Inside Lincoln Hall, the atmosphere was considerably more cordial. Dempsey handed Jarecki a syllabus, and they began talking about Eisenhower. Jarecki then spotted the so-called iPod Ghraib poster on a wall above Dempsey’s desk—an image of the famous hooded torture victim listening to headphones—and asked, “Why do you have that?”

“To make cadets think,” Dempsey said. “It’s a conversation piece.”