Third puny jail sentence for Dilawar's death

A third jail sentence was meted out by the military justice system to another MP with the 377th Military Police Company of Cinncinati for the beating death of Afghan prisoner Dilawar in 2002, just 75 days. In addition to the jail time, Sgt. Antony Morden will suffer a reduction of rank and bad conduct discharge.

In total, then, military justice has handed down only 7-1/2 months jail time (divided among 3 MPs) for the heinous abuse and death of an innocent Afghan taxi-driver.

Compare this, for example, to a 4-month solitary confinement sentence for a Marine who played a harmful practical joke against another Marine.

It appears that only one soldier awaits trial in the abuse-homicide, Sgt. Joshua R. Claus. He has announced he will plead guilty to charges brought against him. Sgt. Claus distinguished himself for his sadism, according to the New York Times, which obtained the Army's 2000-pg. report on the deaths at Bagram:

Mr. Dilawar asked for a drink of water, and one of the two interrogators, Specialist Joshua R. Claus, 21, picked up a large plastic bottle. But first he punched a hole in the bottom, the interpreter said, so as the prisoner fumbled weakly with the cap, the water poured out over his orange prison scrubs. The soldier then grabbed the bottle back and began squirting the water forcefully into Mr. Dilawar's face.

"Come on, drink!" the interpreter said Specialist Claus had shouted, as the prisoner gagged on the spray. "Drink!"

At the interrogators' behest, a guard tried to force the young man to his knees. But his legs, which had been pummeled by guards for several days, could no longer bend. An interrogator told Mr. Dilawar that he could see a doctor after they finished with him. When he was finally sent back to his cell, though, the guards were instructed only to chain the prisoner back to the ceiling.

"Leave him up," one of the guards quoted Specialist Claus as saying.

Several hours passed before an emergency room doctor finally saw Mr. Dilawar. By then he was dead, his body beginning to stiffen.