90 Days 'Hard labour' for Abu Ghraib abuser

[bigfootedfred]

A US army dog handler convicted of using his dog to abuse an inmate at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison will not go to jail,
a military court has decided.
Sgt Santos Cardona, 32, was instead sentenced to 90 days' hard labour by the panel.
He will also be demoted and will have his pay docked.

....

The prosecution said Cardona had used his Belgian shepherd dog
like "a weapon" and had tormented Iraqi prisoners for fun.

But the defence said he was only obeying orders from senior officers.

No senior officers have so far been convicted for the abuse at Abu Ghraib.

source

So the defence said 'he was only following orders'.
Will the Senior officers who issued such orders be punished?

[removeduser_426582376423734]

Hah. No, they won't. And, I bet, this incident'll be forgotten after a while.

[Major.Stupidity]

I would think defence attorneys would learn from the Nuremberg Trials that "I was only following orders" plea doesn't work. As far as the senior officials who ordered the said treatment, I would like to see some names and evidence.....

[Caesar Germanico]

ahhaa that is american justice..lol i bet those soldiers that killed that family in iraq will go 2-3 years in jail..yes americans show again to the world that u guys cant be punished!!lol shame

[greek302]

Theese people sould be in the Hauge for breaking the Geneva convention.

[Dominicus of Byzantium]

The problem is though that the US often, and note that this is often not always, feels that it doesn't have to pay the UN or human rights any particular heed.

Oh, and Hard labour means work.

Can be litter picking or salt mining levels of severity

[greek302]

The problem is though that the US often, and note that this is often not always, feels that it doesn't have to pay the UN or human rights any particular heed.

Well the USA is very, very wrong.

[Dominicus of Byzantium]

Of course, I have always advocated that.

What we need is a UN where the objection of one country doesn't halt proceedings. See Resolution 242 and America's refusal to allow it to be enforced.

[GeneralLee]

ahhaa that is american justice..lol i bet those soldiers that killed that family in iraq will go 2-3 years in jail..yes americans show again to the world that u guys cant be punished!!lol shame

He wasn't being charged with murder as no one died it was assault or something like that.

[Carach]

if the media went fullscale on this there would be massive outcry..

what does 'hard labour' mean exactly? what does this involve?

Well the USA is very, very wrong.

thw USA is the most powerful nation on earth: who would stop them from ignoring the un? europe? lol no..too spineless and weak.

[removeduser_426582376423734]

I wonder, what makes the US powerful... is it fear? Or are they actually as powerful as they claim?

The UK is a powerful nation, does it match the US? Probably. But will they do anything about it? Probably not.

[Sétanta]

The UK is a powerful nation, does it match the US? Probably. But will they do anything about it? Probably not.

Probably not. But, anyway. Since the United States is the only superpower it has the responsibility to act responsibly, and these soldiers bring down all Americans to their criminal level. Power comes with responsiblility and these bastards abuse that power.

[removeduser_426582376423734]

Can I ask what makes the US a superpower? Oil, we have that. Money, we definitely have that. Corrupt politicians, we have John Prescott.

In my opinion, the word "superpower" is a huge exagerration. The US is just as much a superpower as any other nation in Western Europe. It just has a lot of rep.

[Sétanta]

By that reasoning Saudi Arabia should be a superpower because of oil. The US doesn't have a lot of oil. It just has a lot of an economy to use the oil.

Anyways that is off topic...

[Carach]

I wonder, what makes the US powerful... is it fear? Or are they actually as powerful as they claim?

The UK is a powerful nation, does it match the US? Probably. But will they do anything about it? Probably not.

im a patriot..but even i know britain donthold a candle to america's military power - in part due to weak governments over many years (since ww2..) that have completely neglected the armed forces, allowed us to be dominated by american industry and influence..

europe as a whole could possibly match, but europe as a whole does not exist - and the politicans leading the continent are tooscared of standing up to anyone.

And they also now purchase their weapons from the US.

name some equipment that is 'purchased from the US'

Britain is a lot less dependant on america than a lot of european countries.

[Caesar Germanico]

im a patriot..but even i know britain donthold a candle to america's military power - in part due to weak governments over many years (since ww2..) that have completely neglected the armed forces, allowed us to be dominated by american industry and influence..

europe as a whole could possibly match, but europe as a whole does not exist - and the politicans leading the continent are tooscared of standing up to anyone.




name some equipment that is 'purchased from the US'

Britain is a lot less dependant on america than a lot of european countries.

yes but we dont need like a united states of europe we only need a same type of internation and economic politics but some european goverments are to stupid or too afraid of america,in theory we could easily become a huge superpower we have the structers,the economy and we are even more numerous than america,but pratically it would be almost impossible too much ceuntries of wars and feudalism but we dont have to loss hope,like the new italian president of republic said,europe is my nation

[Carach]

yes but we dont need like a united states of europe

Europe can only be united by one nation dominating the others.

I think that should be a revived britain.

but would NEVER happen. Britain hasnt held that kind of influence over europe for 100 years... - we didnt need to then, we had an empire..now we dont (in part due to america..but meh...)

a united europe is good to combat (economically, not jsut militarily) american influence and the rising powers in the east.

Its just there are too many differences within the continent

[Dominicus of Byzantium]

And they also now purchase their weapons from the US.

only europe really could stop the US, but too many governments in Europe are friendly with George Bush, I'm frankly apalled that the supposedly left wing British Prime Minister is fraternising with an American who is somewhere to the right of the 'lunatic fringe'

[Caesar Germanico]

the us is strong because they used atomics bombs and they have lots of them and this make other countries fear usa and there also a lot of ignorance people dont even know that the latin america dictators were allied with america and other staff,i dont have any prejudice against america but i mean everytime they treat they european allies like puppets and dont care about un,cia agents i think last year kidnapped a muslim priest italian cityzen living in milan and probably torture him and the list of such things go on,it would nice if the ue stop such things but blair and merker in germany still behave like america puppets

[akanoez]

the problem with the whole "just following orders" deal is that some of the officers in charge at that prison are civilian security contractors, "modern day mercenaries" in simple terms. they cannot be held acccountable to anyone, they are private soldiers for hire. mixed in with the regular chain of command they can operate with even more impunity then the USAF. why are they there? do you think it's coincidence?
is it not similar to the CIA flying kidnapped prisoners to a foreign country where torture is normal in order to avoid eventual prosecution?