Here's an interesting of account of some lesser known officials who may be responsible for the Abu Ghraib prison abuse, as well as abuse in some of America's notorious prisons, but for some reason, seem to have slipped under the radar. Author Leah Caldwell posits:

Their involvement implicates the American government and its domestic policy of mass imprisonment and brutalization in the torture of Iraqi prisoners.

First up as culprit is the International Criminal Investigative Training Program (ICITAP), an envoy appointed by Attorney General John Ashcroft.

ICITAP is based in the Department of Justice, but receives funding for individual projects through the Department of State. ICITAP has embarked on many missions since its inception in 1986, from the former Soviet Union to Haiti to Indonesia.

The missions change locations, but their teams have managed to accrue a consistent record of questionable activities while operating under the guise of rebuilding criminal justice systems.

Typically, ICITAP serves to prop up the police and prison systems of American client states. It is a successor to the police training program run by the Agency for International Development. That program was halted in the mid-70's after the Watergate scandal when it became public knowledge that U.S. AID officials were training police and prison officials around the world in techniques of murder and torture, mostly for use against leftist insurgencies. The activities of ICITAP are not new, only the name is.

Among those she names, in addition to the usual suspects: Terry Stewart. Gary DeLand. John J. Armstrong. Lance McCotter. TalkLeft has written fairly extensively on McCotter, here and here and here.