This is mighty convenient, they are dropping the most serious charges against the only officer charged in the Abu Ghraib affair.

They send a bunch of soldiers and non-coms to jail, but when it comes time to try a relatively senior officer, one who probably has the goods on higher ups, there are procedural issues.

Yeah Right.

A military judge on Monday dismissed two of the most serious charges against Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, 51, a reservist, after a general who investigated the scandal acknowledged he had not read Jordan his rights before interviewing him. The action left Jordan still facing four counts and a possible 8 1/2 years in prison.

Prosecutors on Monday amended one of those remaining counts, a cruelty and maltreatment charge, by narrowing its scope from three months to one day.

Is it just me, or has someone ordered these guys to throw the case?

…

In court Monday morning, prosecutor Lt. Col. John P. Tracy announced that Maj. Gen. George Fay had contacted prosecutors Sunday to say that he “misspoke” during a March 12 pretrial hearing in which he testified under oath that he had advised Jordan of his rights during an interview in 2004.

Tracy said Fay realized his error while preparing to testify at Jordan’s trial this week. Fay told government lawyers that “he indeed did not read Lt. Col. Jordan his rights,” Tracy said.

Does Fay have it right now? Or is he lying to keep things out of the public lie? If he did neglect to read him his rights, was it intentional, to provide a “get out of jail free” card for silence?

Jordan’s defense, led by Capt. Samuel Spitzberg contends that although Jordan was the titular head of the interrogation center, he spent most of his time trying to improve Soldiers’ deplorable living conditions at Abu Ghraib. The defense argued during an October hearing that interrogation conditions were set by two other officers: Col. Thomas Pappas, an intelligence brigade commander who was the highest-ranking officer at Abu Ghraib, and Capt. Carolyn Wood, leader of a unit within the interrogation center called the Interrogation Command Element.

Neither Pappas nor Wood has been charged with crimes. Pappas was reprimanded and fined $8,000 for once approving the use of dogs during an interrogation without higher approval.

So, now that Jordan can roll over on regular army officers, and ones who do know how high it goes, suddenly, there are “procedural errors”.

Mighty convenient, that.