A new Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse trial has begun. It concerns a death by "Palestinian hanging" ruled a homicide. A Navy seal is charged. But it's not passing the smell test to many observers.

A government report obtained by the Associated Press said that [Manadel]Jamadi died an hour after his arrival at Abu Ghraib in early November 2003. The report said he had been beaten while in CIA custody and then hung by his wrists, with his arms crossed across his back -- treatment described as "torture" by international organizations. The prisoner reportedly died before CIA interrogators extracted information from him.

U.S. Army guards at the prison then packed his body in ice and posed with the corpse in mocking photographs.

The number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq is on the rise again - 14 in the past three days, 18 in the last week, 58 in the last month. These are big numbers. Insurgents may now be targeting U.S. troops instead of only Shiite Muslims.

In the northern city of Tal Afar, the insurgents are said to be in control and the police chief says a civil war has erupted. Journalists are not being granted access to the city.

The AP reports the current total military personnel death toll is 1,643 since the March, 2003 invasion of Iraq. The U.S. seized more than 400 more detainees in Baghdad in the past two days. Here's more on the new detainee roundup.

This doesn't sound promising for an exit strategy:

The ACLU will be in federal court in New York today arguing for the release of documents and photographs concerning the abuse and torture of prisoners held by the U.S. at military bases and other detention facilities overseas. (From their e-mailed press release):

At the hearing, the ACLU will argue that the CIA has improperly withheld memoranda relating interrogation methods and a Presidential directive authorizing the CIA to set up secret detention centers in other countries. Although the documents have been referenced in media reports, the CIA has refused even to confirm or deny that the documents exist.

The ACLU will also argue that the Defense Department has improperly withheld photographs that depict the abuse of prisoners and documents containing Defense Department discussions pertaining to concerns raised by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

More on the ACLU's FOIA request for documents, as well as the documents obtained so far, is available here.

The parents of former NFL Player Pat Tillman, who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, have lashed out at the military:

Former NFL player Pat Tillman's family is lashing out against the Army, saying that the military's investigations into Tillman's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan last year were a sham and that Army efforts to cover up the truth have made it harder for them to deal with their loss.

More than a year after their son was shot several times by his fellow Army Rangers on a craggy hillside near the Pakistani border, Tillman's mother and father said in interviews that they believe the military and the government created a heroic tale about how their son died to foster a patriotic response across the country. They say the Army's "lies" about what happened have made them suspicious, and that they are certain they will never get the full story.

It's been more than two years since we invaded Iraq. How are the Iraqis doing? Not so good, according to this new joint Iraqi-U.N. report. In fact, living conditions are called "tragic."

The report estimates the number of Iraqis who have died since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 somewhere between 18,000 and 29,000. Of those deaths, 12 percent were children under 18 years of age, meaning that between 2,100 and 3,500 children have been killed in the war thus far, according to ILCS data.

It's the children who have been suffering the most:

by TChris

David Corn hopes that the Pentagon's latest attempt to mislead will receive due attention. The Bush administration has a history of misleading the public, and the public didn't seem to care when it came time to vote the liars out of office. Is there reason to think that the public will notice that the Pentagon is misleading about abuse of the Koran?

Lawrence Di Rita, a Pentagon spokesman, claims the Pentagon has "received no credible and specific allegations" of Koran desecration or mistreatment at Guantanamo.

How then does Di Rita explain the International Committee of the Red Cross' claim--which became news yesterday and today--that in 2002 and 2003 it told the Pentagon multiple times that prisoners in Guantanamo had said that US officials there showed disrespect for the Koran?

Reports of Koran desecration have been circulated for two years. The Red Cross maintains that the reports are credible and that they were shared with the Pentagon on several occasions. It's easy for the Pentagon to dismiss every disturbing report as lacking credibility, just as it's easy to blame Newsweek for problems that are rooted in the administration's invasion of Iraq. Misleading is a tactic that has served the administration well, and no matter how often the lies are exposed, the tactic continues to provide cover for an administration that refuses to be held accountable for its mistakes.

