PBS Frontline – A military lawyer (JAG) during the Persian Gulf war, Sen. Lindsey Graham (South Carolina, R.), calls military lawyers “the conscience of the military.” He says the JAGS have been marginalized in recent years and he has introduced an amendment to increase their authority and independence. In this interview, he discusses the early clash between military and civilian lawyers over rules of treatment and interrogation at Guantanamo and how Donald Rumsfeld dealt with the feud. And he outlines in this interview how harsh interrogation techniques of Taliban and Al Qaeda detainees at Guantanamo “migrated” to Abu Ghraib where Iraqi detainees were being held, supposedly under the terms of the Geneva Conventions. But with no military lawyers at Abu Ghraib to advise its commanders, Graham tells FRONTINE it’s another example of the price being paid “for executing a great war plan and a pretty poor occupation plan.”

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