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Monday, December 1, 2008 12:00 AM

Sympathy for Charles Graner

No one from the Bush administration has been held accountable for torture. But the guard from Abu Ghraib prison is still behind bars, and his family wants to know why.

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Wednesday, December 3, 2008 07:46 AM

Re Graner

It is sad that he is in prison. Its so sad for his parents. My son was held in juv det for two days, had to spend the night with the light on in a white room with the light on the first night. Stripped in and out, had to "lift up his junk" to prove he wasnt stealing a pencil. The purpose of prison is to strip you of your personhood. It is torture. When I think about if its fair that Mr Graner is is prison, I would say he should be for his crime, but prisons should do a better job correcting people's irregularitites rather than adding insult to injury.

Karma is a bitch. But, to tell you the truth, what my son and what Charles Graner is enduring is obviously a construct of this country, no one to blame but ourselves. And, we dont cuff ankles wrists in painful stress positions where one is left to deficate and urinate on the spot. I guess he can be almost grateful, its much kinder than the prison he worked for.

So, either they were ordered to committ these dispcicable crimes against humanity, or, someone was negligent in overseeing their conduct. Either way its a crime that implicates higher command.

Some heads should be rolling.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008 01:25 PM

@Thadeus Crumb, p. 26

I see. So, you're fine with Bush pardoning him, paying him off, and then they start the whole business up again in a few years, the next time they're in power, and Elliott Abrams, fresh with a new handful of pardons, can start torturing human beings in some fresh hell hole?

No, I'm not fine with that. Saying he shouldn't be executed 'as an example' isn't the same thing as saying he should be set free. He should be in prison, but in humane conditions. Also, his superiors, all the way up to the top, should be in prison as well. You don't need to execute someone to stop this happening again, all you need to do is throw Bush, Cheney, and a few others in jail for a few years. That would put pause in the heart of any future president (or other higher-up) who thought he could break the law with impunity.

By the way, Guantanamo is an extermination camp as well, and it's only your need to believe that the United States is inherently good that's keeping you from realizing it.

I don't know if that last point was directed to me, but I certainly don't harbor any delusions about the United States being inherently good, unlike many in this country who do.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008 03:01 PM

Except for one tiny, niggling detail...

... you're right.

"You don't need to execute someone to stop this happening again, all you need to do is throw Bush, Cheney, and a few others in jail for a few years."

The niggling detail is that this won't happen in a million billion years.

They've already gotten off. If Graner has any incriminating information, then he'll be pardoned (or otherwise released) and will be well paid for his incarceration.

Then, when the Republicans are in power again, all these people (maybe not Graner himself) will come back, and torture and murder a whole lot of other people.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008 04:50 PM

His parents deserve prison too

they saw the pictures , they read the letters and they DID NOTHING.

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