.Report vindicates soldiers prosecuted over Abu Ghraib abuses, lawyers say
A newly unclassified Senate report on the US government's treatment of terrorism suspects vindicates enlisted soldiers prosecuted for the abuse of inmates of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, lawyers for two of the soldiers and a US senator said today.
Texas-based lawyer Guy Womack, who defended specialist Charles Graner, said he plans to seek a presidential pardon for his client. Graner was in 2005 sentenced to 10 years in a military prison on charges of conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees and other counts.
Interrogation techniques such as the use of dogs and "stress positions" were "a direct cause of detainee abuse and influenced interrogation policies at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in Iraq", states the 232-page Senate armed services committee report, the most detailed investigation into abuse of terrorism suspects and war prisoners yet.
"If the government had admitted that at the time, then they would have been obligated to dismiss the case against Graner because he was following orders, just as we had said at that time," Womack said.
"They perpetrated a fraud on the court by successfully concealing that this was government policy and it was approved by higher government authorities than those poor MPs on the ground at Abu Ghraib."
In finding Graner guilty, the military panel rejected Womack's arguments that the practices, which included stripping prisoners naked and threatening them with dogs, had been sanctioned higher up on the chain of command. Critics of George Bush have long claimed long the soldiers who were punished punished in connection with the detainee abuses were just following orders.
Attorney Jonathan Crisp, a former US army captain who represented private first class Lynndie England, said the new revelations present a "great opportunity" for an appeal or a clemency request. England was depicted in photographs smiling next to naked hooded Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib and leading one prisoner on a dog leash. She served more than a year in prison in connection with the abuses.
Crisp said the report shows a soldier of her low rank and "cognitive deficits" could not have been expected to understand the distinction between approved harsh interrogation techniques and the "lewd and lascivious" conduct she was accused of.
"It shows that how out of control everything was," Crisp said. "And to expect a PFC to be able to say, 'you can beat somebody up, you can kick them, you can let dogs in, but more physically benign but, we'll say, morally perverse behavior is not legal,' that's an ambiguity that for someone in her position is going to be very difficult to discern."
England has said that military intelligence had instructed the guards, through Graner, to "soften 'em up" for interrogation.
Eleven US soldiers have been convicted in the Abu Ghraib scandal. Graner is the only soldier still imprisoned in connection with the case. The Pentagon cleared four of five top officers overseeing prison policies and operations of wrongdoing. One brigadier general was relieved of her command and given a written reprimand.
The former brigadier general punished for dereliction of duty, Janis Karpinski, said the report vindicates her.
She said that "from the beginning, I've been saying these soldiers did not design these techniques on their own." She said the report is "black and white proof" that uniformed servicemen and women did not act on their own.
Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, today said that abuse of detainees held by the US was systematic.
"In my judgement, the report represents a condemnation of both the Bush administration's interrogation policies and of senior administration officials who attempted to shift the blame for abuse such as that seen at Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay and Afghanistan to low-ranking soldiers," Levin said.
US justice department legal memoranda released this week by Barack Obama show top attorneys in the justice department approved nudity and the deprivation of sleep and food as interrogation techniques.
Guardian
Texas-based lawyer Guy Womack, who defended specialist Charles Graner, said he plans to seek a presidential pardon for his client. Graner was in 2005 sentenced to 10 years in a military prison on charges of conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees and other counts.
Interrogation techniques such as the use of dogs and "stress positions" were "a direct cause of detainee abuse and influenced interrogation policies at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in Iraq", states the 232-page Senate armed services committee report, the most detailed investigation into abuse of terrorism suspects and war prisoners yet.
"If the government had admitted that at the time, then they would have been obligated to dismiss the case against Graner because he was following orders, just as we had said at that time," Womack said.
"They perpetrated a fraud on the court by successfully concealing that this was government policy and it was approved by higher government authorities than those poor MPs on the ground at Abu Ghraib."
In finding Graner guilty, the military panel rejected Womack's arguments that the practices, which included stripping prisoners naked and threatening them with dogs, had been sanctioned higher up on the chain of command. Critics of George Bush have long claimed long the soldiers who were punished punished in connection with the detainee abuses were just following orders.
Attorney Jonathan Crisp, a former US army captain who represented private first class Lynndie England, said the new revelations present a "great opportunity" for an appeal or a clemency request. England was depicted in photographs smiling next to naked hooded Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib and leading one prisoner on a dog leash. She served more than a year in prison in connection with the abuses.
Crisp said the report shows a soldier of her low rank and "cognitive deficits" could not have been expected to understand the distinction between approved harsh interrogation techniques and the "lewd and lascivious" conduct she was accused of.
