A military jury heard opening arguments yesterday in the court-martial of the only senior officer to face criminal charges in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Lieutenant Colonel Steven Jordan “was the officer in charge … He was
the highest ranking officer on the ground,” prosecutor Colonel John
Tracy told the panel of nine Army colonels and one brigadier general.
Colonel Thomas Pappas, an intelligence brigade commander who was the highest-ranking officer at Abu Ghraib -seen here on the witness stand as Lt. Col. Jordan, left, listens- testified that he took over as director of the center because Jordan wasn’t focusing on it enough. Pappas has been reprimanded and fined $8000 for his part in the scandal, but not charged with any crimes.
AP story here.
Courtroom sketching is a form of visual journalism or reportage drawing that is slowly dying out. Where once upon a time news organization each had their own artist covering a story, today a “pool” artist often sketches for all. It is a demanding and stressful discipline where the drawing is often done directly and under tight deadline.
After forty-five years of news sketching in courtrooms and congress I’m calling it quits. It’s been sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating, almost always interesting. I’ve been lucky to work with some really great people. Don’t think I’ll miss it, but a little scared of not having a deadline.
While I won’t be sketching in court anymore, I may continue to post to this blog from time to time. Not sure what that might be. I’m about to start a new assignment documenting infrastructure and construction. Could be interesting.
I don’t leave many responses, but after reading through a lot of responses here
Abu Ghraib court-martial | Courtartist. I actually do have a couple of questions
for you if you do not mind. Is it only me or do a few of the
remarks come across as if they are coming from brain
dead visitors? :-P And, if you are writing at other sites, I would like to keep up with everything new you have to post.
Would you list of all of your public pages like your Facebook page, twitter feed,
or linkedin profile?
Good day! I could have sworn I’ve been to this
blog before but after checking through some of
the post I realized it’s new to me. Nonetheless, I’m definitely delighted
I found it and I’ll be bookmarking and checking back often!