Thursday, February 22, 2007

"Apart from Corporal Charles Graner, sentenced in January 2005 to ten years' imprisonment for his lead role in the Abu Ghraib scandal, almost no other American found guilty of the murder or abuse of Iraqi and Afghan civilians or detainees has received more than a couple of years in prison....According to American civil-liberties groups such as Human Rights First and Human Rights Watch, only about half the hundreds of allegations against American troops and personnel have been adequately investigated. The groups claim to have documented more than 330 credible cases of torture, killings and abuse of some 460 detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. But of the 600 or so American soldiers and officials they say are implicated, only a tiny fraction—40 at the time of their report last April—had been given custodial sentences."