Witness: Graner Punched Iraqi Prisoner

[Stockholm]

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) -- The alleged ringleader of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal went on trial Monday with witnesses telling a military court they watched him punch an Iraqi inmate in the face and saw him laugh while forcing prisoners to pose naked.

Spc. Charles Graner Jr. is the first soldier accused in the scandal to go on trial. His case is an important test of an argument put forth by defense attorneys that the soldiers were ordered to soften up detainees for interrogators and had no choice but to obey.

A military guard testified Monday that he saw Graner punch an Iraqi detainee in the face a moment after a notorious photo was taken at Abu Ghraib prison.

snip

Womack (Graners´laywer) played down the photographs that showed naked prisoners stacked in pyramids. "Don't cheerleaders all over America make pyramids every day?" he said. "It's not torture."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PRISONER_ABUSE_GRANER?SITE=WIEAU&SECTION=HOME

[Seldona]

1. Sick, sick, people.

But this is nothing. They were raping children in front of their parents for god's sake.

Not to mention murdering innocent people.

Not that he should not be charged, and maybe I have become hardened.

But I think this is nothing but political theater.

They should be charging the higher ups, and offering the soldiers deals to testify against those that gave the orders imho.

[EFerrari]

5. Instead, theyre going to offer them deals to keep their mouths

shut.

Given that these atrocities were happening in three different countries, (Afghanistan, Iraq and at Gitmo), I'd say that covers pretty much the whole damn barrel.

Torquemada must be proud.

[jamesinca]

2. It also leads in the NYT today

Sad thing is, they are making this out out be a bunch of bad apples, a few enlisted men that have attitude problems. Nobody is pointing fingers at Gonzales, Bush , Chenney, or Rumsfeld. And somebody should just blame Wolfowitz for licking his comb after running it through that greasy hair of his. I truly hate these people.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Central Figure in Iraq Abuse Goes on Trial
By KATE ZERNIKE

FORT HOOD, Tex., Jan. 10 - Prosecutors unveiled new graphic photographs and videos from Abu Ghraib prison on Monday as they tried to portray the soldier accused as the ringleader of the abuse scandal there as a sadistic thug who punched detainees for sport, posed smiling next to the bloody face of a detainee and bragged about forcing an Iraqi woman to let him photograph her naked.

In opening arguments here at the court-martial for the soldier, Specialist Charles A. Graner Jr., his lawyers insisted that he was simply following orders and using lessons from his civilian life as a prison guard to try to maintain discipline in a war zone. Using naked and hooded detainees to make a human pyramid was much like what cheerleaders "all over America" do at football games, the lawyer, Guy Womack, argued, and putting naked prisoners on leashes was much like what parents in airports do with their toddlers.

"They're not being abused," Mr. Womack told the jury of 10 soldiers, "they're being kept in control."

But prosecutors called soldiers who testified that Specialist Graner had laughed and joked as detainees moaned, screamed and begged him to stop beating them.

[ogradda]

3. cheerleaders get to keep their clothes on.

i think they get to leave the pyramid if they want to too.

[Cooley Hurd]

4. Graner is a sociopath and a monster...

Did anyone see his little performance before court yesterday? Before entering the court, he leaned over to the gaggle of media and said, smiling, "today we'll hear what kind of monster I am."

:grr:

[Moderator]

6. duplicatic topic, please discuss here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1139457