The more revelations there are of detainee abuse by US troops, the more evident it is that the guards who mistreated prisoners at Abu Ghraib were not just a few bad apples, as the Bush administration described them. A New York Times report on Sunday focused on a detention centre at Baghdad airport where FBI, CIA, and civilian Department of Defence officials complained about the harsh tactics by military interrogators. The public deserves to know the findings of the Pentagon inquiry on what happened. The public also has a right to know whether ranking officers are being held accountable. The military could not ignore the abuses after soldiers who disapproved of what happened released photos of the activities to the media. The Bush administration then did its best to minimise Abu Ghraib as an isolated case. But the Baghdad airport centre was staffed by highly trained Special Operations troops. According to the Times, 34 have been disciplined for mistreatment.

The US is paying for prisoner abuse in the animosity it engenders throughout the Mid-east. And US soldiers will pay for it in future conflicts when they are captured and subjected to similar mistreatment. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has consistently been an apologist for and enabler of prisoner abuse. President Bush should order him to resign.