The AP reports on witness testimony at day two of Charles Graner's Abu Ghraib abuse trial.

A Syrian inmate at Abu Ghraib said Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr. was the Baghdad prison's primary torturer who laughed while physically abusing him and threatened to kill him more than once.

Amin al-Sheikh, testifying via videotaped deposition shown in court Tuesday, said Graner also made him eat pork and drink alcohol, in violation of his Muslim faith, and that he listened through his cell wall while Graner and other Americans forced a Yemeni prisoner eat from a toilet.

....Asked if Graner appeared to enjoy hurting him, al-Sheikh said through an interpreter: "He was laughing. ... He laughed. He was whistling. He was singing."

I wonder if Graner still thinks things are going well for him. Here's more from the article:

Testimony began today in the military trial of Charles Graner, the alleged ringleader of the guards who abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. His lawyer today said the abuse was acceptable. Who's he kidding?

Graner's attorney said piling naked prisoners into pyramids and leading them by a leash were acceptable methods of prisoner control. He compared this to pyramids made by cheerleaders at sports events and parents putting tethers on toddlers.

"Don't cheerleaders all over America form pyramids six to eight times a year. Is that torture?" Guy Womack, Graner's attorney, said in opening arguments to the 10-member U.S. military jury at the reservist's court-martial.

The prosecutors trotted out their cooperating co-abusers today--Ivan Frederick was another baddie. He got an 8 year sentence in exchange for agreeing to testify against Graner.

Opening arguments begin tomorrow in the military trial of Charles Graner, the alleged ringleader of the guards in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. His lawyer, Guy Womack, says Graner may testify in his own defense. Womack says it is very unusual for him to allow a client to testify in his own defense, but that Graner can tell his story better than anyone else. I'll bet he can.

Womack plans to argue that Graner was told by higher-ranking soldiers and intelligence agents to rough up the detainees prior to interrogation, and that he had no choice but to obey despite personal misgivings.

You see any misgivings here?

Death Sqauds and Assassination teams may be coming to Iraq, courtesy of your U.S. Military. According to Newsweek, Rumsfeld is considering the option of counter-terrorist death squads. Go read the whole thing.

NEWSWEEK has learned, the Pentagon is intensively debating an option that dates back to a still-secret strategy in the Reagan administration’s battle against the leftist guerrilla insurgency in El Salvador in the early 1980s. Then, faced with a losing war against Salvadoran rebels, the U.S. government funded or supported "nationalist" forces that allegedly included so-called death squads directed to hunt down and kill rebel leaders and sympathizers. Eventually the insurgency was quelled, and many U.S. conservatives consider the policy to have been a success—despite the deaths of innocent civilians and the subsequent Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal. (Among the current administration officials who dealt with Central America back then is John Negroponte, who is today the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Under Reagan, he was ambassador to Honduras.)

Sgt. Tracy Perkins was convicted at his court-martial of ordering two Iraqis thrown in the Tigeris River. One, Zaidoun Hassoun, drowned. His cousin, Marwan Fadil, climbed out of the river and survived. They were forced to jump in the river at gunpoint. The jury sentenced him to six months in jail and will keep his job in the military, despite a prosecution recommendation of five years and a dishonorable discharge.

Marwan Hassoun testified that he tried to save his cousin by grabbing his hand, but the powerful current swept Zaidoun away. Marwan said the body was found in the river nearly two weeks later.

Perkins said the man had made a gesture of slitting his throat. He said he never meant to injure or kill the Iraqi by throwing him in the river; and he ordered him thrown in the river to teach him a "hard lesson" about threatening U.S. troops. He testified he saw the man climb out alive. "Basically the enemy would test your resolve. ... I didn't want them to think we were soft or weak," said Perkins, who has 14 years of military service.

The enemy? These were two young men whose truck, filled with bathroom equipment, had broken down at night.

Update: The jury of ten has been seated. All men, four officers and six enlisted men.

Charles Graner is scheduled for trial today in Fort Hood, Texas on abuse charges stemming from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. He is considered a ringleader. He is also the father of Lynndie England's baby. In civilian life, he was a Pennsylvania prison guard who has been accused of beating an inmate and a husband accused of spousal abuse.

