Iraq Abuse Trial Is Again Limited to Lower Ranks

With the conviction on Tuesday of an Army dog handler, the military has now tried and found guilty another low-ranking soldier in connection with the pattern of abuses that first surfaced two years ago at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

But once again, an attempt by defense lawyers to point a finger of responsibility at higher-ranking officers failed in the latest case to convince a military jury that ultimate responsibility for the abuses lay farther up the chain of command.

Some military experts said one reason there had not been attempts to pursue charges up the military chain of command was that the military does not have anything tantamount to a district attorney's office, run by commanders with the authority to go after the cases.

When one looks at Cheney scrambling around to ensure that torture is not outlawed in the US, when one considers the handwritten scrawl of Rumsfeld on documents asking why prisoners are only being asked to stand for 4 hours a day when "I stand for 10", when one considers the arguments proffered by Gonzales, arguing that Geneva Conventions should not apply to the War on Terrorism, it becomes increasingly difficult to buy this administrations argument that torture in Iraq and Afghanistan was caused by "a few bad apples", rather than it being actual government policy.

These people are shameless in sacrificing others for their own crimes.

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