Posted on 05/28/2008 3:33:36 AM PDT by RedRover
WOW!! What a perfect tatoo - great bod, too.
A Marine Corps staff sergeant is no newbie. Laughner’s actions and testimony sound more like something you might get from a young Lance Corporal or PFC, but not a staff sergeant. Something about this guy’s part in this case stinks to high heaven.
Never get in a fight with someone who gets tattooed with ink by the barrel :)
Good one, boats! If I had to chose a side between those who buy barrels of printer’s ink and those who buy tatoo ink, think I’d go with the tatters.
Thanks for the explanation, brit, about the Chain of Command. If SSgt Laughner was concerned about the evidence, he had avenues to pursue before deleting the photos.
Yes, SSgt Laughner took the original photos of the dead Iraqis. I think Briones and possibly Andrew Wright took a second set of photos later, before the bodies were removed from the scene.
Day Two | May 29, Thursday
Long day with opening statements and three witnesses (three out of 34--this trial could go longer than expected). Tomorrow the start time is 7:30.
SSgt Laughner's testimony was as puzzling as the entire prosecution's case. Laughner claimed he had never heard of the order not to keep pictures of dead Iraqi civilians on his personal computer. He said he downloaded 38 images of the 70 or so he had taken that day. And none of the pictures he downloaded were of the detained insurgents. This supported Lt Grayson's assessment that the pictures had no intelligence value.
Laughner got quite a few questions from members of the panel. He admitted to using a program called Windows Washer on his laptop when he got home from Iraq. His testimony about why he used it seemed a little hinky—I have a feeling this will come up again before the trial is over.
Laughner also admitted that he has not been granted full immunity, and that NCIS had threatened him with charges on four counts (including mishandling classified info and reports on his personal computer) and false official statements. Laughner claimed he couldn’t remember the other two threatened charges, and also claimed he lied so that investigators wouldn’t take his laptop as evidence.
Finally, Laughner admitted that he never sent the photos or a written report up the command chain. He did say he wrote an MFR a couple of days later, without photos, but no one seems to have found it. The only written report from HET was prepared by SSgt Lee Sentano. He sent what is called a detainee target package (regarding the one detainee that Sentano had brought back after the battle that was of HET interest), and even that didn’t contain a single one of Laughner’s photos.
SSgt Sentano was the second witness. Sentano is one of those smart, quiet guys who spoke very well about intelligence procedures. Bolstering Lt Grayson's defense, Senteno testified that he also told Laughner to delete the photos because of policy.
I didn't get much about the third witness testimony which seems to have been mostly about procedure. (I'll have more on him tomorrow.)
Tomorrow's first witness is Colonel Gregory Watt. Should be a doozy.
Quote of the day: "Lieutenant Grayson is nothing more than a fall guy in a botched investigation under intense media pressure."—Major William A. Santmyer, military defense attorney
from the article:
“On cross-examination by Grayson’s civilian attorney Joseph Casas, Laughner said he was, at the time of the incident, unfamiliar with a policy that bar Marines from keeping pictures of slain Iraqis.”
I don’t believe this. With his rank, he should have known this. Heck, we parents knew about the policy. And he was told how many times to delete them before Lt. Grayson did, and then he lied five times? pffftttt
Looking forward to hearing today’s testimony. Thanks for the updates.
It sounds pretty evident that Laughner is trying to C(his own)A now and has been all along. Doesn’t seem the panel is too impressed with his admissions of lying repeatedly, you have to believe they don’t believe much of what he’s saying now. I think military panels being able to question is a good thing.
I've been following these cases off and on; is this true? If so, the prosecution must be convinced they have no case, but are going ahead anyway. If they believed he covered up the killings, they would never offer such a deal.
Agreed. It should make for a fairer verdict.
There is a greater risk to their careers if Grayson is found guilty. After all the abuses by the prosecution and government, a panel is not going to want to encourage similar abuses in the future when they may be the target.
That’s true, according to the defense. And I don’t think they’d risk a false claim which would piss off the prosecution.
After the deal was rejected, prosecutors piled on more charges. Seems like they’re throwing everything against the wall and hoping something sticks.
They will be screwed even more if they throw Grayson under the bus. They will be shunned by their peers and future commanders. Who wants someone who would do something so dishonest in their unit?
If the cops want to talk to you, never go to them and talk to them on their turf; and always meet them in a very public place with a recording device. You'd be amazed how little interest they will have in "talking" to you.
Great updates! So did SSgt Laughner ever explain WHY he put those pictures on his computer and kept them? After just the first day, I’m trying to figure out why the prosecutors would prefer ANY charges against 1st Lt. Grayson.
Window Washer is a very popular, award-winning product sold be a company called Webroot, which also makes the Spy Sweeper anti-spyware program. Over the years these programs have been the winners of many "editor's choice" awards from PC Magazine.
I have both of these programs on my own computer and use them regularly to clean unwanted and old data, cookies, memory cache, and other junk out of my computer. There is absolutely nothing nefarious about Window Washer.
I should add that when you run ‘Window Washer’ it automatically erases (”washes”) the computer’s recycle bin, which holds anything that you have deleted. It sounds to me like the prosecution is trying to put forth the proposition that SSgt. Laughner deliberately targeted the photos for permanent erasure using the ‘Window Washer’ program. If, in fact, Laughner merely ran ‘Window Washer’ as a regular computer cleaning (ie., maintenance) procedure, then the defense needs to bring that out.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.