Innocent until proven guilty

So therefore, if you never have a trial, no one is guilty!

U.S. Army commanders have decided not to prosecute any of 17 American soldiers implicated in three separate incidents involving the deaths of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004, according to a new accounting released by the army Friday.

So says the International Herald Tribune for Saturday. It goes on to say that

[i]n each of the cases, the commanders chose to disregard recommendations by army investigators, who had proposed that the soldiers be charged with crimes that included murder, conspiracy and negligent homicide, the army accounting showed. Only 2 of the 17 soldiers were disciplined at all in connection with the three deaths, receiving a letter of reprimand and a discharge from the army, respectively.

One of the three cases involved a former Iraqi lieutenant colonel who died at a forward operating base in Iraq in January 2004, as the result of "blunt force injuries and asphyxia." Commanders rejected the recommendation to prosecute because, they said, the injuries were "a result of a series of lawful applications of force." Hey, gang, dying of "blunt force injuries" means you were beaten to death. Just when the hell did that get to be "lawful?"

Oh, I know when: When the brass got scared because the investigations were getting out of hand, showing that abuse of, and violence against, prisoners were far more pervasive and widespread than one isolated case of a handful of bad actors at Abu Ghraib. Pursuing the matter seriously would move the blame, the culpability, up the chain of command. How high? Maybe very high. And that simply could not be allowed.

Footnote: The army raised the total of prisoner deaths resulting from suspected or criminal homicides to 27, not counting at least four more still being investigated for which no cause of death has been determined. Only one of the deaths was at Abu Ghraib.