Moderated by Los Angeles Times Columnist Meghan Daum

One year into the Iraq war, photographs of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib appeared on national television and print outlets around the world. The images of leashed, hooded and humiliated captives shocked the world, turning public opinion quickly against the war and launching the country into a roiling debate about morality and American values. At a time when debating what counts as torture has become a political pastime–when the gut, we-know-it-when-we-see-it reactions to the photographs have been forgotten–Errol Morris, director of the Academy Award-winning “Fog of War”, revisits the photographs in his new film, “Standard Operating Procedure” (to be released by Sony Pictures Classics on April 25). Morris visits Zócalo to discuss why the photographs were taken, what happened outside the frame, and how a small group of soldiers shouldered the blame for their superiors’ poor decisions–decisions that still shape the war and U.S. policy on torture.