws.

One of the strangest synonyms given to the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal was that the night shift acted in an "Animal House" behavior, suggesting that the M.P.s were acting on their own accord in such a detrimental manner, instead of executing orders received from a higher ranked official. However, many experts proved that the tactics used in evidence of the photographs were legitimate military extraction techniques that could not have been improvised by the uneducated soldiers. One photograph in particular depicted a detainee, standing on a box with his arms outstretched and a hood over his head, was a tactic used in Vietnam and invented by the Brazilian military. The fact that no novice soldiers could come up with these methods on their own proved that someone of a higher rank was providing the M.P.s with strategies and techniques for maximum effect. Karpinski was the only high ranking official to receive punishment for this condemnation, even though the excruciating abuse happened after the M.P.s left her authority and began receiving orders from Military Intelligence.

The entire situation of Abu Ghraib prison and the abuse that was suffered there has forever tainted the reputation of the United States, and unraveled the history of humanity the country had cultivated since its inception in the 1700s. Everything the country had ever stood for, worked for, and achieved, was now obliterated in the face of this scandal.