Working through the quite detailed and long sadism and torture report Inquiry Into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody" (pdf) the most significant admission to me is the footnote 1219 on page 158:
Notwithstanding differences between the legal status of detainees held in Iraq and those in Afghanistan, the [Special Mission Unit Task Force] used the same interrogation approaches in both theaters. In addition, the [Combined Joint Task Force 7] interrogation policies included techniques that had been authorized for use at GTMO. By September 2003, interrogation approaches initially authorized for a war in which the President had determined that the protections of the Geneva Conventions did not apply, would be authorized for all U.S. forces in Iraq.
Abu Ghraib was not an accident but official policy promoted from the very top and many people knew that.
The report explains in detail how this developed. When the techniques used were taken from the SERE interrogation resistance training and pushed onto Guantanamo as "battle laboratory" and from there to Afghanistan and Iraq, a lot of people, mostly in lower positions, waved red flags and protested. But they were always pushed back from higher ups with the ultimate pressure coming from the White House and Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz. In between there were a lot of banality of evil cowards eager to further their careers.
How much of this is still going on in Bagram, Afghanistan, and the various CIA bunkers around the world?
The report also includes several tales that support my stand that these tortures were pure sadism as they had no other purpose than to entertain some higher ups. From page 140/141:
At one point in his interrogation, Slahi was also shown a fictitious letter that had been drafted by the Interrogation Team Chief stating that his mother had been detained, would be interrogated, and if she were uncooperative she might be transferred to GTMO. The letter pointed out that she would be the only female detained at '"this previously all-male prison environment."
On August 7, 2003, Slahi informed an interrogator that he had made a decision to cooperate.After questioning Slahi, his interrogator "congratulated [him] on his decision to tell the whole truth."
Five days after interrogators congratulated Slahi for his decision to '"tell the whole truth," the Secretary of Defense approved JTF-GTMO's Special Interrogation Plan. Notwithstanding Slahi's apparent decision on August 7,2003 to cooperate with interrogators, an August 21, 2003 email described preparations made to implement the Special Interrogation Plan. The email described sealing Slahi's cell at Camp Echo to "prevent light from shining" in and covering the entire exterior of his cell with tarp to "prevent him from making visual contact with guards.
Weekly Reports from the JTF-GTMO Commander in September and October 2003 indicated that Slahi "continue[d] to be cooperative." Despite that apparent cooperation, those same weekly reports stated that that the interrogations were continuing in accordance with the approved interrogation plan. A contemporaneous document suggested that the interrogation may have begun affecting Slahi's mental state.
…
JTF-GTMO produced written weekly updates on significant activities including certain detainee interrogations. The updates were sent to the SOUfHCOM Commander and, according to MG Miller, were forwarded to the Joint Staffand Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. MG Miller said that Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz was interested in the reports and his office would occasionally call GTMO to inquire about particular detainees.