U.S. army Spc. Jeremy Sivits (AP)
It won’t satisfy anyone, of course.
In related news,Reuters quotes defense officials as reporting that already this week the U.S. military punished two Army Reserve soldiers who assaulted prisoners while working as guards at Guantanamo.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A 24-year-old military policeman will face a public court martial in Baghdad next week, the first of seven American soldiers to be tried on charges of abusing Iraqi prisoners, a U.S. military spokesman said Sunday.
Stung by photographs of humiliation that have hardened Arab anger at the United States, the army promised full media access when Specialist Jeremy Sivits goes on trial on May 19, but it was unclear if the court hearings would be televised.
“It is not our intention to hide anything,” Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told a news conference, though he has insisted there would be no “show trial.”
Sivits, who faces three charges, including one of maltreating detainees, is one of seven military police to be charged with abusing prisoners in Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison, where Saddam Hussein’s torturers tormented thousands of Iraqis.