Katha Pollit notes in a Nation article called "Show & Tell at Abu Ghraib,", "...apparently even wartime atrocities are being outsourced now."

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You may think that the prison abuse scandal in Iraq was the work of a few bad apples who didn't have adequate supervision. Human rights groups have noted a systemic pattern, however, and now some evidence suggests the White House planned for abuses to occur, and seeked to have a plan in place to avoid being responsible for them.

THE REACH OF WAR: GENEVA CONVENTIONS; Justice Memos Explained How to Skip Prisoner Rights by Neil Lewis (nytimes.com, 05/21/04, $) points out that the Justice Department have been laying plans to ignore international human rights law and American anti-torture laws since late 2001 and early 2002. These documents show the Administration was laying out specific legal loopholes, announced by fiat, for use in avoiding war crimes liability in American courts. Rather than suggesting that the U.S. not commit war crimes, the memoranda make recommendations for claiming that the crimes weren't committed on U.S. soil.

Apparently, Colin Powell provided a spirited argument for complying with the Geneva Conventions in order to have its protections apply to U.S. troops. It does not appear that he was listened to.