One year in prison?
Jermey Sivits was “charged with conspiracy to maltreat subordinates and detainees, dereliction of duty for negligently failing to protect detainees from abuse, and cruelty and maltreatment of detainees,”
If convicted, Sivits faces a year in military prison.
ONE YEAR? Hey, here in the US, with all the gittin’ tough on crime, if someone was charged with what he is charged with, the possible sentence would be decades, not a mere one year. The Pentagon appears engaged in some serious wrist-slapping, indeed.
Six U.S. officers have received career-ending reprimands
The Pentagon feigns horror at what happened, loudly proclaims they will get to the bottom of it, yet their actions show otherwise – they appear to want officers to walk and a few enlisted soldiers to get minor sentences – with accompanying show trials, of course.
Doesn’t sound like justice to me. Doesn’t sound like they want a real investigation either.
From Baghdad Burning (by an Iraqi woman in Baghdad)
People are seething with anger- the pictures of Abu Ghraib and the Brits in Basrah are everywhere. Every newspaper you pick up in Baghdad has pictures of some American or British atrocity or another. It’s like a nightmare that has come to life.
People are so angry. There’s no way to explain the reactions- even pro-occupation Iraqis find themselves silenced by this latest horror. I can’t explain how people feel- or even how I personally feel. Somehow, pictures of dead Iraqis are easier to bear than this grotesque show of American military technique. People would rather be dead than sexually abused and degraded by the animals running Abu Ghraib prison.
And through all this, Bush gives his repulsive speeches.
Betrayed by images that reveal our racism, Robert Fisk
First, our enemies created the suicide bomber. Now, we have our own digital suicide bomber, the camera. Just look at the way US army reservist Lynndie England holds the leash of the naked, bearded Iraqi. Take a close look at the leather strap, the pain on the prisoner’s face. No sadistic movie could outdo the damage of this image. In September 2001, the planes smashed into the buildings; today, Lynndie smashes to pieces our entire morality with just one tug on the leash.
Beatings were common, says US soldier
Three U.S. military policemen who served at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison said on Thursday they had witnessed unreported cases of prisoner abuse and that the practice against Iraqis was commonplace.
“It is a common thing to abuse prisoners,” said Sgt. Mike Sindar, 25, a National Guardsman with the 870th Military Police Company based in the San Francisco Bay area. “I saw beatings all the time.
Kerry grows a spine!
Sign John Kerry’s petition for Rumsfeld to resign