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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Military / Abu Ghraib Update

Abu Ghraib Update

by John Cole|  August 20, 20072:00 pm| 31 Comments

This post is in: Military, Outrage

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Some charges dropped:

A military judge on Monday dismissed two of the most serious charges against the only officer charged with abusing detainees at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison after an investigator acknowledged he failed to read the defendant his rights.

Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan is the last of 12 Abu Ghraib defendants to be court-martialed. He still faces four counts, including cruelty and maltreatment of detainees.

His trial was set to begin Monday afternoon.

Jordan, the former director of the prison’s interrogation center, was charged after photographs surfaced showing low-ranking U.S. soldiers assaulting and humiliating naked detainees at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 and early 2004. Jordan isn’t in any of the pictures, but he is accused of allowing the mistreatment to escalate.

Jordan, 51, of Fredericksburg, Va., has said he is a scapegoat, considered expendable because he is a reservist.

In court Monday morning, the prosecutor, Lt. Col. John P. Tracy, announced that the investigator, Maj. Gen. George Fay, had contacted prosecutors Sunday to say that he ”misspoke” when he testified during a pretrial hearing that he advised Jordan of his rights during an interview in 2004.

The fact that the people who intentionally put these policies in place are, for the most part (Rumsfeld excluded), still running the show or have either been promoted or retired peacefully is a source of unending frustration.

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31Comments

  1. 1.

    Zifnab

    August 20, 2007 at 2:14 pm

    A military judge on Monday dismissed two of the most serious charges against the only officer charged with abusing detainees at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison after an investigator acknowledged he failed to read the defendant his rights.

    Give me a fucking break. Terror suspects can get waterboarded on suspicions of evidence their not allowed to see? US Contractors get off because they weren’t merandized? Call me batshit fucking loco, but last I checked habeus corpus are explicitly in the Constitution. Meranda Rights, not so much.

    This is the biggest load of bull crap I’ve ever heard.

  2. 2.

    Punchy

    August 20, 2007 at 2:19 pm

    the investigator, Maj. Gen. George Fay, had contacted prosecutors Sunday to say that he ‘’misspoke’’ when he testified during a pretrial hearing that he advised Jordan of his rights during an interview in 2004.

    I’m so fuckin sick of seeing “misspoke” when LYING is the appriopriate word. This is perjury if he was under oath, which “testified” tends to imply.

  3. 3.

    Jake

    August 20, 2007 at 2:22 pm

    The Fight for Hearts and Minds (TM) continues!

    The judge, Army Col. Stephen R. Henley, granted the government’s motion to dismiss two charges that were based on those statements: making a false official statement, punishable by up to five years in prison, and obstruction of justice, punishable by up to three years.

    Jordan is charged with failure to obey a regulation, punishable by up to two years in prison; cruelty and maltreatment of detainees, punishable by up to one year; and dereliction of duty, which carries a maximum prison sentence of six months.

    Gee. Call me a lefty Osama-hugger but I think maltreatment of detainees should carry a heftier punishment.

    As for him getting of on a technicality. Yep it sucks, but it happens. Too bad we can’t give Fay a kick on the leg.

  4. 4.

    Barry

    August 20, 2007 at 3:10 pm

    Wow, a general somehow caused the guy to go free. What an unfortunate accident. Riiiiiiiiiiight.

  5. 5.

    Wilfred

    August 20, 2007 at 3:55 pm

    Okay, this guy is accused of:

    cruelty and maltreatment of detainees, punishable by up to one year

    While this guy is accused of mistreating a dog:

    The offense is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, although federal sentencing guidelines most likely would call for less. Vick’s plea hearing is Aug. 27.

    Ergo, a dog has greater ontological status than an Iraqi, which is why Beauchamp’s allegation about running over a dog evoked greater reaction than soldiers murdering Iraqis. I’m glad that’s settled.

  6. 6.

    Dreggas

    August 20, 2007 at 4:58 pm

    Wilfred Says:

    Okay, this guy is accused of:

    cruelty and maltreatment of detainees, punishable by up to one year

    While this guy is accused of mistreating a dog:

    The offense is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, although federal sentencing guidelines most likely would call for less. Vick’s plea hearing is Aug. 27.

    Ergo, a dog has greater ontological status than an Iraqi, which is why Beauchamp’s allegation about running over a dog evoked greater reaction than soldiers murdering Iraqis. I’m glad that’s settled.

    Thank you PETA and the ASPCA. Yes the shot was gratuitous but to them an animals life is far more precious than yours or mine.

  7. 7.

    Bubblegum Tate

    August 20, 2007 at 5:13 pm

    Don’t you get it, John? This dude getting sprung on a technicality proves that the entire Abu Ghraib thing was just a lefty media hoax designed to give aid and comfort to our enemies.

