Shades of the Roman Colliseum and gladiators? The first court martial trial of a U.S. soldier charged with abusing Iraqi prisoners will be that of Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits of Hyndman, Pa., who served as part of the now infamous 372nd Military Police Company. The trial will take place May 19 at the Baghdad Convention Center and will be open to the public and the media.

Has Sivits met with a lawyer yet? How can a lawyer prepare for such a complex trial involving the military, the intelligence agency and private contractors on ten days notice? Oh, we get it. That's enough time for the prosecution to parade the soldier's action before the world but not enough time to compel the Government to furnish the defense with sufficient detail about the chain of command to allow it to prepare a credible defense that the soldier's actions were condoned or initiated at the behest of higher-ups , whether they be intelligence officers by or private contractors.

Sounds to us like this young man is being fed to the lions. We're not in any sense condoning his actions, whatever they might have been...we assume the Government chose his case first because it was the easiest for them to prove....but we do object to him being held out as a sacrificial lamb to show the world the U.S. will punish these offenders to the fullest extent possible if at the same time it precludes an investigation and airing of the higher-ups along the chain of command.

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