The next logical development: Abu Ghraib guards want to appeal their conviction

[lunatica]

If they get to appeal the evidenced that was withheld at their trials will come out.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6207484.ece

Abu Ghraib US prison guards were scapegoats for Bush’ lawyers claim
Charles Graner plans to appeal against his conviction for abusing prisoners

Prison guards jailed for abusing inmates at the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq are planning to appeal against their convictions on the ground that recently released CIA torture memos prove that they were scapegoats for the Bush Administration.

The photographs of prisoner abuse at the Baghdad jail in 2004 sparked worldwide outrage but the previous administration, from President Bush down, blamed the incident on a few low-ranking “bad apples” who were acting on their own.

The decision by President Obama to release the memos showed that the harsh interrogation tactics were approved and authorised at the highest levels of the White House.

Some of the guards who were convicted of abuse want to return to court and argue that the previous administration sanctioned the abuse but withheld its role from their trials.

The latest reaction to the released memos came as it emerged that the two psychologists hired by the CIA to craft the techniques that were used on terror suspects were paid $1,000 (£673) a day. Neither had carried out nor overseen an interrogation.

Twelve guards at Abu Ghraib were convicted on charges related to the abuse, which included attaching leads to naked prisoners, terrifying them with dogs, beatings and slamming them into walls. The wall-slamming was a technique authorised by Justice Department officials at the time, who also said that the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding was not considered to be torture.

Charles Gittins, a lawyer who represents Charles Graner, the ringleader of the guards who is serving a ten-year sentence, said that the memos proved his long-held contention that Graner and the other defendants, including his former lover Lynndie England, could never have invented tactics such as stress positions and the use of dogs on their own.

more at the link....

[lunatica]

1. This is an important development

[hwmnbn]

2. Yep, let's pull on this string....

There are low level grunts doing hard time, put there by the silence of those who sanctioned their actions. This development is another drip, drip, drip into the american consciousness of how messed up and cunning the last administration really was.

The big political dogs threw these military personnel under the bus to save their own asses.