Lieutenant Colonels taking the Fifth...
Posted by DeLong at May 19, 2004 11:31 AM | TrackBack | | Other weblogs commenting on this postLA Times: When the Graner hearing convened in Iraq, the first government witness to refuse to testify was Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, who as director of the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center at the prison oversaw the military intelligence operations. Next on the witness stand at the Graner hearing was Capt. Donald J. Reese... commander of the 372nd Military Police Company. The last prosecution witness to plead the 5th was Adel L. Nakhla, a U.S. civilian contractor employed by Titan Corp. and working as a translator in Baghdad...
When it's the deeply sinister Stephen Cambone taking the 5th, then we'll be getting somewhere.
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Posted by: Matthew Saroff on May 19, 2004 12:23 PMGiven all the talk about how civilian contractors in Iraq have something of an extra-legal existance, I'm surpirsed that they are allowed to take the Fifth. No, I'm actually surprised that they even showed up to take the Fifth.
Posted by: Charles Kinbote on May 19, 2004 01:26 PMI think it's possible to read way too much into this, or into taking the Fifth in general. It's often simply a prudent course of action when there's any chance at all of being implicated in something. This is especially true when, as here, the pressure to nail some people is intense.
Ask yourself what you would do if you were an officer who was anywhere near Abu Ghraib.
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov on May 19, 2004 03:06 PM"Ask yourself what you would do if you were an officer who was anywhere near Abu Ghraib."
Blown my career by sending photos and videotapes to Seymour Hersh, the New York Times, the BBC, CNN, and anybody else I could think of as soon as I found out what was going on. My self-respect is worth more than any career.
Posted by: Chuck Nolan on May 19, 2004 04:13 PMChuck,
OK, but that wasn't the point of my question.
Suppose you have some vague connection with Abu Ghraib - no direct responsibility, maybe no more knowledge of what happened than having heard a few rumors, or something, or maybe not even that, but you were in the vicinity, maybe only in a virtual sense.
Suddenly there's a criminal probe, and you well know that there are people who want scalps and may not be overly fastidious about whose scalps they get, as long as they can show they acted vigorously. In that environment you would be a fool not to take the Fifth.
I'm not claiming anything about the involvement or lack thereof of these specific individuals. I'm just saying that it is unwise and unfair, as a general proposition, to infer guilt because someone takes the Fifth.
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov on May 20, 2004 09:51 AMReinforcing Bernard's point - keep in mind that you might be prosecuted for not knowing something you "should" have known about, or for failing to report something which "should" have triggered your suspicions. The director of the briefing center is expected to know what happens there, even if it is the overnight duty officer, or even some idiot rednecks, or some CIA guy not under your direct control, who are doing all the bad stuff, and keeping the reports off the your desk.
By the same token, the Captain of an aircraft carrier is responsible if his ship grounds, even if the cause was a course change at one in the morning by the duty officer, when the Captain was asleep, resulting in a 5AM incident.
It's a bit seedy in military circles to take the fifth, ever, but it probably is wise in this case, even if he knew nothing.
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