Court Martial

A tribunal that tries violations of military criminal law. Often, the entire military justice process, from actual court proceedings to punishment.

Court Martial of Military Officer in Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal

In April 2006, U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Steven L. Jordan became the first and only military officer to be criminally charged for abuse and mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad's now infamous Abu Ghraib facility. The prison scandal stems from incidents that took place in 2004, when photographs of the prisoner abuse were leaked to the media. They included images of naked prisoners with dog leashes around their necks, being intimidated and forced into various demeaning and/or sexual positions and acts. Some of the more disturbing photographs showed detainees smeared with excrement, posing to be lynched, and cowering under attack from U.S. military dogs. President George W. Bush referred to the scandal as the "biggest mistake" made by the United States in Iraq, even as the images were continually transmitted via Internet around the world, evoking anger and global condemnation.

Jordan, the second-highest ranking intelligence officer at the prison at the time of the alleged incident(s), was initially charged with multiple violations of the Uniform Gode ofMilitary Justice (UCMJ), including cruelty and maltreatment of prisoners, interfering with an investigation (obstruction of justice), disobeying a superior commissioned officer, dereliction of duty, false swearing, and failure to obey a regulation.

Some of the charges were dismissed in October 2006 following an Article 32 hearing (the equivalent of a civilian preliminary hearing ) at Fort McNair in Washington. The presiding judge at the hearing ordered court martial of Jordan for the remaining charges. (Jordan's defense lawyers had argued at the hearing that all charges should be dropped because he was never properly advised of his rights by investigators.) Originally scheduled for July 2007, the actual court martial was delayed until August to allow additional time for the review of documents and e-mails from the prison. If convicted, Jordan faced up to 16 years in prison. In the interim, Jordan remained on active duty at the intelligence and security command at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

Jordan, a reservist from South Dakota on active duty, was formally trained as a civil affairs officer before serving as head of the interrogation operation at the Baghdad prison. He reported to another officer, Colonel Thomas Pappas, who officially was in charge of the Joint Interrogation Debriefing Center at Abu Ghraib. Pappas was the most senior official to receive punishment for the abuses, but unlike Jordan, was not criminally charged. Instead, he received a formal reprimand in addition to an $8,000 fine for approving the use of dogs on a high-value detainee without obtaining permission from top officers at Baghdad. He later was granted immunity for testifying against Jordan and military dog handlers. In March 2006, Army dog handler Michael J. Smith was sentenced to six months in prison for using his snarling canine to intimidate prisoners. The most infamous convictees included the alleged ringleader in the abuse, Specialist Charles Graner, Jr., who was photographed smiling with thumbs up over the body of an Iraqi (and who received a ten-year prison sentence) and his then-girlfriend, Private Lynndie England, pictured holding a naked prisoner at the end of a dog leash (sentenced to three years).

Results from Army investigations that supported the charges against Jordan included a finding that he, in one incident, had given military police "tacit approval" for violence against some prisoners, which ultimately contributed to the downward spiral of their treatment. Major General Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib abuses, recommended that Jordan be relieved from duty for "failing to ensure that Soldiers under his direct control knew, understood, and followed the protections afforded to detainees in the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War."

Moreover, Taguba accused Jordan of "making material misrepresentations" when he told Taguba that he "never saw nude detainees [and] never knew of dogs being used in interrogations." Two lengthy unpublished interviews later obtained by the media revealed that the Army's Criminal Investigation Command questioned Graner and Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick II, both serving prison terms for their roles in the scandal. They independently told investigators that Jordan had seen nude detainees handcuffed to prison doors as well as sexual humiliation and abuse of other prisoners, but made no comment. Jordan also allegedly helped Graner erect a plywood wall to obscure the view of prisoner abuse from the corridor hallway. When asked about the plywood wall, Jordan apparently told General Taguba that it was erected to protect prisoner privacy. However, an independent interview with another prisoner collaborated the true purpose of the wall. Jordan was also implicated for his knowledge of mistreatment of "ghost detainees," who were delivered to the prison by CIA operatives and interrogated "off the books." Jordan earlier told General Taguba that he "never imagined anything going on other than normal operations." The Army referred to his statements as "totally false."

Jordan remained the only officer to face court-martial on criminal charges related to Abu Ghraib. At least eleven U.S. enlisted soldiers were convicted and several officers were reprimanded or demoted, including Colonel Janis Karpinski, prison commander at the time, who was demoted from brigadier general to colonel, but faced no charges. In a related matter, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) expressed disappointment at the dismissal of a case against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, brought by nine Iraqi and Afghan former detainees for alleged "torture" endured while in U.S. military custody. "We believe that the law and constitution require more, and that the former secretary of defense must be held accountable for his policies that led to this abuse," ACLU attorney Lucas Guttentag told an AFP news reporter.