The UK's Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan has been fired because the photos he published of British soldiers abusing Abu Ghraib prisoners turned out to be a hoax.

"The Daily Mirror published in good faith photographs which it absolutely believed were genuine images of British soldiers abusing an Iraqi prisoner," the newspaper said. "However there is now sufficient evidence to suggest that these pictures are fakes and that the Daily Mirror has been the subject of a calculated and malicious hoax. The Daily Mirror therefore apologises unreservedly for publishing the pictures and deeply regrets the reputational damage done to the QLR and the army in Iraq."

Morgan remained defiant:

"All I want to say is we published the truth," he told the ITV News Channel. "We have revealed a can of worms. If the government chooses to ignore that, it is entirely a matter for them."

Guy Womack, the lawyer for accused Iraqi prison guard Charles Graner, says this photo supports his defense that Graner and the other guards at Abu Ghraib were acting on orders from above. Womack says Graner will not plea bargain and that he plans to call several Generals in Graner's defense (WSJ, subscription only):

Spc. Charles Graner etched numbers into this photo in order to identify himself and others at Abu Ghraib prison. Spc. Graner is labeled No. 1 in the photo, which shows Iraqi prisoners bound together. According to Spc. Graner, No. 2 is a civilian contractor for military intelligence, Nos. 4, 5, 7 and 8 are military-intelligence soldiers, and Nos. 3 and 6 are military police. No. 9 is not identified.....If Spc. Graner's identifications are accurate, the photo is one of the few made public so far that depict intelligence personnel with naked Iraqis and not just military police. It could be key to determining who was in charge.

Charges against Graner were announced Friday.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said the seven charges against Graner included conspiracy to maltreat detainees, dereliction of duty for woefully failing to protect detainees from abuse, maltreatment of detainees, assaulting detainees, committing indecent acts, adultery and obstruction of justice.

We assume the adultery charge pertains to Spc. Lynndie England's pregnant condition.

As we reported earlier, SPC Jeremy Sivits is expected to plead guilty next week and provide evidence against the other guards. According to the Guardian, Sivits will claim:

This article in Al Jazeera says bloggers around the world are questioning the authenticity of the Nicholas Berg decapitation video. Conspiracy theorists take note - it raises many questions and points out several oddities in the video. Here's a few:

Net surfers point to the unlikely timing of the executioner's dubbed announcement that Berg was to die for "Iraqi prisoner abuse". Berg was last seen alive on 10 April, when his father Michael Berg believes he was killed - two weeks before the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal broke in the world's media.

The body is completely motionless even as the knife is brought to bear – not so much as an instinctive wriggle. More graphically, some claim that cutting the throat's artery would cause a significant amount of blood to gush out. But little emerges and when the head was raised – not a drop of blood is seen to fall.

His last email on 6 April to his family stated he wished to return home as soon as possible – yet the FBI claims he refused an offer of help to get home....Some claim the face in the video looks remarkably unlike Berg's...The Jordanian accused of the beheading Berg is himself believed to have been killed in March, according to two Islamist groups.

Was he killed first and beheaded later? Was it really Berg? Why was Berg detained by Iraqi police? Berg was last seen on April 9. His body was found May 8.

Update: The CIA maintains the beheader was Abu Musab Zarqawi. One question we have that goes against the conspiracy theorists: If Berg was not decapitated live, what were the blood-curdling screams on the tape we could all hear? Or, was the audio dubbed in later?

Joe Conasen at Salon writes that the group attacking Kerry for his antiwar record (the "swift-boat vet attacks") is backed by a wealthy veteran with major investments in Vietnam who is profiting from his business ties to the Communist regime.

In other Kerry news, Arianna Huffington and former Dean campaign chief Joe Trippi have teamed up to draft a web petition "calling on Democratic candidate John Kerry to inspire more voters by bringing "hope and soul" back to political discourse. "

Author Bob Zimmerman examines Bush and Kerry's records and explains why the choice between Bush and Kerry should be clear. From his email:

Damn Foreigner has a good idea:

I think that the US has to take one large step to clean up this mess...Get out of the business of incarcerating Arabs and Muslims. Any perceived benefit from taking certain people off the streets is easily negated by the pictures that we saw which will inflame those on the outside.

This includes a few things..first Gitmo has to go. Either charge people or release them. We are supposed to be a shining example of freedom and democracy, this doesn't help. The possibility that something like the photos of Abu Ghraib getting out of Gitmo also exists. And quite frankly, lets do this before the Supreme Court makes a decision on this case.

