The cases of abuse in the Iraqi prison at Abu-Ghraib made for worldwide outrage in May 2004. This study investigates the American discourse on Abu Ghraib. It offers an interpretation of the controversial photographs and an extensive analysis of press articles and television transcripts (2004-2009) for politics, law, art, popular culture, and the discourse on torture. With this, Werner Binder not only fills in a gap in our understanding of Abu Ghraib, but at the same time delivers an independent contribution to cultural and sociological theorizing.