The trial is scheduled to begin tomorrow, April 15, at the US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, and will be the first time that Abu Ghraib survivors are able to bring their claims of torture to a US jury.

Retired Army Gen. Antonio Taguba, who led an investigation into the scandal, is among those expected to testify. "Abu Ghraib emerged from a structure developed by senior officials in the Bush White House and by those who thought it was necessary to blindly advance the Bush administration's goals," he said at the time.

Taguba singled out John Yoo for legal memoranda that produced, in Taguba's words, "despicable torture and abuse." "Abu Ghraib was not just happenstance. It was a morbid consequence of a policy that emanated from the Office of Legal Counsel and the Justice Department."