JAG CENTRAL

...I just realized that I have been so productive blogging, and have raised the daily traffic on this site so much (up to an average of 110 a day, from 40 in February), that I am only on page 7 of the 25 page paper I have to get done by Friday in order to graduate. So, no posts until Friday. Hopefully that way, I will be able to graduate on Sunday.

From the AP (via San Jose Mercury News), word that the investigating officer of Marine 2LT Ilario Pantano's Article 32 hearing on charges of murder, has requested a delay in turning in his report to the convening authority. This is a fairly common occurrance. Article 32 reports can generally be delayed once as a matter of course, and longer if good reason exists. The only speedy trial requirement is that the trial begin 120 days from the day charges are preferred. Expect news by Friday of the recommendation to go forward with a general court-martial.

The England Family, A Match Made in Hell (AP)

From the New York Times, Belgium: Trial for 2 In Rwanda Genocide ("Belgium began trying two Rwandan half-brothers charged with helping Hutu militias who killed some 50,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu in 1994 by lending them vehicles and then rewarding them with beer after the slaughter. They are being tried under a law that allows Belgium to prosecute suspected war crimes, even if committed by foreigners in other countries. The two, Étienne Nzabonimana, above, 54, and Samuel Ndashyikirwa, 43, both wealthy businessmen, were living in Belgium when they were arrested in 2002. The trial is expected to last seven weeks and call about 180 witnesses, some to be flown to Brussels from Rwanda."); and Behind Failed Abu Ghraib Plea, a Tale of Breakups and Betrayal:

In a military courtroom in Texas last week was a spectacle worthy of "As the World Turns": Pfc. Lynndie R. England, the defendant, holding her 7-month-old baby; the imprisoned father, Pvt. Charles A. Graner Jr., giving testimony that ruined what lawyers said was her best shot at leniency; and waiting outside, another defendant from the notorious abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Megan M. Ambuhl, who had recently wed Private Graner - a marriage Private England learned about only days before.

To some, the grave misdeeds at Abu Ghraib, where the three soldiers worked for six months in 2003, have become a twisted symbol of the American military occupation of Iraq. But the scandal is also one rooted in the behavior of military reservists working at the prison, an environment that testimony has portrayed as more frat house than military prison, a place where inmates were routinely left naked and soldiers took pictures of one another simulating sex with fruit.

Wait, it gets better... Specialist (now Private) Graner was a real winner...

He was fresh from an ugly divorce in 2000. His ex-wife, Staci Morris, had taken out three protective orders against him, and after he was arrested for harassing her in 2001, Private Graner admitted that he had dragged her around by her hair.

From the beginning, it was a match made in hell...

In Iraq, Private England was disciplined several times for sleeping with Private Graner, against military rules. She flouted warnings to stay on the wing where she worked as a clerk, and spent most of her nights in the cellblock where he worked the night shift.

One night in October, he told her to pose for photographs holding a leash tied around the neck of a naked and crawling detainee. He e-mailed one home: "Look what I made Lynndie do." The now infamous pictures of detainees masturbating, he said, were a birthday gift for her.

Former Army SPC Megan Ambuhl, Prison Guard of Love (AP)

Ahh...the plot thickens... Enter Specialist Megan Ambuhl. From the beginning, it was hick West Virginia trailer-trash love...

She had been involved with another soldier in the unit. But by late December, she had ended that relationship and started one with Private Graner. In e-mail messages, the two dreamily recalled their nights stolen away in the crowded prison cells where the military police lived.

"I was missing u too," she wrote just after Christmas 2003. "When I heard your voice coming up the stairs, it made me happy and kinda nervous too (good nervous)." She reassured him that she would not get back together with her ex-boyfriend.

Ooops... Unfortunately, there was a little muffin in Lynddie's oven...

Private Graner, quickly identified as the ringleader in the abuse, e-mailed his father in early March to discuss the accusations against him, then popped "more good news:" Private England was two months pregnant - he spelled her name Lynndee - and the pregnancy would most likely get them sent home from Iraq.

They found out she was pregnant two days after breaking up.

You gotta love the Army... You separate soldiers from the unit because they're screwing each other, and guess what happens...

The Army moved Private Graner and Ms. Ambuhl, along with four other soldiers under investigation, to a tent apart from the rest of their unit. And they resumed their relationship.

In April, Ms. Ambuhl e-mailed Private Graner an article headlined, "Study Finds Frequent Sex Raises Cancer Risk." She added, "We could have died last night."

OKAY - Excuse me - I've got a question. WHERE WERE THE FRIGGING OFFICERS AND NCOS IN THIS PLACE???!!! Where was First Sergeant Schmedlap or Lieutenant Smith to put a boot up these jackasses? Somebody was asleep at the wheel, and they were probably wearing shiny bars.

