Abu Ghraib tactics fine, defense says

FORT HOOD, Texas — A lawyer for Charles Graner, accused of being a ringleader in the Iraq prisoner-abuse scandal, yesterday compared piling naked prisoners into pyramids to cheerleader shows, and said leashing inmates was also acceptable prisoner control.

"Don't cheerleaders all over America form pyramids six to eight times a year? Is that torture?" Guy Womack, Graner's attorney, said in opening arguments to the 10-member U.S. military jury at the reservist sergeant's court-martial.

Spc. Graner and Pvt. Lynndie England, who had a child with Graner and who is also facing a court-martial, became the faces of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal after they appeared in photographs that showed degraded, naked prisoners. The photographs, taken last winter, first surfaced in April.

Also yesterday, Pvt. Ivan Frederick testified at the court-martial that a CIA agent once told him he could treat detainees as roughly as he wanted "as long as you don't kill them." Frederick also said the man, whom he identified as "Agent Romero," told him to "soften up" one suspected insurgent for questioning.

Frederick, a Maryland reservist and Graner's supervisor at Abu Ghraib, testified as part of a plea bargain for his conviction in his part of the conspiracy to abuse Iraqi detainees. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, demoted from staff sergeant and received a dishonorable discharge.

Witnesses said most of the soldiers at the prison responded to abuse of inmates by laughing and joining in the mistreatment. But two soldiers — Spc. Matthew Wisdom and Spc. Joseph Darby — testified they were so disgusted by the conduct of their fellow soldiers that they reported it to superiors.

Wisdom's warning, in November 2003, was ignored. But two months later, Darby gave Army investigators photographic evidence of the abuse.

The prosecution showed some of those pictures in its opening argument, including several of naked Iraqi men piled on each other and another of England holding a crawling, naked Iraqi man on a leash. Pvt. Jeremy Sivits, who is serving a year in prison for his role in the abuse, pointed out Graner organizing naked prisoners into a pyramid.

Defense attorney Womack, a retired Marine, said using a tether was a valid method of controlling detainees, especially those who might be soiled with feces.

"You're keeping control of them. A tether is a valid control to be used in corrections," he said. "In Texas we'd lasso them and drag them out of there." He compared the leash to the tethers that some parents place on their toddlers while in shopping malls.

The pictures of the humiliating treatment of the prisoners at the prison outside Baghdad prompted outrage around the world and undermined the image of the United States. The Bush administration has said the actions were not part of a policy or condoned by senior officers.

But investigations have shown many prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan and at the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba also suffered abuse after the government considered ways to obtain information in the war against terrorism.

"Specialist Graner was doing what was expected of him," Womack said. "Through all this ... Graner was following orders — and being praised for it."

But the chief prosecutor, Army Maj. Michael Holley, said "following orders" is not a valid defense.

Holley conceded that the guards at Abu Ghraib were placed in a "chaotic environment," marked by "training problems, certainly leadership problems."

Graner, a 36-year-old former prison guard from Uniontown, Pa., faces five charges stemming from the events at Abu Ghraib in the winter of 2003-04. If convicted by the court-martial, he could face up to 17-1/2 years in prison.

Four enlisted soldiers have pleaded guilty to criminal offenses at Abu Ghraib. Graner is the first of the accused guards to go to trial.

Witnesses testified that the guards at the prison, primarily Army reservists in their early 20s, had little or no training in running a military prison before they were assigned to the prison's "Tier One-Alpha."

That cellblock was supposed to be set aside for Iraqi prisoners who might be able to provide information about the guerrilla insurgency that has sprung up since the April 2003 fall of Baghdad.

Darby testified that Graner had once shown him a digital image of a detainee chained to the wall, naked, a puddle beneath his legs.

"Graner told me, 'The Christian in me knows it was wrong, but the corrections officer in me couldn't resist making a man [urinate on] himself.' "

Former guards also said Graner punched a hooded prisoner in the face, knocking him unconscious.

Sivits testified that Graner commented that the punch injured his hand. "Oh, damn, that hurt," Sivits quoted Graner as saying.

Sivits also said Graner beat a prisoner recovering from a gunshot wound in December 2003. "Please mister, please, please, please stop," was the Iraqi's response, Sivits said.

Compiled from Reuters, The Washington Post, Dallas Morning News and The Associated Press.