JAG CENTRAL

...while we celebrate our first wedding anniversary by taking a trip through upstate NY and Canada. Posts resume 26 MAY 05.

From the NY Times, 2 Officers Punished in 2003 for Abusing Detainees ("Two Army officers staged mock executions of Iraqi prisoners in 2003 and were given career-ending punishments, according to military officials and newly released documents. Mock executions, in which a prisoner is made to believe that his death is imminent, are prohibited by the Army as a form of torture. The details of the investigations were described in documents sought by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act. The Army provided the documents on Tuesday."); Reservist Gets Six Month Sentence for Abusing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib (another SPC Sabrina Harman story).

From the AP (via ABC News), word that Army SPC Sabrina Harman was sentenced today to six months prison. With time served, the total sentence will be 129 days. The maximum possible was five years, and the government asked for three years. Some of the "heartwarming" testimony that helped her get off light:

Earlier in the day, witnesses testified that the former pizza shop manager from Lorton, Va., was kindhearted and helpful while serving in an Iraqi city.

When other U.S. soldiers just wanted to sit in the shade after a long workday, Harman ran around in the hot sun, playing games with Iraqi children, witnesses said.
Much of the defense testimony during sentencing focused on her behavior while at the Iraqi city of Hillah, where the 372nd Military Police Company was based for several months before moving to Abu Ghraib.

Two Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, whose testimony was read into the record, said Harman's gentle treatment was unique among the guards in the part of the prison reserved mostly for detainees believed to have intelligence value.

"She has no cruelty in her," said Amjad Ismail Khalil al-Taie through an interpreter. "Even though she is an American woman, she was just like a sister."

Yeah, so much a sister that she conspired with her fellow soldiers to put naked Iraqi prisoners into a human pyramid and photograph them. Your sister does that to you, doesn't she?

From the NY Times, Soldier is Found Guilty in Abu Ghraib Abuse (the same story verbatim that I referenced here); Andrew J. Goodpaster, 90, Soldier and Scholar, Dies.

SPC Sabrina Harman, Arriving at Fort Hood Courthouse (AP)

From the AP (via ABC News):

A military jury Monday convicted Spc. Sabrina Harman on all but one of the seven charges she faced for her role in abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison.

A panel of four Army officers and four senior enlisted soldiers convicted Harman on one count of conspiracy to maltreat detainees, four counts of maltreating detainees and one count of dereliction of duty.

The 27-year-old reservist from Lorton, Va., was acquitted on one maltreatment count.

Her sentencing hearing was scheduled to begin Tuesday. Harman faces a maximum of 5 1/2 years in a military prison.

1. I graduated. Yeah me.

2. Spc. Sabrina Harman went on trial for the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Deliberations began today.

3. In India, the court martial of Flying Officer Anjali Gupta started today.

4. The investigating officer probing whether Marine 2LT Ilario Pantano should be tried for murder recommended that all serious charges be dismissed, as the shooting appeared to him to be justified under the rules of engagement. The investigator did recommend he receive non-judicial punishment for conduct unbecoming an officer. The convening authority still must decide whether to go ahead with charges.