US/IRAQ: This is what happened inside Abu Ghraib, according to a US soldier co-operating with the inquiry. Richard Serrano reports from Washington.
The first soldier scheduled to be court-martialled in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal has told military authorities a harrowing tale of abuse, including an episode in which a guard used a baton to beat an Iraqi detainee who had been shot in the legs and handcuffed to a bed.
As the prisoner screamed "Mister, mister, please stop," Military Police Cpl Charles Graner struck him twice with the police baton, fellow guard Spc Jeremy Sivits told military investigators.
Spc Sivits, whose statements are contained in investigative records obtained by the Los Angeles Times, provided the most detailed account to become public by one of the defendants in the abuse scandal.
He described an atmosphere in which a group of military policemen repeatedly laughed, joked and mocked Iraqi detainees as they stripped them naked, struck and kicked them and, in the crudest of humiliations, even forced them to hit each other.
Seven military police troops have been accused in the scandal and investigations are continuing. Spc Sivits, who faces lesser charges than his colleagues because of his co-operation with prosecutors, is expected to plead guilty at a special court-martial next week in Baghdad.
Spc Sivits portrayed Cpl Graner, a former Pennsylvania prison guard who was accused of misconduct there, as a ringleader of the Abu Ghraib abuses. He said Cpl Graner was always "joking, laughing, pissed off a little, acting like he was enjoying it".
Once, Spc Sivits added, "Graner said in a baby-type voice" to an injured detainee," 'Ah, does that hurt'?"
Spc Sivits also gave fresh details about the other suspects in the beating of Iraqi prisoners, for the first time describing their moods as prisoners were stripped and abused.
And he said all of this was done without the knowledge of their superiors in the army chain of command. "Our command would have slammed us," he said. "They believe in doing the right thing. If they saw what was going on, there would be hell to pay."
Some of the guards have said they acted on orders from above or from military intelligence to soften up inmates for questioning. Spc Sivits said Cpl Graner told him not to say anything. Spc Sivits said he first became aware of the abuse, and began photographing much of it, on October 3rd, 2003, nearly a month earlier than November 7th, the date previously thought to have marked the beginning of harsh treatment in the overcrowded and often chaotic prison.
Another guard tipped off criminal investigators on January 13th, and SPC Sivits was interviewed before noon the next day by military detectives at Abu Ghraib.
His interview with army investigators, which is likely to be a key element in prosecution of the other six guards, noted the coldness of guards and the anguished cries of detainees.
It also makes clear that investigators focused from the start on Cpl Graner and Staff Sgt Ivan Frederick as the ringleaders. The six other defendants have declared their innocence.
Spc Sivits said Staff Sgt Frederick seemed "mellow" as he hit prisoners and watched other guards join in. "He was really not saying too much. Just kind of enjoying it," Spc Sivits said.
He described Pfc Lynndie England, the small woman often seen smoking and smiling in the photos, as "laughing at the different stuff that they were having the detainees do".
Pfc England, by contrast, has maintained that she was ordered to pose in front of the abused inmates. SPC Sivits said Spc Sabrina Harman, seen next to a pile of naked male prisoners, was sometimes smiling but "there was a few times she had a look of disgust on her face".
"She did write the word rapist on the side of the leg of one of the inmates. She did this after she had found out from the processing sheets that he had raped someone. She wrote it with a dry erase black marker," he added.
The one defendant Spc Sivits did not mention was Spc Megan Ambuhl. She is not seen in any of the photos yet made public, and a military hearing officer has recommended that two of the four charges filed against her be dropped.
"Their weakest case involves her," said her lawyer, Mr Harvey Volzer. "She was just watching. Nevertheless she is worried about having a conviction, which would basically be for guilt-by-association." Spc Sivits stressed that it was Cpl Graner and Staff Sgt Frederick who led the guards in nightly revelries.
"I was laughing at some of the stuff that they had them do," he conceded. "I was disgusted at some of the stuff as well. As I think about it now, I do not think any of it was funny."
Asked specifically what was not funny, he said, "the tower thing" - referring to prisoners being forced to strip and form a pyramid on the floor.
He described Cpl Graner striking inmates, and Sgt Javal Davis, another of the suspects, running across the floor and jumping on them when they were handcuffed and piled on the floor.
"A couple of the detainees kind of made an 'ah' sound as if this hurt them or caused them some type of pain when Davis would land on them," he said.
"After Davis had done this, Davis then stomped on either the fingers or toes of the detainees. When he stomped the detainees, they were in pain, because the detainees would scream loudly."
Sivits recalled the prisoners usually were reluctant to strip in front of each other, and that Graner forced them to do so anyway. He said Graner once punched a detainee in the head so hard the man fell unconscious. "His eyes were closed and he was not moving," Spc Sivits said.
The guards later had to check to see if the detainee was still breathing. Later still, Cpl Graner was shaking his fist, saying, "Damn that hurt".
Another time, Spc Sivits said, Cpl Graner punched a detainee in the chest. "The detainee took a real deep breath and kind of squatted down," Spc Sivits said.
A medic was called and Staff Sgt Frederick thought the man was having a heart attack, Spc Sivits said. "I tried to show the detainee how to breathe slowly," Spc Sivits said. "It was as if his breath was gone."
Spc Sivits said Staff Sgt Frederick forced naked detainees to masturbate, showing them how to move their hands back and forth until "one of them did it right". Then, Spc Sivits said: "Harman and England would put their thumbs up and have the picture taken." He said another inmate was bitten by a police dog after Cpl Graner "provoked" the detainee to "go after him".
Another inmate was handcuffed to a bed, with wounds on his legs from where "he had been shot with buckshot". He said Cpl Graner did not care, and instead would wield a police baton and "strike the detainee with a half baseball swing". Said Spc Sivits: "The detainee would beg Graner to stop by saying, 'Mister, Mister, please stop'."
Another time two inmates were told to strike each other. At first, they refused, Spc Sivits said, then complied. "One of the inmates punched the other, then the other struck that one back. They hit each other once each."
Spc Sivits told the investigators that he now believed the behaviour of guards was wrong, including his own. "To be honest, it was mistreating the prisoners. I know the war has stopped, but I know if they are POWs that is abuse of the Geneva Conventions."
He was asked why he did not report the abuse. "I was asked not to," he said. "And I try to be friends with everyone. I see now where trying to be friends with everyone can cost ya."