Camp Perdition: While some called for the demolition of the Abu Ghraib prison, long a symbol of the brutal torture of Saddam Hussein's regime, the Secretary of Defense announced a "made in America" plan for erasing the memory of this facility's sordid past. Rebranding.

In an effort to redeem themselves through effective branding, the Pentagon has decided to name the prison Camp Redemption, at the suggestion of the Iraqi Governing Council. According to nonexistant government sources, the word "camp" evokes memories of happier times, and resolves conflicts with the International Red Cross, which inspects prisons and detention facilities.

A recent report in the Telegraph outlines the shift in interrogation policy, which raised concerns about the public perception of the effectivenes of the government's current branding procedures in Iraq.

Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who ran the prison at the time of Gen Miller's visit, says that Gen Miller told her he intended to "Gitmo-ize" Abu Ghraib, turning it into a hub of interrogation.

Gen Miller ordered that control of prisoners be handed over to military intelligence officers, aided by contract interrogators such as Stefanowicz. Low-level military police "grunts" were to be encouraged to "loosen up" prisoners before interrogation.

Brig Gen Karpinski said that the jail was not hers to hand over, since it was formally under the control of the Coalition Provisional Authority. After clearing the room of observers, Gen Miller was forthright in his response. "I don't care.

Rick Sanchez [General Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of US troops in Iraq] said I could have whatever I want. Look, we can do this my way or we can do it the hard way."

General Miller, who was previously in charge of Camp Delta at Guantanamo, was relieved of command of the naming and branding team following branding experts' rejection of the suggestion to call that interrogation facility Camp Gitmo Info.

The Administration has commissioned a complete review of the naming and branding of all interrogation facilities under the control of the military, the CIA or civilian contractors in the hundreds of countries where the USA has a presence. A new firm of naming and branding professionals, said to be the only firm capable of handling a branding assignment of this magnitude, was awarded the naming contract without the usual government tender process because of the urgency of this rebranding as part of the war on terrorism. Halliburton Brands, perhaps best known for naming the USA Patriot Act, has agreed to complete the $8 Billion Dollar interrogation facility rebranding study before June 30, 2004.