Lawyer: Lt. Gen. Sanchez witnessed prison abuse
This is huge. A captain will testify that Sanchez was present during ‘interrogations.’
From The Washington Post:
A
military lawyer for a soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib abuse case
testified that a captain at the Baghdad prison said the highest-ranking
U.S. military officer in Iraq was present
during some “interrogations and/or allegations of the prisoner abuse,”
according to a recording of a military hearing obtained by The
Washington Post.
The
lawyer said he was told that Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez and other
senior military officers were aware of what was taking place on Tier 1A
of Abu Ghraib.
Are
you saying that Captain Reese is going to testify that General Sanchez
was there and saw this going on?” asked Capt. John McCabe, the military
prosecutor.
“That’s
what he told me,” Shuck said. “I am an officer of the court, sir, and I
would not lie. I have got two children at home. I’m not going to risk
my career.”
The
lawyer, Capt. Robert Shuck, also said a sergeant at the prison was
prepared to testify that intelligence officers told him the abuse of
detainees on the cellblock was “the right thing to do.”
As
the wall of lies and denial surrounding the Pentagon and White House
continues to crack, as higher-ups begin to be sacrificed in hopes of
appeasing the public, as those who ordered torture lose their grip on
power - this is precisely when they will become the most dangerous.
Let’s double and triple the pressure and force some of them to resign.
This would also terminally weaken Bush in the November election. The
stakes are too high to do otherwise.
The photo from WaPo via Body and Soul, who has a heartfelt, thoughtful post on the current madness - including the following.
The
images of sexual humiliation and words describing sadistic abuse have
been horrifying. But a naked, shackled and filth-splattered prisoner,
arms outstretched, speaks to the imagination of someone raised on the
stations of the cross in a unique way. It makes demands on the soul
that I don’t know how to meet.
I
can’t remember where I read or heard it, but in response to the
suggestion that the MPs at Abu Ghraib were untrained, not even aware of
the Geneva Conventions, someone snarled, “How much do you have to know
about the Geneva Conventions to know that it’s wrong to wire someone’s
genitals?”
Why
were reporters allowed in to witness the court martial of Jeremy
Sivits, while both Iraqi and international human rights groups were
kept out? Why did Iraqis not have the opportunity to witness the trial,
and isn’t it understandable that, having been cut off from the process,
they consider the administration of “justice” a bad joke?
Are
we taking human rights violations seriously, or just putting on a show
for CNN? And isn’t this a lousy time for the administration to be
renewing its fight to insure our troops’ immunity from prosecution for
war crimes?
If
we get four more years of True Believer zealots who spit on the Geneva
Conventions and demand immunity from war crimes, well, I’m guessing the
resultant America would no longer be democratic or free.
