The Abu Ghraib Torture Scandal Patsy

Charles Graner Jr.

Graner's attorney, Guy Womack, contended that his client and other Abu Ghraib guards were under extreme pressure from intelligence agents to use physical violence to prepare detainees for questioning.

"It was a persistent, consistent set of orders," Womack said in his closing argument. "To soften up the detainees, to do things so we can interrogate them successfully in support of our mission. ... We had men and women being killed."

Womack described the notorious photos taken inside the prison as "gallows humor" arising from unrelenting stress felt by the Abu Ghraib guards.

He reminded jurors that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was not yet in U.S. custody when the alleged abuse happened.

"There was somebody very important on everybody's mind," Womack said. "Wouldn't it be logical to have your interrogators use pressure to get information to try to find him?"

He also tried to plant the seed that Graner and the other low-level guards were being used in a cover-up to protect Army officers once those photos went public.

Graner is obviously a sick fellow, but are we really suppsed to believe he did all this abuse by himself, without any orders from the top? That he came up with the idea for pyramids made of naked men, among other things, all by himself?

What's more, it's clear from the Alberto Gonzalez hearings that the Bush administration sanctioned some forms of torture for holding prisoners from the "war on terror".

When will someone fucking hold the Bush administration accountable for anything?