Rancid food at Abu Ghraib led to riots

Corpwatch details the connection between the rancid and poisoned food served by a virtually unknown private contractor and the riots in Abu Ghraib which apparently led to some of the abuses seen in photos from the prisoner abuse scandal in June.

[The US military] hired a small, virtually unknown contractor from Qatar, to provide food to the inmates.

A shocked Army Major, David Dinenna of the 320 Military Police Battalion, was one of the first to recognize the food problem. In a string of frantic e-mails to commanders during October and November of 2003, he called for assistance from his chain of command while working at the prison.

"Contract meals Disaster," he called it in an October 27 e-mail last year. "That is the best way to describe this issue … As each day goes by, the tension within the prisoner populations increases," he continued. "For the past two days prisoners have been vomiting after they eat."