Next, we have to release people in Iraq who haven't been charged with a crime. Holding people because we think they might do something bad is simply wrong and un-American. It violates constitutionally protected freedoms that we should be spreading, not suppressing at every chance. Then for all of the people who should be incarcerated, we should hand over control of the prisons to other people. This can include the Iraqi's themselves, or re-assigning troops in the Coalition of the Willing to those duties. They should have independent oversight by the Red Crescent Society or other such groups.

by TChris

Daniel Scruggs couldn't take the bullying at school, so he hanged himself in his bedroom closet. He was 12.

Rather than pursuing the bullies or the school system that allowed them to torment Daniel, a Connecticut prosecutor went after Daniel's mother, Judith Scruggs. The government claimed that Daniel was targeted by bullies because of his body odor, which they contend was caused by a filthy home. Judith's lawyer says that Judith may have been a poor housekeeper, but she worked long hours supporting her family as a single mother and had little time or energy to devote to cleaning.

Judith was convicted of contributing to Daniel's suicide by creating a risk of injury. To the extent that Judith's housekeeping played any tenuous role in Daniel's death, the loss of a son should have been punishment enough.

Judith was placed on probation today, sparing her a sentence of incarceration. Her probation conditions require her to obtain counseling and perform 100 hours of community service.

by TChris

Josiah Sutton, who served 4-1/2 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit, has been pardoned by Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The pardon saves Sutton the anguish of having to live as a registered sex offender while waiting for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to decide his fate. Look here and here for prior coverage of Sutton's case.

From the Washington Post:

Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade who was in charge of running prisons in Iraq, told Army investigators earlier this year that she had resisted decisions by superior officers to hand over control of the prisons to military intelligence officials and to authorize the use of lethal force as a first step in keeping order -- command decisions that have come in for heavy criticism in the Iraq prison abuse scandal.

Karpinski spoke of her resistance to the decisions in a detailed account of her tenure furnished to Army investigators. It places two of the highest-ranking Army officers now in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, at the heart of decision-making on both matters. She has been formally admonished by the Army for her actions in Iraq. She said both men overruled her concerns about the military intelligence takeover and the use of deadly force.

Karpinski will be online Friday, May 14 at 11 a.m. ET, to discuss the prison abuse scandal. Submit your questions and comments before or during today's discussion.

As anticipated, Prison guard Spc. Jeremy Sivits, is cooperating with authorities in exchange for more lenient treatment in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The Washington Post obtained copies of his statements, and the AP reports:

[Sivits] took photos of abuse at the Abu Ghraib detention center in Iraq, described soldiers laughing and joking as they beat, stripped and sexually humiliated detainees, according to newspaper reports....

He said the mistreatment was not authorized by higher-ups in the chain of command. "Our command would have slammed us," he said. "They believe in doing the right thing. If they saw what was going on, there would have been hell to pay."

The other charged guards tell a different story:

The other guards facing charges have said they acted on orders from superiors or from military intelligence, and all six have declared their innocence.

Sivits claims:

Sivits described Graner as one of the ringleaders. The former Pennsylvania prison guard was joking, laughing, angered and "acting like he was enjoying it," Sivits said. He said Graner once punched a detainee in the head so hard the man fell unconscious. Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II forced naked detainees to masturbate, showing them how to do it "right", and seemed to enjoy watching the prisoners beaten, Sivits said. Sivits said Sgt. Javal Davis threw himself on a pile of prisoners and "then stomped on either the fingers or toes of the detainees," as they screamed in pain.

Lawyers for the other charged guards say Sivits is not credible, lying and just saying what the investigators want to hear to get himself a sweeter deal.

Update: The Washington Post profiles Jeremy Sivits.

Following Donald Rumsfeld's surprise visit to Abu Ghraib, 300 prisoners have been released.

Mohammed al-Musawi, complained that he was humiliated by guards at least once during his 11-month incarceration. "They forced me to take all my clothes off and female prison guards were whispering and laughing at me, " Musawi said while sitting in a room with tribal leaders. He was arrested in Baghdad's Hurriyah neighborhood, for allegedly participating in an attack against a U.S. tank.

Al-Musawi spoke of other detainees who left interrogation rooms with bruises, apparently from beatings."After taking some of the detainees into the interrogation rooms, they would come out with bruises and swellings in their bodies," he said.

At yesterday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, both Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz testified they did not know about the Interrogation Rules used at Abu Ghraib. We published the rules here. Our prior discussion of them is here.

by TChris

President Bush doesn't read newspapers. That seemed like a good idea to Donald Rumsfeld, who announced that he doesn't read them either. Hey, why be informed? Facts, diversity of opinion, the mood of the country ... how could any of that contribute to governing?