Abu Ghraib and Loss of the First Mover Advantage

Abu Ghraib prison had become notorious during Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s reign—known in Baghdad as Saddam’s torture chamber. In 2004 it became notorious for other reasons.

The United States had invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003, and by mid-April had taken Baghdad and sent Saddam Hussein into hiding. In May the U.S. appointed Ambassador Paul Bremer as director of the Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority, effectively naming him governor general of Iraq. Ambassador Bremer then set about establishing a working government. In September he proclaimed that Iraq was free of many of the scourges of the Saddam era:

The Iraqi people are now free. And they do not have to worry about the secret police coming after them in the middle of the night, and they don’t have to worry about their husbands and brothers being taken off and shot, or their wives being taken to rape rooms. Those days are over.¹⁰