The Secrets of Abu Ghraib Revealed: American Soldiers on Trial

• Author: Fred L. Borch III
• Position: Presently assigned as Regimental Historian and Archivist, U.S. Army, Judge Advocate General's Corps, The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School (TJAGLCS), Charlottesville, Virginia
• Pages: 188-194

188 MILITARY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 206

THE SECRETS OF ABU GHRAIB REVEALED:

AMERICAN SOLDIERS ON TRIAL1

REVIEWED BY FRED L. BORCH III*

This is an important book. Its authors—a former Army Judge

Advocate (JA) and a retired military police investigator—insist that their

“only purpose” in writing The Secrets of Abu Ghraib Revealed “is to set

the record straight on what occurred at Abu Ghraib during the latter half

of 2003.”2 Since both men were part of the prosecution team that

investigated and then court-martialed the American Soldiers who abused

Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib,3 the book provides an inside look at what

Major General (MG) Antonio Taguba later concluded was a violation “of

the Geneva Convention . . . our own principles . . . the core of our

military values.”4

The book’s organization is straightforward and simple: a

chronological telling of the prosecution of the Abu Ghraib accuseds. It

starts with the April 2004 60 Minutes II television news segment that

shocked the world with its broadcast of graphic photographs.5 It then

introduces the prosecution team6 and discusses how the Army attorneys

and investigators gathered the evidence needed to prosecute the soldiers

* Presently assigned as Regimental Historian and Archivist, U.S. Army, Judge Advocate

General’s Corps, The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School (TJAGLCS),

Charlottesville, Virginia; M.A., History, 2007, University of Virginia, Charlottesville,

Virginia; M.A., National Security Studies, highest distinction, 2001, Naval War College,

Newport, Rhode Island; LL.M., 1988, TJAGLCS, Charlottesville, Virginia; LL.M.,

magna cum laude, International and Comparative Law, 1980, University of Brussels,

Belgium; J.D., 1979, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; A.B.,

1976, Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina. Fred Borch is the author of a number

of books and articles on legal and non-legal topics. See, e.g., FRED L. BORCH, JUDGE

ADVOCATES IN COMBAT: ARMY LAWYERS IN MILITARY OPERATIONS FROM VIETNAM TO

HAITI (2001); FRED L. BORCH, JUDGE ADVOCATES IN VIETNAM: ARMY LAWYERS IN

SOUTHEAST ASI A (2004). His latest book, For Military Merit: Recipients of the Purple

Heart was published by Naval Institute Press in 2010.

1 CHRISTOPHER GRAVELINE & MICHAEL CLEM ENS, THE SECRETS OF ABU GHRAIB

REVEALED: AMERICAN SOLDIERS ON TRIAL (2009).

2 Id. at x.

3 Then-Captain Chris Graveline participated as a central member of the prosecution team.

Id. at 14–26. Then-Master Sergeant Mike Clemens served as one of the lead investigators

for the prosecution. Id.

4 Seymour M. Hersh, The General’s Report, NEW YORKER, June 25, 2007, at 69.

5 GRAVELINE & CLEMENS, supra note 1, at 8–16.

6 Id. at 14–26.