NYT: Iraq Abuse Trial Is Again Limited to Lower Ranks

[DeepModem Mom]

Iraq Abuse Trial Is Again Limited to Lower Ranks
By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: March 23, 2006

With the conviction on Tuesday of an Army dog handler, the military has now tried and found guilty another low-ranking soldier in connection with the pattern of abuses that first surfaced two years ago at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

But once again, an attempt by defense lawyers to point a finger of responsibility at higher-ranking officers failed in the latest case to convince a military jury that ultimate responsibility for the abuses lay farther up the chain of command.

Some military experts said one reason there had not been attempts to pursue charges up the military chain of command was that the military does not have anything tantamount to a district attorney's office, run by commanders with the authority to go after the cases.

"The real question is, who is the independent prosecutor who is liberated to pursue these cases," said Eugene Fidell, a specialist in military law. "There is no central prosecution office run by commanders. So you don't have a D.A. thinking, I'm going to follow this wherever it leads."

Among all the abuse cases that have reached military courts, the trial of the dog handler, Sgt. Michael J. Smith, had appeared to hold the greatest potential to assign accountability to high-ranking military and perhaps even civilian officials in Washington. Some military experts had thought the trial might finally explore the origins of the harsh interrogation techniques that were used at Abu Ghraib; at the Bagram detention center in Afghanistan; and at other sites where abuses occurred....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/23/politics/23abuse.html

[rodeodance]

1. well, good for the nyt for this good headline and story.

[Solly Mack]

2. Didn't help that Col. Pappas was granted immunity from prosecution

and that those with the power to impose punishment, decline to do so.


Col. Thomas M. Pappas, the commanding officer at Abu Ghraib, accepted immunity from prosecution this week and was ordered to testify at upcoming courts-martial. Pappas, a military intelligence officer, could be asked to detail high-level policies relating to the treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib.

Miller, now based at the Pentagon as a senior official managing Army installations, was recommended for administrative punishment for his alleged mishandling of interrogations of a valuable detainee in Guantanamo Bay. But high-ranking military officials have declined to impose the penalty. The detainee was subjected to a number of abuses that mirrored the ones that later emerged in the Abu Ghraib photographs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/11/AR2006011102502_pf.html

[heirs_of_liberty]

3. CIA Mafia SS officers are invariably behind all these crimes...

Since the CIA Mafia SS criminals are 'privateers' without legitimate letters of Marque, in charge of Conservative Christianist political affairs for the MI6-CIA military industrial Cabal, they are apparently immune from both identification and prosecution, leaving lowly grunts who bear the actual responsibility for prisoners of this religious fascist world war to take the blame for the continual incitement and escalation of the Muslim hatred they are promoting against the Jews.

On the other hand, maybe we should be considerate of them, for it is very difficult for these poor corrupt, noble, secret, unconstitutional, criminal, national insecurity manufacturers, military industrial taxpayer extortionists and Christian Fascist Armageddon plotters to surreptitiously arm the radical Muslims and incite them enough to get a good terrorist spectacle going.

Look at Pakistan! Hand them 100's of billions, build them an ISI mafia and even give them back the Afghan heroin business - give them nukes and enrage the entire Islamic-socialist populance and you still have to deal with crazy moderate nut cases like Moshareef who won't let them attack Israel and get the "Judgement Day" show on the road, so we can prove once and for all that our Jesus thingy is the real deal....

Life is hard, than we all die...

[ShockediSay]

4. Runs Downhill

dysentery