Geoffrey Miller Takes the Fifth

Coward.

General Miller, 56, decided this week to invoke his right not to give testimony that might incriminate him and will not answer questions in court-martial proceedings against two soldiers who are accused of using dogs to terrify detainees at Abu Ghraib, Maj. Michelle Crawford, a military lawyer representing the general, said Thursday by e-mail.

Invocation of civil rights against self-incrimination under the Constitution implies neither guilt nor innocence. The Constitution (the same Constitution of the United States that George W. Bush allegedly recently referred to as "just a God-damned piece of paper") protects animals like Miller the same as it does decent, law-abiding, honest Americans.

But if you've been keeping up with this story, this is just additional evidence that the "few bad apples" theory is, like "creation science," bunk. Miller was moved from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib, on the orders of Donald Rumsfeld, and under cover of legal opinions generated by then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzalez, specifically to "Gitmo-ize" the illegal interrogation camp; precisely to integrate torture into the process of generating "intelligence."

Meanwhile, in a related story from the "don't call us fascists" file:

Newly released military documents show U.S. Army investigators closed a probe into allegations an Iraqi detainee had been abused by a shadowy military task force after its members used fake names and asserted that key computer files had been lost.

Yeah. Right.

Investigators could not find the personnel involved or the (detainee's) medical files, and the case was closed, the files stated. A memo listed the suspected offenses as aggravated assault, cruelty and maltreatment."

"The only names identified by this investigation were determined to be fake names utilized by the capturing soldiers," the memo stated. "6-26 also had a major computer malfunction which resulted in them losing 70 percent of their files; therefore they can't find the cases we need to review."

Well, that was certainly convenient, eh?

I'm telling you, folks, as sure as I know there is a God in Heaven, I know this: if we deliberately give up our Constitution and the rights granted to us by it, we are no longer America.

And the terrorists will have won.