On a serious note, the story reveals two previously unknown facts about this case. First, if the plea had gone through, PFC England would have received a maximum of 30 months, which is much less than the 11 years the newspapers were talking about. Secondly, it was Lynddie's lawyer--and not her--that put SPC Graner on the stand. He probably thought he was helping her, not knowing the intracacies of criminal law. PFC England's lawyer was a civilian and was probably not aware of the acute military-specific providence inquiry danger putting this loose cannon on the stand would pose:

Prosecutors advised defense lawyers against putting Private Graner on the stand, but they did it anyway. He testified that he had ordered Private England to remove a prisoner from a cell by a leash and that it had been a legitimate military exercise. This presented what seemed to be a contradiction - a defendant pleading guilty but presenting a witness who testified that she was innocent. The military judge threw out her plea agreement and ordered that the court-martial process start over.

"It's nothing you did," the judge, Col. James L. Pohl, told her, "It's what he did."

Private England turned to Ms. Morris. "Well, he screws everything up, doesn't he?" Ms. Morris recalled Private England saying.

"I have to agree with you," Ms. Morris replied.

From the Washington Post, U.S. to Expand Prison Facilities in Iraq ("Anticipating continued growth in the detainee population, U.S. commanders have decided to expand three existing facilities and open a fourth, at a total cost of about $50 million. The steady influx of prisoners has also required additional U.S. military police officers to guard the detention centers. Commanders had hoped to use the MPs to help train Iraqi police, but management of the detention centers has taken priority.").

From USA Today, these letters to the editor lamenting about how PFC England was a poor pawn in the big game of torture. They obviously didn't read the above article in the NY Times.

From USA Today, this story which reports on the response of military pilots to the conviction of CW3 Rogers (which I told you about here) for the "hot-dogging" negligent homicide of one of his passengers in his UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter:

Some pilots bristle over challenges to how they fly, a retired Marine Corps judge says.

“Hot-dogging is not necessarily negligent,” said Patrick McLain of Dallas, who presided at courts-martial. “You need a person who's bold and daring and courageous. It rubs against the grain to have this sort of nitpicking oversight.”

A retired Marine fighter pilot, Kris Elliott of New Orleans, said, “Anybody who says they haven't hot-dogged as a pilot probably isn't being truthful.”

ANALYSIS: I couldn't agree less. Blackhawk pilots are not engaging the enemy; they are inserting troops who will be engaging the enemy. They are, for lack of a better term, bus drivers. Courageous bus drivers, mind you, for they have to fly those buses into a hornet's nest of bullets. But bus drivers none the less. There is no need for the "top gun" tactics that fighter pilots often must use. You can conduct terrain flight and "nap of the earth" flight WITHOUT excessive bank angles or high g-force maneuvers. Even when attempting to break contact from a firing unit on the ground, high g-force banks at high rates of speed are only necessary for the couple of seconds it takes to outfly the enemy's maximum effective range or find cover and concealment. "Hot-dogging" IS negligent, especially when the enemy situation doesn't warrant that kind of flying.

On the other hand, I also feel that in most of these cases, a court-martial is not necessary. One source in the report agrees:

But serious criminal charges such as those against Rogers are unusual. Aviators more commonly face quiet administrative proceedings that include warnings and temporary grounding.

“As long as they don't embarrass the government or hurt anybody, they'll typically be counseled, and that will be the end of it,” said law professor Michael Noone at Catholic University. The retired Air Force colonel has prosecuted and defended pilots in crash investigations.

A Guard and Prisoner Depicted by Fernando Botero (NY Times)

From the NY Times, 'Great Crime' at Abu Ghraib Enrages and Inspires an Artist ("Fernando Botero, Latin America's best-known living artist, shocked the art world last year when he broke sharply from his usual depictions of small town life to reveal new works that depicted Colombia's war in horrific detail. Now, Mr. Botero, 73, who lives in Paris and New York, has taken on an even more explosive topic: the torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Forty-eight paintings and sketches - of naked prisoners attacked by dogs, dangling from ropes, beaten by guards, in a mangled heap of bodies - will be exhibited in Rome at the Palazzo Venezia museum on June 16."); Navy Outlines Errors Preceding Fatal Submarine Crash ("Navy investigators have found that a series of mistakes both at sea and in preparations onshore helped cause a nuclear submarine to crash into an undersea mountain in January, killing one sailor and injuring 97 others. In a report released here on Sunday, the Navy pinned most of the blame on the top officers of the submarine. But investigators also found that deficiencies in navigation charts and in giving the submarine its routing helped set the stage for the accident.").

No news articles from the Washington Post on military justice. However, On Monday, May 9, at 2 p.m. ET, there will be a live discussion at Washingtonpost.com of Army SGT Erik Saar and Time Correspondent Viveca Novak's new book, "Inside the Wire," which paints a dim picture of harsh detainee treatment at Guantanamo. You can find the discussion by clicking here.