Lies, Damned Lies, And Charles Graner's Defense

So now it turns out that Charles Graner's excuse was that he was actually banging another troll in his squad, at the time others have said he was forcing prisoners into sexually humiliating positions, forcing them to eat soap, having them urinated on by other soldiers, and forcing them to "thank Jesus" for their continued survival. Yeah, we'll take her word for it.

(That "thank Jesus" one may not sound terribly scary at first, but visualize yourself naked and hooded, beaten and bleeding, having some asshole screaming in your face, with the express purpose that you renounce who you have been as long as you can remember. This is the real point of torture anyway -- dehumanization. Some of these guys were suspected of stealing cars.)

The defense maintains that military and civilian intelligence agents controlled Graner's area of Abu Ghraib, and that Graner had to follow their orders to soften up prisoners for interrogation.

Ambuhl testified that intelligence officers directed the prison's guards to rough up and sexually humiliate detainees, and that the guards were praised for their efforts.

On one occasion, she said, an intelligence officer known as Steve told guards to "break" a prisoner known as al-Qaida, who was believed to have valuable information.

That's the other winning part of their defense -- they only did as they were told. Where have we heard that one before? Worst of all is the idea that private sub-contractors from Titan and CACI are given full power of military authority. How is it that we've allowed private corporations to beat and torture people -- sometimes to death -- extrajudicially?

More is sure to come out; the only question is if anyone will care enough to stand up against it. I seriously doubt it at this point.