Pentagon Refused Lawyer As Prison Adviser

[maddezmom]

By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Pentagon (news - web sites) officials rejected an Army plan last year to send an experienced military lawyer — who is also a Republican member of Congress — to help oversee the unit blamed for prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib complex outside Baghdad.


That left the prison complex, which holds up to 7,000 Iraqis, without an onsite lawyer to guide interrogations and treatment of prisoners.


The top lawyer for the 800th Military Police Brigade, the Army unit in charge of detainees at Abu Ghraib, later came under fire in an Army report about the abuse for being ineffective and "unwilling to accept responsibility for any of his actions."


The rejected lawyer, Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., and other experts say having had a lawyer at the prison might have prevented or at least mitigated the beatings, sexual humiliation and other abuse detailed in photographs and the Army probe.
~snip~
more:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&e=3&u=/ap/20040508/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/prison_abuse_lawyer_rejected

[mia]

1. "officials rejected an Army plan....

last year to send an experienced military lawyer — who is also a Republican member of Congress..."

Wasn't this news was released to Congess in mid-January?

[maddezmom]

2. sure it was...and if he had been there, perhaps things would be different

today.

<<Buyer served as a lawyer at a prisoner of war camp run by the 800th Brigade during the first Gulf War. His duties, Buyer said, included helping the International Committee of the Red Cross monitor conditions and ensuring guards followed international law such as the Geneva Conventions. He said he also questioned some Iraqis suspected of war crimes.


"The 800th MP Brigade performed exemplary service in the Gulf War," Buyer said. "There was no hint of any mistreatment or maltreatment of prisoners. It never happened. They had excellent leadership.>>

[Tellurian]

3. Information in the link establishes some sort of a baseline:

"In a telephone interview Friday with The Associated Press, Buyer said military officials all the way up to the Joint Chiefs of Staff had approved his assignment to the 800th Military Police Brigade, which has handled Iraqi prisoners of war since the beginning of the conflict."

"Pentagon personnel officials and Brownlee rejected the assignment, saying the Army could fill the requirement another way. Brownlee also wrote to Buyer that his high-profile status could bring danger to the troops around him."

Buyer said he objected to David Chu, the Pentagon's personnel chief, and Charles Abell, Chu's deputy."

"I expressed the importance of having a (lawyer) at the camp," Buyer said. "You have to ask, when you had a qualified officer, and the civilian leaders, Dr. Chu and the secretary of the Army, said no, who did you send in his place?"


If Buyers had approval all the way up to the Joint Chiefs, you have to ask: Was the stonewalling of the appointment of a lawyer at the prison camp, part of a much larger diabolical plan of higher ups, to allow free reign of prisoner abuse without interference from the law?

[maddezmom]

5. and to this day there is not an on-site lawyer.....

[0007]

6. This does has have all the earmarks of a cover-up by the Pentagon

" Pentagon officials confirmed there was no onsite lawyer at Abu Ghraib, but spokesmen for Army Secretary Les Brownlee and Pentagon personnel officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment Friday. Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, referred questions to the Army.

Buyer, a strong supporter of the Iraq (news - web sites) war and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves, had volunteered to go to Iraq shortly after the invasion in March 2003. "

[MGKrebs]

4. That looks pretty bad.

I would think that a lawyer on site would be SOP. But it was rejected?? Hmmm. I would like to hear the rationale there.

[Tellurian]

7. There is very important info here that is very telling...

I hope someone from the Kerry camp investigates Buyer's statements further.

[mouse7]

8. Oh Great. Yeah...getting GOP lawyer Congressman is the ticket

The GOP lawyer Congressman can advise them to beat the prisoners with golf clubs instead of broomsticks. That would have been much more effective. Especially with all the exotic alloys they use in golf clubs these days.

[maddezmom]

9. the point is...no one has been appointed by the Pentagon

The rejected lawyer, Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., and other experts say having had a lawyer at the prison might have prevented or at least mitigated the beatings, sexual humiliation and other abuse detailed in photographs and the Army probe.

[mouse7]

11. and my point was Republican would have just joined in the "fun"

You really think a that ReThug congressman would have stopped anything?

[teryang]

10. Maj. Gen. Nardotti (ret.) former TJAG

...of the US Army appeared on television once (as I recall) as an expert to talk about the law of land warfare early in the 2nd Iraq war. He talked about the rule of proportionality among other comments. He was hustled off and never seen again as far as I could tell. CNN or MSNBC, I can't remember which, must have gotten the word, no expert lawyer commentary on military operations.