CHARLES GRANER
[Rich Lowry ]
Remember how that OLC memo was supposed to have led inexorably to the abuses of the likes of Charles Graner at Abu Ghraib? Well, presumably some evidence of that would have been introduced by his defense at his trail. But this is how the Times reports it today:
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His lawyers have argued that Specialist Graner, a 36-year-old former prison guard from Pennsylvania, was following orders to "soften up" detainees before interrogations. But on cross-examination, witnesses called by the defense on Wednesday and Thursday almost all ended up reinforcing the prosecution's case that Specialist Graner had abused detainees for sport.
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There are new damning e-mails according to the Times:
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In addition to testimony in the case, including three detainees who gave videotaped depositions, the jury of 10 combat veterans will consider about 10 e-mail messages, retrieved from a cache that Specialist Graner sent from his Army account around November 2003.
The court said it would not publicly release that e-mail, given to the jury by the prosecution on Tuesday, but a person close to the defense provided copies to The New York Times. They include new photographs from Abu Ghraib, sent to Specialist Graner's friends and family, including his young children, with chatty messages to explain them.
"The guys give me hell for not getting any pictures while I was fighting this guy," said one message, titled "just another dull night at work," with a photograph attached of a bound and naked detainee howling with pain, his legs bleeding. To an e-mail message about a Take Your Children to Work Day event, he replied, "how about send a bastard to hell day?" attaching a photograph of a detainee's head bloodied beyond recognition.
With a photograph of him stitching a wound on a detainee's eye, he wrote: "Things may have gotten a bit bad when we were asking him a couple of questions. O well." A similar photograph is titled "cool stuff." It was attached to an e-mail reading, "Like I said, sometimes you get to do really cool stuff over here," ending it "xoxoxoxo to all."
Sending the same photograph to another friend, Specialist Graner wrote, "Try doing this at home, and they'll lock you up if you don't have some type of license," adding, "Not only was I the healer, I was the hurter. O well life goes on."
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Of course, don't look for these e-mails to be splashed all over the news because they reinforce the idea that Graner--not Al Gonzales--was responsible for his acts of abuse.
If I remember correctly, in the initial flush of hysteria over Abu Ghraib, Anne Appelbaum and Andrew Sullivan advanced the theory that Graner must have been acting on orders because he didn't look guilty in the photos. I guess they would argue that these e-mails prove even more clearly that Graner was acting on orders since he doesn't demonstrate any guilt whatsoever in them. Of course, what they show is that Graner is a remorseless monster.
There were a few witnesses for Graner's defense. One was named Megan Ambuhl, who was also having sex with Graner (who, of course, fathered a child by Lyndie England). She said interrogators told them to point at male detainees in the shower. The Times continues:
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Questioned by the prosecution, Ms. Ambuhl acknowledged that she had been sexually involved with Specialist Graner for a month before the investigation began, and did not wish to see him convicted. She acknowledged, too, that military intelligence, or M.I., was not present for the photographs that show hooded and naked detainees forced to masturbate, form a pyramid or simulate oral sex.
"M.I. did not direct this, did they?" the lead prosecutor, Maj. Michael Holley asked. "No, sir," she replied.
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Sgt. Kenneth Davis also testified in Graner's defense that military intelligence officers were involved in the abuse. That appears to be true, but there is a problem with the idea that they were ordering Graner to do what he did as part of an interrogation strategy. The Times again:
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But under questioning from the prosecution, Sergeant Davis acknowledged that the military intelligence soldiers ranked below Specialist Graner - he was a corporal at the time - and that the detainees were not interrogated.
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