Saddam Hussein's lawyer today announced he will file a lawsuit against those responsible for publishing photos of him in his underwear.

"We will sue the newspaper and everyone who helped in showing these pictures," Saddam's chief lawyer Ziad Al-Khasawneh told the BBC Friday.

President Bush said he doesn't think the photos will cause a violent reaction in the Arab world.

"I don't think a photo inspires murderers," Bush told the press at the White House. "These people are motivated by a vision of the world that is backward and barbaric ... I think the insurgency is inspired by their desire to stop the march of freedom."

The New York Times has reviewed the ACLU's newly released documents and reports on the deaths of two Afghans:

Even as the young Afghan man was dying before them, his American jailers continued to torment him.

The prisoner, a slight, 22-year-old taxi driver known only as Dilawar, was hauled from his cell at the detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan, at around 2 a.m. to answer questions about a rocket attack on an American base. When he arrived in the interrogation room, an interpreter who was present said, his legs were bouncing uncontrollably in the plastic chair and his hands were numb. He had been chained by the wrists to the top of his cell for much of the previous four days.

Bump and Update: Sabrina Harman's gamble to go to trial paid off. She was sentenced today to six months in prison, less than what the Government had last offeredl

***********
Original Post 5/16

Sabrina Harman was convicted by a military jury today of six of the seven counts against her. The six counts are conspiracy to maltreat detainees, four counts of maltreating detainees and one count of dereliction of duty. She was acquitted of one count of maltreatment. The sentencing phase begins tomorrow. The maximum she can receive is five and one half years.

The prosecutor's version:

"They were all acting together for their own amusement," said Capt. Chris Graveline. "There was no justification for what they did that night."

The defense version:

The Washington Post reports on the proliferation of Islamic militant websites that track suicide bombers. It finds that the suicide bombers are by and large foreigners....and Saudi.

Who are the suicide bombers of Iraq? By the radicals' account, they are an internationalist brigade of Arabs, with the largest share in the online lists from Saudi Arabia and a significant minority from other countries on Iraq's borders, such as Syria and Kuwait. The roster of the dead on just one extremist Web site reviewed by The Washington Post runs to nearly 250 names....

The Saudi Government says the numbers are inflated. Counterterrorism experts don't believe that's true.

by TChris

The Bush administration doesn't like to quibble about amounts when it writes checks to military contractors. Taking care of soldiers injured in battle, on the other hand, brings out the administration's stinginess.

A soldier found to be 30 percent disabled receives a monthly military retirement check and family health care at military hospitals. A lower disability rating leads to severance from the Army, a taxable $12,000 benefit payment, and personal health care (with no family coverage) from the Dept. of Veterans Affairs. As the number of wounded soldiers has grown, lawyers report that it has become less likely that the soldiers will be assigned a 30 percent disability rating, even when they're incapable of working -- like Cpl. Richard Twohig, profiled in this story.

"I think the Army Physical Evaluation Board is broken," [civilian lawyer Mark] Waple said. "The DoD would rather buy another cruise missile than medically retire someone. Systemically, what we've seen in the last seven years, they just seem to give a zero, 10, 20 percent disability so they are no longer on the DoD payroll. It is almost like a fix is in somewhere."

by TChris

An Army mechanic who was scheduled to begin a court martial trial this week on charges of desertion won a reprieve after a judge ruled that the investigating officer compromised her impartiality. The judge ordered a new Article 32 hearing. TalkLeft's take on Sgt. Kevin Benderman's case can be found here and here.

Benderman, a Fort Stewart armored-vehicle mechanic, skipped his 3rd Infantry Division unit's deployment flight Jan. 8, just 10 days after giving his commanders notice that he was seeking a discharge as a conscientious objector.

Benderman's lawyers argued that the investigator sent an email to the prosecutor, before conducting the Article 32 hearing, that appeared to presume Benderman's guilt. The judge agreed that the email could be read as "an expression of opinion about the accused's culpability."