  8. 8.

    ImJohnGalt

    August 20, 2007 at 5:16 pm

    Look, PETA and the ASPCA lobbied to get the laws against cruelty to animals changed. You’re somehow blaming them that the UCMJ provides for lesser penalties for crimes against the Iraqis?

    That’s a stretch, but hey – demonize away. It works for the Republicans.

  9. 9.

    Zifnab

    August 20, 2007 at 5:31 pm

    That’s a stretch, but hey – demonize away. It works for the Republicans.

    Yeah, I’m with Galt on this one. You might as well call the Civil Rights Act a blow to women, or raising the minimum wage an affront to people making more than $7.25 / hr. I know the Republicans have.

    If only Michael Vick had received a liter sentence, Abu Garaib would never have happened. Also, why can’t everyone at Virginia Tech carry a handgun?!

    Don’t you get it, John? This dude getting sprung on a technicality proves that the entire Abu Ghraib thing was just a lefty media hoax designed to give aid and comfort to our enemies.

    No Underlying Crime! No Underlying Crime! No Underlying Crime! No Underlying Crime! No Underlying Crime!

  10. 10.

    Dreggas

    August 20, 2007 at 6:00 pm

    ImJohnGalt Says:

    Look, PETA and the ASPCA lobbied to get the laws against cruelty to animals changed. You’re somehow blaming them that the UCMJ provides for lesser penalties for crimes against the Iraqis?

    That’s a stretch, but hey – demonize away. It works for the Republicans.

    yep they lobbied to get harsher penalties for hurting animals than hurting humans. I’ll dmonize away on this one and can still be a card carrying liberal.

  11. 11.

    Dreggas

    August 20, 2007 at 6:03 pm

    Zifnab Says:

    That’s a stretch, but hey – demonize away. It works for the Republicans.

    Yeah, I’m with Galt on this one. You might as well call the Civil Rights Act a blow to women, or raising the minimum wage an affront to people making more than $7.25 / hr. I know the Republicans have.

    If only Michael Vick had received a liter sentence, Abu Garaib would never have happened. Also, why can’t everyone at Virginia Tech carry a handgun?!

    Sorry Zif, but I disagree, laws with harsh penalties for “cruelty to animals” do not compare in the least to civil rights laws etc.

  12. 12.

    Dreggas

    August 20, 2007 at 6:06 pm

    ImJohnGalt Says:

    Look, PETA and the ASPCA lobbied to get the laws against cruelty to animals changed. You’re somehow blaming them that the UCMJ provides for lesser penalties for crimes against the Iraqis?

    And no, I am not saying it’s their fault I am simply pointing out the obvious that we have laws banning cruelty to animals that carry far stiffer sentences than the laws pertaining to cruelty to humans. Something that strikes me as completely absurd and these laws are brought to us courtesy of people who do believe an animal is more important than a human which to me points out some of the stupidity of these movements. But questioning that and pointing out that stupidity is somehow wrong?

  13. 13.

    Jake

    August 20, 2007 at 6:20 pm

    WTF does PETA have to do with the price of feet? They lobbied to get a stricter law for animal cruelty [applause].

    I think reducing PETA/ASPCA to ‘they like non-human animals more than human animals’ (paraphrasing) is an incorrect summary of their position, especially the ASPCA, but legislators passed this law and grabbed their ankles on XtremeInterrogationTecknikes (TM). If you’re angry about it, [shrugs] but wouldn’t the people who actually have the power to enact these laws be a better target?

  14. 14.

    Dreggas

    August 20, 2007 at 6:31 pm

    Jake Says:

    WTF does PETA have to do with the price of feet? They lobbied to get a stricter law for animal cruelty [applause].

    I think reducing PETA/ASPCA to ‘they like non-human animals more than human animals’ (paraphrasing) is an incorrect summary of their position, especially the ASPCA, but legislators passed this law and grabbed their ankles on XtremeInterrogationTecknikes™. If you’re angry about it, [shrugs] but wouldn’t the people who actually have the power to enact these laws be a better target?

    Angry? Never said I was angry I just find it quite stupid that we’ve done more to protect animals than we have to stop shit like Abu Ghraib. I’m merely pointing out the irony inherent in having laws like that. It shows just how much of a disconnect there is in this country where people pay and lobby to have strict laws protecting animals from cruelty but we don’t have them (or at least don’t follow them) when it comes to human beings.

  15. 15.

