This artist sketch depicts Salah Al-Ejaili, foreground right with glasses, a former Al-Jazeera journalist, before the US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, April 16, 2024. DANA VERKOUTEREN / AP A US judge declared a mistrial Thursday, May 2, after a jury said it was deadlocked and could not reach a verdict in the trial of a military contractor accused of contributing to the abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq two decades ago. The mistrial came on the jury’s eighth day of deliberations. The deliberations went far longer than the trial itself. The eight-member civil jury in Alexandria, Virginia deadlocked on accusations the civilian interrogators who were supplied to the US Army at Abu Ghraib in 2003 and 2004 had conspired with soldiers there to abuse detainees as a means of “softening them up” for questioning. The trial was the first time a US jury heard claims brought by Abu Ghraib survivors in the 20 years since photos of detainee mistreatment – accompanied by smiling US soldiers inflicting the abuse – shocked …