Judge rejects attempts to have Iraq prison abuse photos quashed

[Nambe]

MANNHEIM, Germany (AFP)

A military judge rejected a request to exclude potentially incriminating photographs from the court martial of a soldier suspected of being the ringleader in the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal. ..

Defence lawyers Jay Heath and Guy Womack argued that it would be impossible for Graner to get a fair trial in Baghdad because of the unfair influence the photographs had on all who had seen them.

"This is the functional equivalent of a confession, almost," said Heath, a military captain. "There are some suggestions that his actions have caused the deaths of other Americans."

But Pohl argued that it would be difficult for Graner, whose face was seen worldwide smiling, arms folded behind a mound of hooded, naked Iraqi prisoners, to find a panel of judges anywhere who had not heard of the case. ..

"We don't really see this as a set back," he told reporters, "Our defence has always been that the actions at Abu Ghraib were lawful," that they were ordered from above. ..

Ride Don’t Drive * * It’s Global Cool

[gratuitous]

1. "Our defence has alvays been . . .

zat ve vere chust folloving ohrders!"

Yeah, that's been a successful defense strategy in the past, why shouldn't it work now?

[Radius]

2. Shoe in

Those guys and gal will all be convicted. The obviously broke the law and will serve jail time.

[jimshoes]

3. My only question is

what form of mental telepathy did the military brass use to make their orders known to the soldiers who are on trial? Are there no written or standing orders on prisoner treatment? I find it hard to believe that these low level soldiers had carte blanche to do whatever they felt like to the prisoners.

[coalition_unwilling]

6. They didn't do "whatever they felt like"

Their abuses were clearly part of a deliberate Military Intelligence PsyOps campaign. Sexual humiliation has long been a taboo in tribal cultures, such as what underlies the substructure of Iraq. Think those privates and corporals came up with the idea of sexually humiliating poses all on their own? No, this was some spook's idea of a way to compel cooperation with interrogation(s)

[TahitiNut]

7. No experience in the military, huh?

It's a system of carrots and sticks, mostly sticks. The primary pressures are to comply and "achieve the objective." The clear "objective" in the Abu Ghraib interrogation block was to harvest politically useful 'information' (valid or not) for the ruling regime. Senior career officers are obsessive about promotions. Their attraction to wartime is based on the increased rate of promotions. Under the Bush Regime, military promotions have been more politicized than any time in recent memory. General Boykin (the Kaped Krusader for Kristian Dubya-arriors) was promoted less than 2 years ago and is assigned to the most politicized function in the DoD: "Feith-based 'intelligence'."

The 'liberalized' prisoner treatment guidelines broke down a wall. While maltreatment of prisoners is a fact of combat life, the wholesale abuse of indigenous civilians in Iraq even exceeds the Vietnam era, imho. When the restrictions on the treatment of 'detainees' were loosened, the wall was torn down without building another one. These people were being applauded by MI and command staff for their "mission orientation" and clearly got abundant surreptitious encouragement.

The enlisted military runs on scuttlebutt, ass-kicking, and back-patting ... not paper-based nuances.

[jimshoes]

8. Thanks for your insight TahitiNut

No, I was never in the military but I guess my real question is whether the higher ups will every be held accountable for allowing and encouraging the abuse.

[TahitiNut]

9. I don't expect to see senior accountability in human rights abuses.

The firewall between enlisted and officers is very high, higher even than the wall between career military and opportunistic (e.g. NG, short-termers) military. (Gen. Karpinski knows that if an officer is burned at the stake, it'll be her. She's National Guard, not regular Army. It's a caste system. She's female. She's disposable.) Authoritarian cultures (e.g. military, corporate, church hierarchies) don't punish those on higher rungs of the ladder in anything close to the way subordinates are punished. When corporations fire managers, they're given all sorts of face-saving perquisites. For individual contributors, it's a "perp walk" to the door. When the military punishes officers, it's usually by verbal "advice" that their career prospects are slim to none. "Up or out" is the guiding principle. There's HUGE difference between withholding the carrot and wielding the stick.

Amplifying this regime-independent propensity are the semipermeable political firewalls erected by the Busholini Regime. The Regime gets the 'credit' and the subordinates get the blame when it can't be laid at their opponent's door. The only 'buck' that stops at the top is one with a picture of a dead President. That's the current corporatization of the Executive Branch - pervasively authoritarian and autocratic.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

11. Good analysis. Ugly leaks are compartmentalized by sealing the door.

The ship of state is more like a pressurized submarine running on a spun narrative of market integrity.

When its grotesque slaughter is leaked to the public, only the people standing next to the leak drown as they are compartmentalized to maintain hull structure.

Bubbles...tiny bubbles...

[0007]

12. Will the higher ups ever be held accountable?

I don't think so! Just like junior's buddy Ken Lay will never see a day in jail. Look at all the folks he sent to the poor house.

[gatlingforme]

4. UGH. what next, ? If they could quash the photos then they could

say the defendant was never there. LOL

[seemslikeadream]

5. Sworn Statements by Abu Ghraib Detainees

These documents, obtained by The Washington Post, are the offical English translations of previously secret sworn statements by detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Some of the names have been withheld from these statements by washingtonpost.com because they are alleged victims of sexual assault. These files are in PDF format.

Some of the descriptions in these statements may be disturbing because of their sexually explicit or graphic nature.

Nori Samir Gunbar AL-YASSERI, Jan. 17
Hiadar Saber Abed Miktub AL-ABOODI, Jan. 20
Shalan Said ALSHARONI, Jan. 17
Abd Alwhab YOUSS, Jan. 17
Thaar Salman DAWOD, Jan. 17
Mustafa Jassim MUSTAFA, Jan. 17
Mustafa Jassim MUSTAFA, Jan. 18
Kasim Mehaddi HILAS, Jan. 18
Ameen Sa'eed AL-SHEIKH, Jan. 16
, Jan. 21
Mohanded Juma JUMA, Jan. 18
Asad Hamza HANFOSH, Jan. 17
Abdou Hussain Saad FALEH, Jan. 16
Hussein Mohssein Mata AL-ZAYIADI, Jan. 18

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/iraq/abughraib/swornstatements042104.html

[LizW]

10. great defense

"I can't get a fair trial if you show pictures of me committing the crime!" :eyes:

[Snazzy]

13. Judge Urges U.S. to Speed Abu Ghraib Case

Judge Urges U.S. to Speed Abu Ghraib Case

Aug 23, 5:39 PM (ET)

By ROBERT H. REID

MANNHEIM, Germany (AP) - An Army reservist charged with abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison said Monday he will plead guilty to some offenses, acknowledging he broke the law and saying he accepts responsibility for his actions.

The military judge in the case, meanwhile, complained of delays in the government investigation and warned he might dismiss charges against at least one accused soldier unless the probes were wrapped up by the end of the year.

Judge Col. James Pohl's anger flared after being told a lone Army criminal investigator was reviewing thousands of pages of records contained in a secret computer server at Abu Ghraib.

...

"And in what millennium will that be finished?" he asked.

....

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040823/D84L68CO0.html