    Wilfred

    August 20, 2007 at 7:11 pm

    It is still hard to believe, for some people, that darker skinned folk have a lower ontological status than a zygote, a white man or a four-legged animal. This despite nearly 500 years of White European hegemony over said dark skinned people. When the obvious anomaly of marines being released from custody after very brief periods of time-served for admitting to the murder of Iraqi civilians is pointed out to them, or when mention is made of the thousands of Palestinians languishing in Israeli jails for up to 15 years without trial, or like mention of the thousands of Iraqis currently locked up and subjected to waterboarding and God knows what else for ‘suspected ties to terrorist insurgents’ they make wisecracks about PETA or whatever.
    Well, Michael Vick will face more time in prison for abusing a dog than this LTC will face for cruelly mistreating a dark person or those marines did for killing one in front of his children. That’s a disgrace, pure and simple.

    Today makes 6 years since I left the US and have not been back. I post on this blog because I believe it’s one of the few places left on the ‘trons where decent people still write; I just don’t know how any of you can stand living there anymore.

  16. 16.

    HyperIon

    August 20, 2007 at 7:31 pm

    so….where’d you go?

  17. 17.

    ImJohnGalt

    August 20, 2007 at 7:45 pm

    Dreggas, don’t get me wrong. I also find it absurd that cruelty to animals carries a harsher sentence than cruelty to a prisoner of war. All I’m saying is don’t blame PETA and the ASPCA – that’s not what they’re there for. It’s like blaming the Cancer Society for not funding diabetes research.

    I think the penalty for cruelty to animals is about right. Let’s use that as our baseline, and assume that the penalty for inhuman treatment of *any* human being regardless of skin colour should proceed from there. Perhaps Human Rights Watch should hire PETA lobbyists. Or maybe the press should run some of the more horrible pictures that were rumoured to have been taken in Abu Ghraib so that people can be affected by them the same way they are by pictures of cute little baby seals or the horrors of puppy mills.

    Why the hell does the media insulate the public from having to see *any* of the horrors of war? Show it all! The dead bodies of civilians caused by insurgents as well as the coffins of the soldiers. Let’s see a pile of bloody flesh that used to be an Iraqi after a “precision-bomb” hit his house. By refusing to show these things, nobody has to face the *bare* minimum responsibility of having to see what their vote hath wrought.

  18. 18.

    jake

    August 20, 2007 at 8:35 pm

    Why the hell does the media insulate the public from having to see any of the horrors of war? Show it all!

    Welcome to Reasons the Rest of the Planet Thinks the US is the Abode of Hypocrites vol. 64.

    We’ve never experienced modern warfare on our soil. But we’re really into war. But we don’t want to see what war looks like. Can’t risk some child opening the World section of the newspaper (which happens sooo often) and exposing him to the concept of anatomical study by car bomb.

    Unless things have changed, European nations don’t take this approach to reporting. If some guy gets splattered across a wall, a photographer will take the picture and it goes in the paper. European nations have also experienced modern warfare and I’m pretty sure they’re concerned about their children.

    Is it any wonder people think we don’t have any fucking clue?

  19. 19.

    grumpy realist

    August 21, 2007 at 12:15 am

    Also because Europe has HAD a lot of war all over their territories. And things like car bombing (IRA, Basque nuts–forget their name.)

  20. 20.

    TenguPhule

    August 21, 2007 at 12:54 am

    these laws are brought to us courtesy of people who do believe an animal is more important than a human

    Incorrect. We got here because of people who think other people are less then animals. There is a significant difference.

  21. 21.

    Anne Laurie

    August 21, 2007 at 1:16 am

    I think the penalty for cruelty to animals is about right. Let’s use that as our baseline, and assume that the penalty for inhuman treatment of any human being regardless of skin colour should proceed from there. Perhaps Human Rights Watch should hire PETA lobbyists. Or maybe the press should run some of the more horrible pictures that were rumoured to have been taken in Abu Ghraib so that people can be affected by them the same way they are by pictures of cute little baby seals or the horrors of puppy mills.

    You *do* remember that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was founded by a group of bleeding-heart liberals who argued that children, as chattel property of their parents and/or employers, deserved to be protected at least as well as the existing SPCA protected animals?

  22. 22.

    ATS

    August 21, 2007 at 7:17 am

    The New Yorker topped everything with a recent article on the purported origins of the torture methodology.

    The Intel community will be amused, but not surprised, to see which “special ally” got a free pass You can all put way your Black Scorpion decoder rings for now, and Rahm Emmnanuel’s brother won’t be needing the red phone to call Mega.

  23. 23.

    aliceandbob

    August 21, 2007 at 7:59 am

    Perhaps Human Rights Watch should hire PETA lobbyists.

    Probably not until PETA stops giving domestic terrorist organizations like the ELF money to burn down ranger stations and cancer research labs.

  24. 24.

    John Rohan

    August 21, 2007 at 9:23 am

    The fact that the people who intentionally put these policies in place are, for the most part (Rumsfeld excluded), still running the show or have either been promoted or retired peacefully is a source of unending frustration.