The prison guard from Uniontown, Pa., is accused of jumping on detainees, stomping on their hands and feet, and punching one man in the temple hard enough to knock him out. In one of the photos that blew the scandal wide open, Graner is shown giving a thumbs-up behind a pile of naked Iraqi inmates. Another photo shows him cocking his fist as if to punch a hooded detainee.

The New England Journal of Medicine has released an article by a Georgetown University law professor implicating army doctors in the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Actually, this isn't news as it was reported last August in a British medical journal--we wrote about it here. From today's Washington Post:

U.S. Army doctors violated the Geneva Conventions by helping intelligence officers carry out abusive interrogations at military detention centers, perhaps participating in torture, according to an article in today's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Medical personnel helped tailor interrogations to the physical and mental conditions of individual detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to the article. It says that medical workers gave interrogators access to patient medical files, and that psychiatrists and other physicians collaborated with interrogators and guards who, in turn, deprived detainees of sleep, restricted them to diets of bread and water and exposed them to extreme heat and cold.

The article finds:

"The conclusion that doctors participated in torture is premature, but there is probable cause for suspecting it."

Did Alberto Gonzales approve of their assistance? Did he know about it? Will anyone ask him?

by TChris

Trial has commenced against U.S. Army Sergeant Tracy Perkins, "accused of killing an Iraqi civilian by having subordinates push him off a bridge into the Tigris River."

Witnesses called by the prosecution said they heard Perkins say over the radio, "Somebody is going to get wet, tonight."

The defense contends that there is no evidence that the Iraqi died by drowning, and some witnesses apparently say they saw the man standing in the water before they left. The body was not exhumed after being buried by his family.

by TChris

Five members of the U.S. military were killed today in three separate attacks in Iraq. Additional bloodshed included the assassination of a political figure.

The Baghdad governor, Ali al-Haidari, was attacked and killed in a roadside ambush after he left his home, the Interior Ministry said. The Associated Press reported that six of the governor's bodyguards were also killed. He was the most senior official assassinated in the city since the head of the Governing Council was killed last May.

Iraq's interim president, Ghazi al-Yawar, questions whether elections should be held on January 30, given the lack of security. Iraq's defense minister, among others, has asked the same question. The White House denies that Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is considering postponement of the election, despite his decision to telephone President Bush to discuss "the many impediments still facing the country as it heads toward elections."

But some officials in Washington and in Iraq interpreted the telephone call as a sign that Dr. Allawi, who is clearly concerned his own party could be headed to defeat if the election is held on schedule, may be preparing the ground to make the case for delay to Mr. Bush.

Of course, if Iraq is truly sovereign, as President Bush claims, the decision to postpone the election does not require his approval.

Shereef Akeel is an attorney based in Michigan who just got back from Jordan interviewing released Iraqi prisoners as part of a legal team formed for that purpose. He says more than 100 of the former prisoners allege being subjected to torture and he expects the number to grow to 300, "after sorting out survivors' statements and coordinating them with witnesses' accounts."

The Justice Department tries again to define "torture," and in so doing, expands the definition.

The Justice Department published a revised and expansive definition late yesterday of acts that constitute torture under domestic and international law, overtly repudiating one of the most criticized policy memorandums drafted during President Bush's first term.

In a statement published on the department's Web site, the head of its Office of Legal Counsel declares that "torture is abhorrent both to American law and values and international norms" and goes on to reject a previous statement that only "organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death" constitute torture punishable by law.

Just a coincidence that the new definition comes less than a week before the confirmation hearings of Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General? Doubtful.

Al Jazeerah is reporting that former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark has joined Saddam Hussein's defense team.

Clark arrived in Jordan yesterday.

Clark said in the Jordanian capital Amman that his principle concern was protecting the former president's rights, who only saw a lawyer for the first time this month - a year after his capture.

"In international law, anyone accused of crime has the right to be tried by a confident, independent and impartial court, and there can be no fair trial without those qualities," he said.

"The special court in Iraq was created by the Iraqi governing council, which is nothing more than a creation of the US military occupation and has no authority in law as a criminal court," he said.

Who's going to foot the bill for Saddam's trial, estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars? Probably us, if Iraq seeks the death penalty. Wouldn't you rather see the money go to the Tsunami relief effort? Think about it. The U.S. might donate $35 million to benefit thousands of lives and hundreds of millions to kill one man.