"It shows that how out of control everything was," Crisp said. "And to expect a PFC to be able to say, 'you can beat somebody up, you can kick them, you can let dogs in, but more physically benign but, we'll say, morally perverse behavior is not legal,' that's an ambiguity that for someone in her position is going to be very difficult to discern."
England has said that military intelligence had instructed the guards, through Graner, to "soften 'em up" for interrogation.
Eleven US soldiers have been convicted in the Abu Ghraib scandal. Graner is the only soldier still imprisoned in connection with the case. The Pentagon cleared four of five top officers overseeing prison policies and operations of wrongdoing. One brigadier general was relieved of her command and given a written reprimand.
The former brigadier general punished for dereliction of duty, Janis Karpinski, said the report vindicates her.
She said that "from the beginning, I've been saying these soldiers did not design these techniques on their own." She said the report is "black and white proof" that uniformed servicemen and women did not act on their own.
Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, today said that abuse of detainees held by the US was systematic.
"In my judgement, the report represents a condemnation of both the Bush administration's interrogation policies and of senior administration officials who attempted to shift the blame for abuse such as that seen at Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay and Afghanistan to low-ranking soldiers," Levin said.
US justice department legal memoranda released this week by Barack Obama show top attorneys in the justice department approved nudity and the deprivation of sleep and food as interrogation techniques.
Guardian
posted by madtom at 11:59 PM
10 Comments:
How typical of GWB to leave some low-level guys who carried out his policy to rot in prison.
Not only Bush, how about the secretary, the generals and on down the line.
Did anyone prove that those convicted were given orders to do what they did? And if you believe what they did was immoral and or illegal even IF they were ordered by GWB IN PERSON, then they still violated USMJC and should 'rot' in jail. As it is, they did a few months.
If you want hypocrisy, look to Pelosi. That wild eyed bitch is leading the charge to convict her political foes for doing things she approved of at the time and is now lying about--- oops, as I type I hear she is now admitting she was told about waterboarding, but wasn't told it was being used.
On down the line. Lets not forget the voters the reelected Bush. If they did not know what he was doing, "they should have informed themselves".
Criminal Voter Neglect.
All the voters knew was that we were not successfully attacked, thanks to those policies and those individuals who did the work--- and if that changes, we'll damn sure want to know why. It gets easy to claim moral outrage when the smoke has cleared. And cowardly. This politicization of national security will work for leftists just as well as it always has. But, we'll have other things to remember in a couple of years that will make 9-11 seem like child splay. And it is coming straight out of the Office of the President.
Start watching, reading and listening with the thought that what they are making an issue today is not what you should be worried about. Commercial real estate is about to do a severe default on 1.3 trillion in loan resets. The conservative estimate is that 800 billion will not be able to get refinanced. Banks go away or, we nationalize them in our new found fascism and 'print' the money. Tne loans aren't in default because we own them and this stuff we call money is just a relic of capitalism. Novelty toilet paper will be made of 100 dollar bills, and the good thing is, it will be imported from China!What else they gonna do with it?
Hey then we could always investigate this administration and their supporters once his term is over. Until we are all in a jail somewhere...
And this little fact. NBC is clearly cheer leading. Their parent mega corporation, GE, called in their business channel execs and told them to back off their criticism of Obama's economic polices. They push this green bullshit constantly, even with product placement in the nightly News! They, owned by GE, are carrying water for the Admin. AND, they have formed a new branch designed to make billions off of the cap and trade atrocity, wind power, mercury gas filled bulbs that produce more green house gases to manufacturer and recycle than they could save in Gore's wettest of wet dreams.
Imagine if Fox, whose bias doesn't even come close to the over the top NBC bias, has been owned by a mega corp that made humvees and body armor---hell, tanks and bullets, too! We are being had by a religious cult that exceeds the Religious Right at it's peak.
When the Japs water-boarded our guys; we caught them; tried them and executed them.
Why is OK to try war criminals when they work for the emperor of Japan and not when they work for the President of the United States?
Please direct me to a genuine case where a Japanese soldier was convicted and executed for waterboarding. Don't come back with testimony of waterboarding done in the course of a trial involving far more harsh treatment that fit the technical description of waterboarding because that isn't what you are claiming, is it? If a Japanese was convicted for vivisection, cannibalizing living prisoners, amputating limbs- as was pretty widely done-- and oh yeah, he water boarded some guys, too, that doesn't make your statement true. I doubt it is true because if it was, the case would have been on the front page of the NYT for 6 months straight.
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