    Frustration for whom? Our enemies? Sorry, Cole, but frankly I’m tired of bloggers who have no idea what’s going on in Iraq spouting off on a daily basis. You and many of the commenters here really, really have no idea what you are talking about.

    Exactly how does Rumsfeld fit into this?

    What happened at Abu Gharaib had NOTHING to do with interrogations, CIA, waterboarding, Guantanamo, extraordinary rendition, or any of the rest of that nonsense.

    The prisoners were not interrogated, and it was not sanctioned by Army policies whatsoever (I should know, I was trained as an interrogator, and sent people to Abu Gharaib myself). What happened was that a bunch of ill-disciplined National Guard military police were bored and decided to get their kicks by abusing the prisoners. That’s it.

    These soldiers were not aware of any secret policies by Rumsfeld or anyone else authorizing torture. They didn’t even understand the very public Army regs that have been on the books for decades! For his part, Rumsfeld had no idea what the hell was going on there, no could he know. Only the leaders on the ground (and this LTC may have been one of them) knew anything.

    This stuff, and worse, has happened since the dawn of the US military. I’m fed up with people trying to hang the President and other leaders over this issue. I’m also fed up with Abu Gharaib getting 1000 times more publicity than far worse tortures going on in Iraq.

  25. 25.

    Jake

    August 21, 2007 at 10:00 am

    I’m also fed up with Abu Gharaib getting 1000 times more publicity than far worse tortures going on in Iraq.

    Oooh, and you were doing so well. Unfortunately the, “Bu-but, the other guys are worse!” defense lost all of your bonus points.

    Oh well. Just think of the fun US troops could’ve had with German and Japanese citizens after WWII. Alas for lost opportunities to do slightly less to others because some one in their country did worse unto some one else.

    There’s more I would like to say but I’ll spare John/Tim the trouble:

    I LIKE PIE!

    KARL ROVE IS THE GREATEST!

  26. 26.

    Dreggas

    August 21, 2007 at 11:02 am

    Exactly how does Rumsfeld fit into this?

    What happened at Abu Gharaib had NOTHING to do with interrogations, CIA, waterboarding, Guantanamo, extraordinary rendition, or any of the rest of that nonsense.

    So by sending the general responsible for “Gitmo” to Iraq to “Gitmo” Abu Ghraib Rumsfeld bore no responsibility whatsoever? Riiighhhht….

    These malcontents just picked up on all of these things on their own, they didn’t learn anything from the people sent over from gitmo.

  27. 27.

    John Rohan

    August 21, 2007 at 11:51 am

    Oooh, and you were doing so well. Unfortunately the, “Bu-but, the other guys are worse!” defense lost all of your bonus points.

    You didn’t look at your list of boilerplate responses too closely. That particular talking point only works if I was trying to defend these guys. Please, pray tell, show me where I defended them, or where I tried to excuse their behavior.

    But the fact remains that I’ve seen fraternity hazing that was worse than Abu Gharaib. When you have come across a dead Iraqi as I have, all toes cut off from torture, hands and feet bound with wire, and identifying him is impossible because his face was totally wiped clean off the skull from acid, then you get a little pissed off that every newspaper is front-paging the “torture” of a female soldier pointing at an Iraqi guy’s genitals.

  28. 28.

    Dreggas

    August 21, 2007 at 12:46 pm

    John Rohan:

    But the fact remains that I’ve seen fraternity hazing that was worse than Abu Gharaib. When you have come across a dead Iraqi as I have, all toes cut off from torture, hands and feet bound with wire, and identifying him is impossible because his face was totally wiped clean off the skull from acid, then you get a little pissed off that every newspaper is front-paging the “torture” of a female soldier pointing at an Iraqi guy’s genitals.

    Hmm last I heard people were appalled by what the Iraqi’s were doing to each other but people are more appalled when it’s OUR guys doing fucked up shit.

    As for the Fraternity hazing bit…ok Rush…

  29. 29.

    Dreggas

    August 21, 2007 at 12:47 pm

    Oh an WRT the whole hazing thing, those getting “hazed” volunteered last I heard.

  30. 30.

    tBone

    August 21, 2007 at 3:13 pm

    But the fact remains that I’ve seen fraternity hazing that was worse than Abu Gharaib.

    Translation: I AM A SPOOF.

  31. 31.

    aliceandbob

    August 23, 2007 at 8:37 am

    But the fact remains that I’ve seen fraternity hazing that was worse than Abu Gharaib.

    And that’s why fraternity hazing is banned under penalty of expulsion and criminal charges on most campuses in the US. But hell, why shouldn’t beer-swilling frat boys be held to higher standards than the US military?

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