Demented defense

Graner goes down over Abu Ghraib, but it will take more than guilty verdicts to repair the damage | Mindy Belz

Army officials may have known it was time to take their medicine when they announced last month that they were moving courts-martial over Abu Ghraib abuses from the East Coast to Ft. Hood, Texas, the base that has absorbed by far the most casualties in the war in Iraq. The move was meant to consolidate the remaining cases but also gives the service an opportunity to purge itself of a sordid world moment before its harshest critics: the men and women who must recover from the damage done by a few bad men (and women) to soldier on.

The case of Spc. Charles A. Graner Jr. marks the first time a soldier linked to Abu Ghraib contested a court-martial. Spc. Graner, whom witnesses described as a ringleader in the photographed abuses, appeared smiling outside the courtroom and maintained that he was following orders. Inside his counsel, Guy Womack, gave a demented account in his defense.

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January 22, 2005, Vol. 20, No. 3

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