Iraq prison abuse 'leader' jailed
A US soldier found guilty of abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad has been sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Spc Charles Graner, regarded as the ringleader at the centre of the abuse scandal, also received a dishonourable discharge from the US army.
I’m sure you all remember this. Graner is the chap who, with Pte Lynndie England and others were responsible for those disgraceful pictures we saw last year.
In the run up to the war in Iraq, Bush & Bliar sold the invasion to a sceptical public (sceptical in the UK anyway where the vast majority of people understand that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11) by declaring that Iraq was a ‘clear and present’ danger to the West, through the restarting of a weapons programme in the mid 90’s. As the invasion ended and the occupation began, the search for Saddam Hussein’s WMD began in earnest. The search quietly ended last September and nothing was found. Oddly the US government only formally announced the search had ended last week, but I’m sure this timing had nothing to do with the US election.
The only substantial weapons cache in Iraq was the 370 tons of RDX high explosive which UN weapons inspectors had warned the US was in a warehouse in Al Qaqaa. The US military ignored this warning and the explosive material was stolen. All of it. The investigation into the Lockerbie terrorist attack in 1998 found that about 14 ounces of RDX was used to bring down Pan Am 103, a huge Boeing 747. And the US, through negligence, ignorance or arrogance lost 370 TONS. What a strange way to make the world a safer place.
Once it become clear that the WMD excuse was an empty lie, Bush and Bliar changed their story and we began to be fed all sorts of tales about Hussein’s human rights abuses, of what a monster he was and how the West had a duty to remove people like him. Of course, they didn’t mean all dictators or all oppressive regimes or they’d have invaded Saudi Arabia as well. And maybe done something about Mugabe.
If you preach human rights & justice you have to practise it as well.
I was fundamentally opposed to the invasion. I went on all the marches, wrote to Ministers, preached to my friends and colleagues at the injustice and immorality of it all but to no avail. Bliar is pathologically concerned with his place in history (according to Robin Cook no less) and wars are always a good way of getting into the set texts. Now, if nothing else at least the history books will remember that Britain’s biggest ever political demonstration was against him. Sleep tight Tony. I am also something of a pragmatist though, and once the occupation was as complete as it will ever be I decided that I’d just be quiet and let the politicians get on with it.
Then the Abu Ghraib pictures exploded onto the scene. At a stroke the occupying forces lost any and all moral authority. The only solution became to leave. We gave the Iraqi people their freedom; now let them decide their destiny. Prior to World War 1 Iraq was formed of three provinces Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra. They were broadly Kurdish, Sunni and Shia regions, exactly the same factions scrapping it out today. So why not let Iraq revert back to that? The map of the Balkans is now very similar to that prior to WW1, and ethnic tensions there have been reduced as a result. It would require some imagination and inspired leadership of course, but that may be easier to find in Baghdad than in Washington or London.
I thought it fascinating that Graner’s main defence was that he was simply “following orders”. This may be true and I doubt the full story of the US government’s culpability in allowing the abuses to happen will ever be known. But the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials declared the defence of only following orders null and void after WW2. And who led those trials? Why The US and UK. What an unhappy irony.
Does 10 years sound about right? It will depend partially on what sentences others charged with similar offences get, but I think it’s a reasonable penalty. It was important to show justice being done, but also important that Graner is not made a scapegoat for the whole sorry affair. At least he will not spend any of the sentence at Abu Ghraib being humiliated, or having dogs set upon him.
Spc Charles Graner, regarded as the ringleader at the centre of the abuse scandal, also received a dishonourable discharge from the US army.
I’m sure you all remember this. Graner is the chap who, with Pte Lynndie England and others were responsible for those disgraceful pictures we saw last year.
In the run up to the war in Iraq, Bush & Bliar sold the invasion to a sceptical public (sceptical in the UK anyway where the vast majority of people understand that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11) by declaring that Iraq was a ‘clear and present’ danger to the West, through the restarting of a weapons programme in the mid 90’s. As the invasion ended and the occupation began, the search for Saddam Hussein’s WMD began in earnest. The search quietly ended last September and nothing was found. Oddly the US government only formally announced the search had ended last week, but I’m sure this timing had nothing to do with the US election.
The only substantial weapons cache in Iraq was the 370 tons of RDX high explosive which UN weapons inspectors had warned the US was in a warehouse in Al Qaqaa. The US military ignored this warning and the explosive material was stolen. All of it. The investigation into the Lockerbie terrorist attack in 1998 found that about 14 ounces of RDX was used to bring down Pan Am 103, a huge Boeing 747. And the US, through negligence, ignorance or arrogance lost 370 TONS. What a strange way to make the world a safer place.
Once it become clear that the WMD excuse was an empty lie, Bush and Bliar changed their story and we began to be fed all sorts of tales about Hussein’s human rights abuses, of what a monster he was and how the West had a duty to remove people like him. Of course, they didn’t mean all dictators or all oppressive regimes or they’d have invaded Saudi Arabia as well. And maybe done something about Mugabe.
If you preach human rights & justice you have to practise it as well.
I was fundamentally opposed to the invasion. I went on all the marches, wrote to Ministers, preached to my friends and colleagues at the injustice and immorality of it all but to no avail. Bliar is pathologically concerned with his place in history (according to Robin Cook no less) and wars are always a good way of getting into the set texts. Now, if nothing else at least the history books will remember that Britain’s biggest ever political demonstration was against him. Sleep tight Tony. I am also something of a pragmatist though, and once the occupation was as complete as it will ever be I decided that I’d just be quiet and let the politicians get on with it.
Then the Abu Ghraib pictures exploded onto the scene. At a stroke the occupying forces lost any and all moral authority. The only solution became to leave. We gave the Iraqi people their freedom; now let them decide their destiny. Prior to World War 1 Iraq was formed of three provinces Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra. They were broadly Kurdish, Sunni and Shia regions, exactly the same factions scrapping it out today. So why not let Iraq revert back to that? The map of the Balkans is now very similar to that prior to WW1, and ethnic tensions there have been reduced as a result. It would require some imagination and inspired leadership of course, but that may be easier to find in Baghdad than in Washington or London.
I thought it fascinating that Graner’s main defence was that he was simply “following orders”. This may be true and I doubt the full story of the US government’s culpability in allowing the abuses to happen will ever be known. But the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials declared the defence of only following orders null and void after WW2. And who led those trials? Why The US and UK. What an unhappy irony.
Does 10 years sound about right? It will depend partially on what sentences others charged with similar offences get, but I think it’s a reasonable penalty. It was important to show justice being done, but also important that Graner is not made a scapegoat for the whole sorry affair. At least he will not spend any of the sentence at Abu Ghraib being humiliated, or having dogs set upon him.
posted by phylos @ 01:52
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