Iraq jail abuse 'leader' guilty

The soldier accused of being the ringleader in the abuse of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail has been found guilty of mistreating detainees.

Charles Graner, 36, was convicted by a military jury in Texas after a four-day trial at which he was said to have assaulted prisoners for fun.

The 36-year-old had pleaded not guilty to five charges, with the defence arguing that he was following orders.

He now faces up to 15 years in a military prison.

Just following orders. And according to his superiors he and his cronies were doing it for their perverted fun. Around and around it goes.

Last night I finished a biography about Heinrich Himmler - oh he of Nazi fame. And the above scenario was played out in the pages nearly word for word. Hitler/Bush expresses an opinion regarding a situation, such as torture (of Jews/terrorists) is acceptable but the opinion is not conveyed by paper, email, or something traceable. The underlings Himmler/Rumsfeld snap right to it and pass the word on down. Torture is acceptable. The peons at the bottom get the go-ahead and torture, kill, maim.

But they get caught in the public spotlight. And the peons say "We were following orders!" and their Superiors say "We gave no such order...". But what is unsaid by the Superiors is "..that you can prove in court. We covered our asses." Himmler said that he was not responsible for the excesses of his SS men while at the same time saying he was fully responsible for the SS men as he was their leader. Substitute Bush or Rumsfeld for Himmler.

So while the peons look at years in jail their Superiors remain free. However if the Superiors honestly didn't give such orders then they didn't do their jobs by keeping tabs on things and should be fired for incompetence. But knowing what we know of the Bush Administration and the people involved I'd say the odds are that the Administration knew of and supported the use of torture.

Do ya think?