FORT HOOD, Texas — The court-martial of Army reservist Spc. Charles Graner, the man portrayed as the ringleader in the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal in Iraq, is set to begin here today.

Graner is expected to argue that he was following orders from superiors.

On the eve of the court-martial, the government announced it was dropping four of the 14 charges, but the core of the case remained. It gave no reason for reducing the charges.

Graner and Pvt. Lynndie England, with whom he fathered a child, became the faces of the 2003 Abu Ghraib prison scandal after appearing in photos that showed piles of naked prisoners and one in which England held a naked Iraqi by a leash.

Graner, a member of a reservist unit who had worked as a prison guard in the United States, faces 17-1/2 years in prison on charges that include conspiracy to mistreat detainees, dereliction of duty, maltreating detainees and assault.

He could have faced a further seven years had the government not dropped four charges, including jumping on detainees, stomping on their hands and feet and violating the rules by having sex with England.

Four of seven members of Graner's unit already have pleaded guilty to abuse charges and three have been sentenced to prison. The scandal sparked international outrage and further eroded U.S. credibility already damaged by the decision to invade Iraq.

The Bush administration and military leaders have blamed the abuses on a small group of soldiers and said there was no policy to mishandle prisoners.

But Attorney Guy Womack has argued Graner was just following orders.

Victims' families sue private security firm

Families of four American men who were murdered and burned by Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq last March have sued Blackwater Security Consulting, accusing the high-profile private security firm of fraud and of putting its employees at unnecessary risk.

After the men were killed, the bodies of two of them were strung up on a bridge over the Euphrates River, and photos were transmitted around the world.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Raleigh, N.C., near where the firm has headquarters, alleges that the men were not provided with armored vehicles or the weapons they were promised. The suit also charges the men were sent out in vehicles with only two people even though they had been told that each security mission Blackwater performed would be handled with at least three persons per car — a driver, a navigator and a rear gunner.

In order to save money, "Blackwater intentionally and knowingly failed to provide" the four murdered men "with the protections, tools and information" that it had promised, according to the lawsuit, which was filed by Daniel J. Callahan, a lawyer based in Santa Ana, Calif., who has won a number of large civil damage awards.

Professor Scott L. Silliman, director of the Center for Law, Ethics & National Security at Duke University Law School, said the lawsuit was potentially important because of the growing use of private security contractors in theaters of war and the lack of standards governing their activities. Silliman said he believed this is the first lawsuit of its kind filed since the Iraq war began.

Case against sergeant wraps up in Texas

FORT HOOD, Texas — An Army platoon sergeant used unlawful military action when he ordered his troops to force two Iraqi cousins into the Tigris River for violating curfew, a prosecutor said yesterday in closing arguments.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Tracy Perkins, who is accused in the drowning death of Zaidoun Fadel Hassoun, 19, is being tried on charges of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, obstruction of justice and making a false statement.

Jurors were expected to start deliberations last night. If convicted, he could receive no punishment or up to 26 years in a military prison.

During closing arguments, Capt. Tom Schiffer said Perkins gave the orders to dump the men into the water — and therefore shares the blame with soldiers who forced the cousins at gunpoint into the river near Samarra in January 2004.

Defense attorney Capt. Josh Norris said the hostilities in Iraq require soldiers to find effective nonlethal ways to deter crime and establish respect.

"Did these guys cross over the line? Did they know the left and right limits? This war is in this gray area most of the time," Norris said. "Was it [the river incident] a good idea? Maybe not ... but was it a crime, considering all the circumstances?"

Norris also disputed the testimony of Marwan Hassoun, who said he swam against a strong current to safety on the river bank while his cousin was swept away. The teen's body was found nearly two weeks later downstream, Marwan testified.

Spending to rebuild Iraq behind schedule

WASHINGTON — The United States has still only spent a small portion of the $18.4 billion it set aside for rebuilding Iraq, a new government report shows.

According to a copy of the Bush administration's latest quarterly update to Congress on Iraq obtained by Reuters yesterday, as of Dec. 29 only $2.2 billion of the funds has actually been spent.

This is up from $1.2 billion in the previous report that detailed reconstruction spending as of Sept. 22.

Newspaper loses contact with reporter

PARIS — A French reporter and her Iraqi interpreter have gone missing from Baghdad, prompting searches for her in hospitals and elsewhere, French officials said yesterday.

The French daily Liberation said it has not heard from Florence Aubenas for more than 24 hours. French, Iraqi and U.S. authorities have been alerted, it added.

Francois Sergent, head of the daily's foreign service, said she was clinging to the hope that she may have been detained by U.S. or Iraqi forces. Normally, she is in contact with the paper at least twice a day, he added.

Aubenas, 43, and her interpreter Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi "haven't been seen since they left their hotel in Baghdad Wednesday morning," Liberation said on its Web site.

Aubenas has worked for Liberation since 1986 and has covered Kosovo, Algeria, Rwanda and Afghanistan. She had been in Baghdad since Dec. 16 — her second trip to Iraq, Sergent said.

"She is tough and very experienced," he said.