Iraq Notebook
Attacks on oil industry to halt exports in north

Megan Ambuhl was an Abu Ghraib guard.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Related stories Captors demand British troops' exit to prevent hostage going to al-Zarqawi Car bombs kill 12 in twin attacks

Saboteurs have mounted the biggest attacks yet on Iraq's oil infrastructure, blowing up three pipelines in the north and halting most exports via Turkey, oil officials said.

In northern Iraq yesterday, saboteurs blew up an oil pipeline and attacked an oil well, violence that is expected to stop oil exports for the next 10 days, Iraqi oil officials said. Iraq's oil industry, which provides desperately needed money for reconstruction efforts, has been the target of repeated attacks by insurgents.

One attack damaged a pipeline used for export. A second explosion targeted the Ghabaza oil field southwest of Kirkuk.

Last week, insurgents in Fallujah threatened to sabotage Iraq's oil infrastructure if their demands for cheap gasoline were not fulfilled. Dow Jones reported that Iraqi crude had fallen to less than half the storage capacity at Ceyhan, the Turkish port on the Mediterranean Sea were tankers are loaded.

Saddam's top lawyer agrees to bow out

AMMAN, Jordan — Saddam Hussein's family dismissed a prominent Jordanian lawyer who led the ousted Iraqi dictator's defense team, accusing him of seeking "personal gain and fame" in the high-profile case, other legal team members said yesterday.

Saddam's family told Mohammed al-Rashdan in late September he was being relieved of his duties, "but he did not accept the wish" until yesterday, said Ziad al-Khasawneh, spokesman for the lawyers appointed by Saddam's wife, Sajida.

"He has traveled to the United States without the knowledge of the defense team. He communicated with the special Iraqi tribunal in charge of President Saddam's trial without our consensus, and he had differences with the family on defense procedures," al-Khasawneh said.

Saddam's lead defense lawyers are from countries including the United States, Britain, France, Jordan, Lebanon and Libya. Most of the volunteer lawyers are from Arab countries.

U.S. authorities have refused to let lawyers see the Iraqi dictator, who remains in a U.S.-controlled jail until Iraqis are ready to take physical custody of him.
 
Reservist pleads guilty in prison scandal

WASHINGTON — A fourth soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal has pleaded guilty and also provided authorities with fresh details on how an Iraqi inmate was dragged naked on a dog leash around the prison near Baghdad at the behest of intelligence officers who could not control him.

The photo of the man on the leash — an indelible images from the Abu Ghraib scandal — shows Spc. Megan Ambuhl in the background as Pfc. Lynndie R. England holds the leash.

Ambuhl, considered the least culpable of the seven guards and one intelligence officer charged so far in the case, pleaded guilty Saturday to one count of dereliction of duty for not reporting the dog-leash incident. As part of a plea agreement reached in Baghdad and disclosed yesterday by her attorney, Harvey Volzer, Ambuhl forfeited half of one month's pay and was reduced in rank from specialist to private. She is to cooperate as a government witness in courts-martial proceedings against others accused in the scandal.

According to transcripts of an Oct. 5 interview with Army psychologists, Ambuhl said prison guards were told by military intelligence officers to move the prisoner because they "had another detainee they wanted to put in the hole." She said the inmate was labeled "of interest" to intelligence officers and that they personally directed how he was to be treated, with either "soft or harsh" treatment.

Ambuhl's recollections bolster claims by other prison guards that much of the abuse was directed by the military-intelligence side of the facility.

Ambuhl's psychological report states she arrived in Baghdad with little training on how to treat detainees and no prior prison-guard experience. From the outset, she told Lt. Col. Rebecca A. Dyer, the licensed clinical psychologist, Ambuhl assumed that harsh and humiliating treatment of detainees was acceptable.

For instance, during her initial tour of the facility, "we already saw detainees wearing underwear on their heads," she told the psychologist. "We just thought it was the standard."

Volzer said Ambuhl will return home to Centreville, Va., but remain an Army reservist in case she is called as a witness for the other four soldiers yet to stand trial. "You couldn't ask for a better result than this," Volzer said, noting that Ambuhl will not serve any prison time.

In contrast, Staff Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II was given eight years in prison, Spc. Jeremy Sivits received a year, and Spc. Armin Cruz, an intelligence analyst, got eight months. All had pleaded guilty.

England, the other soldier in the photo of the leashed prisoner, is awaiting court-martial.

Famed physicist condemns war

LONDON — Britain's most famous scientist, Stephen Hawking, condemned the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as a "war crime" and said yesterday it was based on lies.

The physicist spoke at an anti-war demonstration in London's Trafalgar Square timed to coincide with the U.S. election.

"The war was based on two lies," said Hawking. "The first was we were in danger of weapons of mass destruction, and the second was that Iraq was somehow to blame for Sept. 11.

"It has been a tragedy for all the families that have lost members. As many as 100,000 people have died, half of them women and children. If that is not a war crime, what is?"

Hawking, the best-selling author of "A Brief History of Time," was joined by other public figures. Similar events were being held in Spain, Italy, Australia, the United States and Iraq.