Abu Ghraib scapegoats?
Published: 04 May, 2009, 12:50
US soldiers Charles Graner (back) and Lynndie England (front) posing with nude hooded Iraqi prisoners (AFP Photo)
(14.5Mb) embed videoTAGS: Crime, Military, Scandal, Human rights, Terrorism, Law, USA
As the controversy over CIA torture in Guantanamo continues to rage, two infamous figures from the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal have resurfaced.
Charles Graner and Lynndie England, along with other troops at the Baghdad jail, say they were made scapegoats by the Bush administration.
They believe their cases should be reopened as government memos show they were told to use harsh interrogation techniques.
Back in 2004, photos of the torture of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib became public producing a violent storm throughout the world media. The US government was quick to say it had nothing to do with this, putting the blame on the low-ranking military officers.
However, once the governmental memos are released, the soldiers will claim they have been given an unfair trial, because the American government did know what was going on in Abu Ghraib prison and in some cases even authorized the tortures in the first place.
Charles Graner is currently in prison in Kansas, halfway through his 10-year prison term. Yet his lawyer says he is now drafting argument appeals.
Graner is said to be mad when reading these governmental memos, because to him they prove that the US officials knew exactly what was going on and the decisions were made at the top.
He said that there is no way that the US reservists could come up with some of those techniques and that is the point his lawyer is currently working on.
At the same time some of those pictures that came out of Abu Ghraib that show the detainees being beaten were not in the CIA memo.
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We always knew it was not "low level" people abusing prisoners. Bush should be held as a war criminal not just for nthe abuse but for the unprovoked attacks upon Iraq. The 100,000 plus deserve justice. Had this been any other country in the world the US would be screaming for war crimes trials. Hey world, We, the good people of america want to hear you screams.