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Video here, too. Abu Ghraib bears resemblance to Texas incident under then-Gov. Bush
WASHINGTON - The Abu Ghraib prison scandal has become a watershed event in the Iraq war, but President Bush has experience handling the political fallout from prison abuses — experience gained in a situation that occurred while he was governor of Texas.
The incident occurred in a 1996 raid at the Brazoria County Detention Center in Texas. Guards searching the facility were videotaped mistreating prisoners. The images have many of the same elements of the Abu Ghraib pictures — prisoners lying on the floor, being dragged and menaced by dogs
It might now be just a historical footnote, except the lawyer who represented two of the prison guards accused of attacking the inmates, Guy Womack, is now representing Spc. Charles Graner, the prison guard accused of mistreating prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Womack says he'll be taking the lessons of Brazoria County into the courtroom with him in Iraq. “There are quite a few parallels between the two cases,” he said. “Of course, the first one that jumps out at me is that in both cases the only people who were identified to be prosecuted were the junior-most people." In Texas, he argued that the guards acted lawfully — and he says in Iraq he'll argue that the guards thought they were following lawful orders. “Of course, if the cases are so parallel, the defense should be somewhat parallel as well." http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5086647/
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