The torturer photographers

Now the names have been released, and, in addition to Pfc. Lynndie R. England, whom I mentioned earlier, they are:

Spec. Jeremy C. Sivits, 24. His parents don't believe he would have done such thing without orders. "Earlier, his father, Daniel Sivits, said his son was trained as a truck mechanic, not a prison guard, and would have gotten in trouble had he not followed orders to photograph the abused prisoners.", says Boston Herald.

Staff Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick Jr., 37, who actually was a corrections officer in his civilian life, which makes me kind of concerned for American prisoners, too.

Spec. Charles A. Graner Jr., 35, who was also a corrections officer in his civilian life. Hmm...

Sgt. Javal S. Davis, 26,

Spec. Megan M. Ambuhl,

Spec. Sabrina D. Harman, was allegedly dreaming of becoming a police officer. Can you say "police brutality"?

According to Wasington Post, Ivan Frederick Jr. had told his family that they were ordered to get the prisoners ready for interrogation by military intelligence. "We help getting them to talk with the way we handle them," he wrote in an e-mail to his family in December. "We have had a very high rate with our style of getting them to break. They usually break within hours."

While looking for all this information I ran into several articles pointing out that what these people did to Iraqi prisoners was fairly lame as torture and for the most part did not involve severe physical pain or injury. That's probably true, but hardly an excuse.