Charge dropped against Abu Ghraib soldier (Sabrina Harman)

[TacticalPeek]

February 5, 2005 9:45 PM

Charge dropped against Abu Ghraib soldier

By Debbie Stevenson

FORT HOOD, Texas (Reuters) - The U.S. government has dropped the main charge against a female soldier who posed in front of a pyramid of naked Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison.

The charge against Sabrina Harman, over viewing and failing to prevent other soldiers from forcing detainees to masturbate, was dropped without discussion on Saturday. The charge carried a maximum sentence of five years.

Harman now faces five counts of maltreatment, one count of conspiracy and one count of dereliction of duty.

When charges were filed in March, she faced a maximum 17-year sentence. The latest dropped charge reduced the possible maximum sentence to 6.5 years, said Capt. Patsy Takemura, Harman's military lawyer.

more
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5519023

[leftyandproud]

1. .........

[banishbush]

7. sheepgoat

Man, I still have a big problem with this. You know that this girl is a scapegoat, she did not get that way by herself. However, she had a human responsibility to, at a bare minimal, refrain from these atrocious, vile, and evil crimes committed. I want the Commanders in charge to get life!

[Solly Mack]

2. "because victims must be aware of abuse in order to be abused."

WTF does that mean exactly?

so I guess very young children, who can't quite define what abuse is, are never abused....gotcha

I guess photographing a child, nude, for perverted reasons, is also not abused...since the child might not realize it is abuse...gotcha

If I cover a person's head and then go about torturing them...they are somehow less aware of the abuse being handed out?

even if I believed that bullshit...

aren't we talking adults? who do know , understand, and FEEL the abuse from being photographed while being abused/tortured in other ways?

You ram a broomstick up my ass, it's abuse/torture....you photograph me while someone is ramming the broom up my ass, I am further abused and humiliated...just because my head is covered, that somehow changes?

If I don't know what constitutes abuse and torture by the Geneva Convention, that means I can't be abused since I'm unaware of what the law says? How fucked up is that thinking?

*the broomstick up the ass is just an example...disclaimer for the literal minded.

[riverwalker]

3. Sabrina Harman

"She is also charged with taking photographs of a corpse and posing for a picture with it; jumping on prisoners as they lay in a pile; and attaching wires to a detainee's hands as he stood on a box with his head hooded and telling him he'd be electrocuted if he fell off the box."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/10/iraq/main616584.shtml

[BlueEyedSon]

4. She is just THE happy camper, no?

[louis-t]

5. I am sorry to say this

What is their crime? Why are these soldiers being tried? The soldiers' conduct at Abu Ghraib and other prisons falls within the guidelines set forth by bush* and (our next attorney general, sadly) gonzales. According to them, this wasn't torture. Humiliation, degradation, stress positions--all acceptable! Bizarro world in which the criminals set the bar high, then prosecute people who don't even approach the bar, while never being held accountable themselves. Their crime was: they embarrassed bush*. What was the first thing Rummy said when this came out? Was it "This stops right now, we will NOT stand for this, it's un-American"? No, I think it was something like "No more cameras."

[Disturbed]

6. Those damn photos!

Those photos were the crime acording to Rumsfailed. btw there are around 1K other photos and some Videos that the Pentagon refuses to release to Congress.

[iamjoy]

8. I Am Kind Of With You

If Gonzales said only stuff is only torture if it could cause organ failure or death (he said words to this effect) then we can't call what these soldiers did torture. We are back to what many neo-Cons said about this being like hazing. But even allowing for our government's narrow definition of torture, wouldn't this still fall under "conduct unbecoming" as part of the Uniformed Service Code? Or would the administration say that (like the Geneva Convention) did not apply?

Personally, I think this was torture. I don't believe it was ordered, I think something went so wrong with these soldiers that they actually (sometimes) found this fun. But I still think they are scapegoats and the administration should be accountable. First, for creating such an environment where our fine young men and women could act in such a despicable manner and second, it has to do with accountability going to the highest levels. But then, this administration knows nothing about accountability.

[noamnety]

9. No charges of sexual assault?

All these people ought to get that, and get tracked as sex offenders.

[90-percent]

10. torture

I'm proud that being an American now stands for supporting torture.

That should get the World to respect our divine principles even more!

-85%

[tabasco]

11. I'm hoping she does some jail time on the other charges.

Dishonorable discharge, etc.

[beanball]

12. The enlisted

get the shaft,while the officers get medals and promotions,thats fair come on you dupes enlist.

[beanball]

13. is that dupes or dopes?

[VegasWolf]

14. She looked kinda cute in a couple of those poses. was she the one

wearing the thong? How come we don't have pictures of that!