US soldier jailed for Iraq abuses

[muriel_volestrangler]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3646748.stm

A US court martial in Baghdad has sentenced a soldier to eight months in jail for maltreating and conspiring to maltreat Iraqi detainees.

Specialist Armin J Cruz had confessed to forcing three naked inmates at Abu Ghraib jail to crawl along a floor before making them simulate sex acts.

Cruz, 24, was spotted in a photo taken during abuses committed in October.

He is the eighth American soldier to be charged over the abuses but the first from military intelligence.

Sorry if this is a dupe, but I can't find it in LBN. I'm surprised - it's been on UK news all morning.

[orthogonal]

1. eight months

Eight months?

This idiot besmirches the name of my country and opens a recruitment booth for Al Qaeda, and all he gets is eight months?

I'm speechless.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

2. What did Tommy Chong get? 9 months! For selling PIPES!

This is a fucking outrage!

Since when is TORTURING people LESS of a crime than selling pipes to people who MAY use them to smoke drugs?

U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab yesterday gave him nine months in a federal lockup and fined him $20,000.

As part of the sentence, Chong forfeited his Internet domain name, Chongglass.com, along with $103,514 in cash and all of the drug paraphernalia seized by federal agents during a raid Feb. 24.
http://www.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030912chong0912p5.asp

So - sell pipes, get 9 months in prison plus $20,000 fine PLUS lose $103,514 to seizure along with your business and stock, whereas SEXUALLY ABUSE prisoners in Iraq and get 8 months in prison, busted to private and dishonourably discharged!

[Snazzy]

3. AP Yahoo version: Soldier Sentenced for Iraq Prison Abuse

Soldier Sentenced for Iraq Prison Abuse

1 hour, 4 minutes ago

By KIM HOUSEGO, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. Army specialist broke down in tears Saturday as he admitted abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison, receiving a lighter sentence in return for his testimony against others charged in the scandal.

Spc. Armin Cruz, 24, was the first Military Intelligence soldier convicted in the Abu Ghraib scandal, and his trial came as the investigation into the abuses appeared to move beyond the Military Police who have so far been at the case's center.

"There is no way to justify it," Cruz, from Plano, Texas, said after pleading guilty to conspiracy to mistreat subordinates and mistreatment of prisoners at the grim, walled prison in western Baghdad last October. "I accept full and complete responsibility."

Cruz, who had been assigned to the 325th Military Intelligence Battalion, was sentenced to eight months confinement, reduction in rank to private and a bad conduct discharge.

....

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&e=3&u=/ap/20040911/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_prisoner_abuse

[Briar]

4. I smell a plea bargain

This guy agrees not to say he was following orders (and especially not whose orders) but pretend it was all his own nasty idea, and he gets off with this ludicrous slap on the wrist.

[JimmyJazz]

5. Okay, so he gets jail time, what about

Donald Rumsfeld? Not only is he guilty when it comes to Iraq, he's equally guilty of prison abuses in Guantanamo. Buried on page four in a teeny tiny paragraph of the Philadelphia Inquirer was the news that a prisoner at Guantanamo was released after 2 1/2 years. The reason given: he was innocent. Not innocent in the USA's "not guilty" but INNOCENT of any charges.

This doesn't exactly seem to qualify him as an enemy combantant now does it? Apparently, the US government has been quietly releasing prisoners for some time now because they have been found to have no connection with the Taliban. Mmmm. Perhaps a bit of due process would have uncovered that a long time ago?

My questions are: why isn't this getting coverage (can't journalists squeeze it in with all the Swift Boat coverage) and Why do people continue to support this group of war criminals? If another country were behaving in this way, we would be __________________ (I don't know. I'm too outraged. You fill in the blank).

[Disturbed]

6. Neo Fascists Control Amerika

Rumsfailed Admitted to Violating Geneva Convention

Rumsfailed admitted in public that when CIA Director Tenet requested that an Irai prisoner be sent to a secret Afghan/US Prison that Rumsfailed did so. After four months a DOD Attorney stated that this was an illegal act. Rumsfailed then ordered that this prisoner be sent back to Abu Graib but the prisoner was not listed at that location, also an illegal act. That is two violations of the Geneva Convention by Rumsfailed. Tenet and Rumsfailed violated the Geneva convention, thereby also The Constitution of the USA. Recently it has been found out that even more detainees were "ghost detainees". The fact that he has not been charged speaks volumes.

Does the US no longer abide by the Geneva Convention or the Constitution of the USA?

It is obvious that this is the case!.