Readers here generally are not fooled by the ideological chant (see, e.g., any three days' worth of comments on Sentencing Law and Policy), that prosecutions take root in the desire to scourge the lower class, and/or are driven by racism, hate and revenge.

We also see the occasional charge that this prosecution or that was brought for political reasons.  Usually, this is so much defense lawyer baloney.  Honesty compels me to acknowledge, however, that  every now and again, the charge is true, e.g., the Duke non-rape scandal.

Thus I bring you the following from an Associated Press story on April 21,  http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/blog/

BAGHDAD -- Opening arguments began today in the court-martial of a Navy SEAL from Blue Island who is accused in the abuse of an Iraqi prisoner suspected of masterminding the killings in 2004 of four U.S. private security contractors.

Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas, wearing his blue Navy uniform, appeared in a military courtroom at the Victory Base Camp outside Baghdad to answer charges of dereliction of duty and impeding an official investigation. He has pleaded not guilty.

Huertas, 28, is the first of three Navy SEALs to go on trial in connection with the alleged assault of the Iraqi prisoner, Ahmed Hashim Abed.

Abed was arrested last September on charges of masterminding the grisly killings of four Blackwater security guards whose burned corpses were dragged through the Iraqi city of Fallujah west of Baghdad. Two of the guards' bodies were hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River in the insurgent attack.