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US intelligence encourages torture in Iraq
An ex-US military policewoman has told a court martial she was asked by intelligence officers at Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail to mock naked detainees.
Megan Ambuhl also told the trial of alleged abuse ringleader Specialist Charles Graner that interrogators asked military police to rough up prisoners.
Defence lawyers have argued that Spc Graner was forced to act on orders from above in the prisoner abuse scandal.
Spc Graner has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.
Ambuhl admitted she was close to Spc Graner and did not want him jailed.
Under cross-examination, she said she had had a brief sexual relationship with him and they remained good friends.
Ambuhl, who pleaded guilty last year to dereliction of duty in the scandal and was dismissed from the army, told the court that interrogators had routinely asked them to break down detainees.
"They would come down with their detainees and let us know what they wanted us to do with them," she said. "They might say this guy is co-operating, not co-operating."
'Good job'
She said female soldiers were asked "fairly often" by intelligence officers to ridicule naked detainees.
"They wanted me to be in the shower, point to the detainees' genitals and laugh," she said, speaking on the fifth day of the trial at Fort Hood army base in Texas.
SOURCE
BBC News, "Iraq prisoner abuse 'encouraged'", 15 January 2005.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4173051.stm
FURTHER READING
The Guardian, "Abu Ghraib trial ends as 'torturer' refuses to testify", 14 January 2005.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1390335,00.html
The trial of the man labelled by the Pentagon the "primary torturer" at Abu Ghraib prison ended abruptly yesterday after the defendant decided at the last minute not to take the stand. [A cover-up deal was probably struck with the Pentagon.]
Specialist Charles Graner, who features prominently in some of the most graphic images from the Iraqi prison, had been expected to argue that he had only been following orders.
"The Insider" mailing list article, 15 January 2005.
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