I believe they most certainly were.
Not according to Maj Gen Taguba's official report. Most of the prisoners in Abu Ghraib were common criminals in prison for ordinary crimes like theft, rape, and mugging.
They sure were not captured wearing uniforms.
Still, this guy hurt our cause for no good reason. It is not as if he was trying to get important information out of the people he abused.
I seem to recall hearing on one of the talk shows from one of the soldiers who was there at the time, that one of the perps in the photos had been arrested for the rape of a mother and her daughters-one of them only about 8 years old.
It seems that the son/brother had come to the authorities several times begging for help and they were reluctant to come-fearing a set-up. Finally, they went with him.
On arriving at the young man's home they found his little sister in very bad shape as well as on older one and the mother.
The perp was passed out upstairs.
That's just ONE of those poor, "abused" prisoners of Abu Grebe!
Mistake was not offing him on the spot. IMHO