Posted on 02/08/2005 3:46:47 PM PST by SandRat
An attorney for a U.S. Army soldier court-martialed in connection with the Abu Ghraib prison scandal says he's frustrated that he was not allowed in court to try to link the prison abuse to top-ranked military officials, including the incoming Fort Huachuca commander.
Paul Bergrin, a New Jersey lawyer, said Monday that he will press his efforts to link the scandal with higher-ups to the Court of Military Review and, if necessary, the Court of Military Appeals.
His client, Sgt. Javal S. Davis of Roselle, N.J., pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty, lying to investigators and battery last Tuesday as part of a deal with prosecutors the day before his scheduled trial in Fort Hood, Texas. A former Abu Ghraib guard, Davis received a six-month prison sentence and a bad-conduct discharge.
Bergrin's repeated efforts to show that the military chain of command knew what was going on at Abu Ghraib or helped make the prison torture possible were rebuffed by the case's military judge.
The attorney was hoping to link the Abu Ghraib abuses to Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast. She was chief of military intelligence in Baghdad during the scandal and is now in line to become Fort Huachuca's commander.
But the military judge, Col. James Pohl, refused to let Bergrin call Fast to the stand or pursue any line of questioning other than those directly related to Davis' activities.
"I'm frustrated. I'm agonizing over the fact that Davis has to do even one day in prison when I believe he's not guilty," Bergrin said in an interview Monday.
Fast, who is living in the Sierra Vista area but not working at the Army post yet, was unavailable for comment on Monday, a Fort Huachuca spokeswoman said. Her ascension to the post has been on hold for some time.
U.S. Sen. John McCain and U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe of Tucson, both Arizona Republicans, and Illinois Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin have said Fast shouldn't be elevated to post commander until all Abu Ghraib investigations are finished.
Bergrin said that Fast was putting pressure on Col. Thomas Pappas, a former Fort Huachuca division chief, to put pressure on underlings to break the detainees and get as much information from Iraqi prisoners as possible.
Last August, two military probes concluded that Fast and other senior military leaders had an indirect role in the prisoner abuse because they failed to put in place measures that might have prevented it.
Neither report said Fast had a direct role.
But they said she failed to advise lower-level officers how to properly run intelligence collection. She also was part of a command team whose failure to set clear standards at the prison could have contributed to some of the abuses, one report said.
She was praised in part of one report, however, for improving intelligence collection and saving U.S. lives during the Iraqi insurgency in fall 2003.
Davis admitted stepping on fingers and toes of Iraqi detainees, but denied hurting anyone. He said he could have refused directions from intelligence authorities to soften prisoners up. But then he would have been in trouble for refusing orders, he said.
Davis also said that he knew his actions were wrong and that the abuse was not carried out as part of an approved regimen prior to interrogation, as other accused Abu Ghraib prison guards have claimed. He also admitted lying to an Army investigator by denying his misdeeds.
Maj. David Dinenna, a leader of Davis' military police battalion, testified at last week's sentencing hearing at Fort Hood that Abu Ghraib's conditions were deplorable for thousands of detainees and their vastly outnumbered guards.
"It was filthy, with rodents, rats, wild dogs and trash, and an overpopulation of prisoners," Dinenna said, and food and water were in short supply. But he admitted under cross-examination that guards at other U.S.-run detention facilities in Iraq didn't abuse prisoners though they faced conditions similar to those at Abu Ghraib.
RINOs crying Abu Ghrahib was torture, weasel lawyer crys it's not fair!
Good. I'm glad they are sticking by their decision not to let the defense use the circus defense of bringing in top political and military figures. After all, who do they think they are, Barbara Boxer? That said, if the defense lawyers can credibly work their way up the chain of command, then eventually they will have the right to call the big brass. But only then.
The ONLY thing the soldiers in Abu Grahib did wrong was that they forgot which side the media was on.
Thanks for the ping!
What do they know about torture?
they read about it in a hollywood book.
Bump
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