| Iraq-Jordan | ||||
| Harman gets six months for Abu Ghraib abuse | ||||
| 2005-05-18 | ||||
| FORT HOOD, Texas - A US Army reservist convicted of attaching wires to an Iraqi prisoner in a photographed scene that outraged the international community was sentenced on Tuesday to six months in prison. A military jury deciding the fate of Sabrina Harman, 27, at the nation's largest Army base recommended six-months of confinement, one of the lightest punishments handed down in the Abu Ghraib cases. She had faced a maximum of five and a half years and the prosecution had sought a three-year sentence. Harman will also receive a bad conduct discharge. "I think she was extremely relieved," said her civilian attorney Frank Spinner. "To have a jury come back and say six months, that's pretty significant."
"I wish to apologize to any and all detainees," Harman told a military courtroom earlier. "I failed my duties. I failed my mission. Not only did I let down the people in Iraq, I let down every single soldier that serves today." "I take full responsibility for my actions," she said. "The decisions I made were mine and mine alone."
Earlier, her partner told the military panel that Harman is a gentle woman. "What you see out there is not the true Sabrina Harman," Kelly Bryant, said in testimony that brought Harman to tears. "She's the type of person who wouldn't allow you to step on an ant or kill a spider." Bryant said Harman, who worked at a pizza parlor before the war, had wanted to adopt an Iraqi boy. "She's generous, gentle, caring, unselfish," she said.
Six other soldiers have reached plea deals, with all except Graner's new wife, Megan Ambuhl, receiving prison time.
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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Harman guilty of Abu Ghraib abuse |
| 2005-05-17 |
 A military jury has convicted army reservist Sabrina Harman on six of seven counts related to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The 27-year-old Harman appeared in some of the most notorious Abu Ghraib prison photographs, including one in which she posed with a pyramid of naked detainees. She could face a maximum of five-and-a-half years in prison. Harman faced charges of conspiracy, dereliction of duty and maltreatment of subordinates. |
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| Home Front: WoT | ||||||
| Defense in court-martial rests with Graner silent | ||||||
| 2005-01-14 | ||||||
| EFL: FORT HOOD, Texas -- Lawyers for Army Spc. Charles A. Graner Jr. abruptly rested their case yesterday, without calling Graner or any senior officers to shed new light on the prison abuse scandal in which he was portrayed as the grinning, sadistic ringleader. A 10-man military jury is expected to begin deliberations today in Graner's case, the first contested court-martial in the scandal ignited last spring by photos showing naked and hooded Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison enduring humiliating abuses at the hands of U.S. soldiers.
"You don't want your friend to go to jail, do you?" the prosecutor, Maj. Michael Holley, asked Ambuhl at one point. "No, sir," Ambuhl quietly replied. Graner, who faces 17 1/2 years behind bars if he is convicted on the charges of conspiracy, maltreatment, assault, indecent acts and dereliction of duty, also had a sexual relationship with another member of the 372nd, Pfc. Lynndie R. England, while the unit was stationed at Abu Ghraib. England gave birth last fall to a son that Graner is believed to have fathered. She and two other soldiers from the 372nd, Sgt. Javal Davis and Spc. Sabrina Harman, are expected to stand trial at Fort Hood this year.
