Low-ranking MPs blamed for Bagram homicides

The first military court-martial for one of the 2002 homicides at Bagram Air Base detention facility began today in El Paso, Texas. Pfc. Willie Brand was originally charged with manslaughter, a charge which was dropped in military court. He is the only military personnel to be charged in connection with the death of Afghan taxi driver Dilawar. According to the Army Times, only one another MP faces a court-martial for the deaths, Spc. Brian Cammack, of the same 377th MP Company based in Cinncinati.

While Dilawar's body showed signs of cruelty and sadism beyond any reasonable military operating procedure (had he not died, doctors would have been forced to amputate his legs), Brand's defense attorney John Galligan is right to point out:

... the larger issue is that, while the government is blaming a low-ranking enlisted man for the December 2002 deaths of the two Afghani detainees, "officers who may have designed the programs that led to those deaths are left unscathed."