MSNBC: Lawyer likens piling of prisoners to cheerleading

FORT HOOD, Texas - The military lawyer for Spc. Charles Graner, the accused ringleader in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, on Monday defended piling naked prisoners in pyramids as valid prisoner control and compared it to shows by cheerleaders.

"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 military jury at the reservist sergeant's court-martial.

snip

The prosecution showed some of those pictures in their opening argument, including one of naked Iraqi men piled on each other and another of England holding a crawling naked Iraqi man on a leash.

Womack said using a tether was a valid method of controling detainees. "You're keeping control of them. A tether is a valid control to be used in corrections," he said.

snip

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6795956/

Someone please tell me that a news item from The Onion accidentally found its way to MSNBC....

edit: for punctuation and link

If this is the best case that the lawyer can argue, it doesn't say much for the case.

On edit - This argument reminds me of something Lionel Hutz, the Simpsons lawyer character would come up with.

Nobody forces the cheerleaders to do what they do!
This like to say, while defending a rapist, that millions of people are having sex every day and it's not crime.

What an idiot!

:puke:

But forcing people to do this naked certainly increases the degree of abuse and humiliation they would experience.

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and have a realistic expectation that they will not be KILLED if they decide NOT to pile up.

Maybe Rush Limbo can be a character witness for these clowns.....

...by drawing comparisons? This is stupid. As long as we indulge this sort of stupidity, the 'cons will continue to serve it up.

I wonder, though, where they dug this guy up. Last in his class at law school, he probably was.

How can this "lawyer" say any of this with a straight face?
Preposterous.
It's like....
"When did you stop beating your wife?"

Again, somebody has to stand up and say finally, "Have you no decency, sir?"

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"Don't cheerleaders all over America form pyramids six to eight times a year. Is that torture?"

Is he mentally disabled?

I suppose the concept is that the military supports Limbaugh and will buy into that...

Can a court martial be appealled on the basis of incompetent defense?

remember.

This jury is made up of military who served in Iraq. I hope they see through this stuff, but what are the odds?

... a pretty good case, by the end of this trial, that he was represented by incompetent counsel, if these are the opening arguments.

Defending what is clearly torture and abusive treatment isn't going to fly.

They probably know ALL about it.

We're in a moral wasteland when anyone vested with public trust can rationally spew such mental vomit. According to Gonzalez's criteria, even rape cannot be regarded as torture, since it doesn't directly cause death or permanent organ damage. Nor can being tossed into a latrine pit and being nearly immersed in human excrement. The sane mind boggles at the range of atrocities that a human being can be subjected to without running afoul of this regime's appallingly narrow definition of torture.

FORT HOOD, Texas - A military guard testified Monday that he saw Spc. Charles Graner Jr. punch an Iraqi detainee in the face a moment after a notorious photo was taken at Abu Ghraib prison.

Another witness said Graner was "laughing and having a good time" while making naked prisoners pose.
...
Wisdom described a prominent photo from Abu Ghraib that showed the muscular Graner holding a detainee as if he were about to strike him in the face.

The witness said Graner cocked his arm while the picture was taken, and then he punched the detainee.

Asked how hard Graner hit the prisoner, Wisdom said, "If I was that detainee, I know that it would be very painful."

Wisdom said he was urged to participate in abuse, but that he instead reported it to his immediate superior.

"I was very upset," he said. "It made me kind of sick, almost. It didn't seem right."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=718&e=3&u=/ap/20050110/ap_on_re_us/prisoner_abuse_graner

don't boxers punch people every day? Some get paid a lot of money for it!

Give me a "T-U-R-E"! T-U-R-E! What does it spell? TORTURE!!! Say it again!!! TORTURE!!!

Yay Team USA!!! GO GO GO, FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT, WIN WIN WIN!!!

I was f**ked!

I'm surprised Graner didn't shoot himself after this was presented.

http://www.connect-dots.com/Poofs/chewbacca.html


Too funny I had forgotten about that.

what's it spell? :wtf:

"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 military jury at the reservist sergeant's court-martial.

just when I think I've heard it all...:puke:

Rah Rah, sis boom bah.
Masturbate now! Hezbollah!


Doesn't seem quite so cheerful. Is it just me (& MY 49%+ of the U.S.?!?!?!)

AND DARKNESS WAS UPON THE FACE OF THE EARTH

That's a... unique... username! I like it!

-- Allen

more:
http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=2444

Where are the barking, snarling, teeth-bearing dogs in the first photo...?:shrug:

or plead his client guilty. this weakassed defense won't fool the court or the public.

unfort, graner is a common thug; his handlers will escape prosecution.

How long would it take for a normal person to think about something as ludicrous as this for a defense?

but, sadly, it is not.

I thought I could not be appalled and disgusted anymore, but I was wrong.

I thought the whole "they were just blowing off steam" excuse had already been shot to hell?

ever, EVER heard.

So, when can we expect to see those pictures of George W. Bush and Trent Lott naked and piled on top of each other....you know, from their days as male cheerleaders???

I heard Womack say on Hardball that his main defense would be that his client was following orders. The defense will try to prove that. This is sure to make Military and the Bush Junta pleased. Guess Womack hasn't studied any history and never heard of the Nuernberg Trials of the Nazis.

if this guy even went 2 law school. Did he skip trial prep? Research? Were womack & gonzales classmates?

This news item also appears on Yahoo

Or at gunpoint.

and while the team captain was a raging bitch (and would've been better off with a bag on her head), naked pyramids were never part of the routine.

* is a cheerleader - so it might be a good fit - they have to do it naked after having their orifices searched - just like the victims in Iraq

Bu$h as "top-man," with bottoms Trent Lott and Kay Bailey Hutchinson. I know that is an ugly manage-a-tois cheerleader scene, but maybe Bu$h would let the pyramid rotate, every few minutes, with subs to keep it going. Victor Ashe could spell Kay Bailey, and Trent Lott might even get to be top-man, again, for a few minutes. Ar-nold could be on hand to rate the manhood, and subsequent penetrations.

"But your honor, my lawyer was an idiot."