Notable Military Scandals in History

Abu Ghraib Torture and Prisoner Abuse

Image source

Numerous accounts of Iraqi prison abuse scandals began emerging just a few months following the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, the best known of which took place at the Abu Ghraib prison. The abuse became public knowledge in April 2004 when 60 Minutes II TV news and The New Yorker magazine reported on the story complete with graphic images depicting torture, sodomy, homicide and various forms of humiliation of Iraqi inmates by US military personnel. Subequent criminal investigation led to the removal of seventeen soldiers and officers from duty, a majority of whom, most notably Specialist Charles Graner and his former fiancée Specialist Lynndie England, were found guilty in courts marshall, sentenced to prison and/or dishonorably discharged from the army.

Somalia Affair

Image source

In 1993, gruesome photographs of a 16-year-old Somali boy Shidane Arone being beaten to his death shocked the Canadian public and the world in what became known as the Somalia Affair. The crime, which was committed by two Canadian soldiers participating in the United Nations peacekeeping efforts in Somalia, revealed serious problems in discipline and leadership among the ranks of the Canadian Airborne regiment that went beyond the pair involved. The government decision to cut short its inquiry and persistent allegations of cover-up to protect senior officers resulted in the dissolution of the regiment, extensively damaging the morale and international reputation of Canadian Armed Forces.

Dreyfus Affair

Image source

The Dreyfus Affair was a scandal that deeply divided French society at the end of the 19th century. It involved a Jewish army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, who in 1894 was convicted of treason for selling military secrets to Germany and sentenced to life imprisonment in Devil’s Island, a penal colony off French Guiana. Four years later, the military courts acquitted French Major Ferdinand Esterhazy despite new evidences proving that he had carried out the crime for which Dreyfus was imprisoned. In a campaign to sway public opinion in Dreyfus’ favor, Emile Zola published an open letter entitled “J’accuse,” accusing the highest levels of the French Army of obstruction of justice and anti-Semitism. The case against Dreyfus collapsed when Esterhazy eventually confessed to falsifying the evidence against him. Dreyfus was pardoned by President of the Republic but it was not until 1906 that he was fully exonerated of all charges and reinstated in the army.