MILITARY JUSTICE. Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan is scheduled to face a court-martial in Fort Meade, Maryland, this week. He is "the only military officer accused in the prisoner abuse scandal at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib," writes Fanny Carrier of the French Press Agency. His trial is being closely watched by military experts, lawyers, human-rights advocates and journalists -- for good reason. Military courts are a useful venue for people who are trying to learn more about a scandal like Abu Ghraib. Previously undisclosed evidence of detainee abuse as well as testimony describing the role of officers high in the chain of command have been revealed in the trials of people implicated in detainee-related abuse over the past couple of years -- along with documents that had been withheld from the media. As it turns out, Jordan's court-martial may be less interesting than it had seemed: The main charges against him -- making a false official statement and false swearing and obstruction of justice -- have just been dropped. He had, for instance, been accused of lying to a military investigator, General George Fay, in 2004 when he claimed he had not personally seen incidents of detainee abuse. Fay got in touch with prosecutors on Sunday, writes the Associated Press's David Dishneau. Fay said he had made a mistake during a March pretrial hearing when he claimed he had read Jordan his rights during their 2004 interview. In fact, said Fay, he had not. As a result, the two significant charges were thrown out. Fay is a familiar name to people who have been following the Abu Ghraib scandal. A reservist and former executive vice president of Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, Fay was considered to be an unusual choice as the head of an investigation into the detainee abuse. As human-rights attorney Scott Horton and other critics of the administration have pointed out, Fay was a financial supporter of the New Jersey Republican Party. Horton and others believe he was chosen for that reason. Horton told me that Fay's report was flawed in many ways. It was "whitewashing," Horton said. "During the interviews, [Fay] would say, 'Now if anyone saw anything and failed to intervene, they can be charged with a crime. Did anyone see anything and fail to intervene?'" Horton said. "They'd all say, 'No, sir!'" By his own admission, Fay had not been as careful as he should have been in following legal steps during the investigation when he spoke with Jordan. As a result, the court-martial of Jordan will cover significantly less ground. It is good news for Jordan -- and disheartening for those who are hoping for a rigorous accounting of what happened at Abu Ghraib. --Tara McKelvey