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| Iraq |
| US commander ordered to court |
| 2004-12-04 |
| A MILITARY judge today ordered the former commander of US prisons in Iraq to testify at the trial of a soldier who says he was ordered to abuse detainees at Abu Ghraib. The judge, Colonel James Pohl, said Brigadier-General Janice Karpinski's testimony at the trial of Sergeant Javal Davis would be limited to conditions at Abu Ghraib and the interaction there between guards and military interrogators. Davis told investigators military intelligence personnel appeared to approve of the abuse. "We were told they had different rules," he told investigators, according to an army report. Karpinski has denied knowing about any mistreatment of prisoners until photographs were made public at the end of April showing hooded and naked prisoners being tormented by their US captors. In an interview with The Associated Press, Karpinski said a "conspiracy" among top US commanders left her to blame for the abuses at Abu Ghraib. A report issued by an independent panel of nongovernment experts blamed Karpinski for leadership failures that "helped set the conditions at the prison which led to the abuses". The hearing came as the navy said it was investigating new photographs obtained by the AP that appear to show navy SEALs in Iraq sitting on hooded and handcuffed detainees. Other photos show what appear to be bloodied prisoners, one with a gun to his head. Davis and Specialist Sabrina Harman had pretrial hearings in Fort Hood, Texas, today that were originally scheduled to begin next year in Baghdad. Charges against Davis, a native of New Jersey, include conspiracy to maltreat detainees, assault, dereliction of duty and lying in official statements. He has acknowledged stepping on the fingers and toes of detainees, but denied hurting anyone and said he was ordered to "soften them up". Harman, of Virginia, is accused of photographing some of the abuse, participating in sexual humiliation of naked prisoners, writing "rapist" on the leg of a detainee who then was forced to pose naked with other prisoners, and placing wires in the hands of a detainee and telling him he would be electrocuted if he fell off a box. She was photographed standing behind naked, hooded Iraqis stacked in a human pyramid and also shown next to a dead body packed in ice giving thumbs-up signs with Specialist Charles Graner Jr. Graner, described as the ringleader and the father of the child of Private First Class Lynndie England, is set to appear in court on Monday. He is expected to seek dismissal of charges on grounds of undue command influence. The three are among seven members of the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company charged with humiliating and assaulting prisoners at the Baghdad prison. Graner, of Pennsylvania, is scheduled for trial beginning January 7. Davis's trial will begin on February 1. Harman's trial date has not yet been determined, according to Fort Hood officials. |
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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Military Intel Troop Exonerates His Unit and Superiors of Prisoner Abuse |
| 2004-06-05 |
| From Yahoo News, crediting The Los Angeles Times U.S. Army Spc. Israel Rivera had just returned to duty at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq last October after minor surgery to remove shrapnel from his face. He was checking his e-mail, he recalls, when another military intelligence soldier approached. "Hey Izzy, did you hear about those detainees that raped that one kid?" asked the other soldier, Spc. Armin J. Cruz. Rivera hadnât heard of the incident and asked what was going to happen to the prisoners. Cruz, Rivera said, responded with an invitation: "Do you want to go see whatâs happening?" The two army intelligence analysts from a reserve unit in Texas walked over to the isolation cellblock at Abu Ghraib and into the middle of the prison abuse scandal that came to light in April. Their faces were among those captured in disturbing photographs of inmates being mistreated. In a telephone interview with The Times, Rivera described his involvement in the case for the first time, saying that he visited the cellblock largely out of curiosity and that he was stunned by what he saw: detainees being stripped naked, made to crawl on their stomachs and chained into a ball of limbs and flesh on the prison floor. Rivera, 20, is the first military intelligence soldier to come forward publicly and say that he witnessed a fellow intelligence soldier, Cruz, taking part in the abuse of prisoners in the isolation cellblock at Abu Ghraib. .... Because they are among only a handful of intelligence soldiers directly tied to the abuse in photographs, Rivera and Cruz are potentially important witnesses for military investigators seeking to determine the scope of the scandal â specifically whether the torture of detainees had any connection to the interrogation operation at Abu Ghraib. Rivera disputed such claims, saying the abuse he witnessed had nothing to do with "softening up" prisoners to get information from them. He insisted that his superiors did not know about the abuse, let alone sanction it. .... Rivera said he never informed his superiors and still hasnât shared his account with military investigators. When he met with an Army Criminal Investigation Division agent in January, he refused to talk unless he was provided with an attorney. .... The episode Rivera witnessed came about two weeks before some of the most serious abuses took place, including nude prisoners being stacked up in pyramids or forced to masturbate in front of guards. .... Riveraâs account is the most detailed description to date of prisoner abuse that is believed to have occurred Oct. 25. According to military records, Rivera appears in photographs taken that night that show as many as seven U.S. soldiers and one civilian interpreter huddled around three naked detainees on the floor. .... Rivera was among at least four intelligence personnel at the scene, including Cruz; Spc. Roman Krol, an Army interrogator; and Adel L. Nakhla, a civilian interpreter employed by Titan Corp. Several of the seven MPs charged in the case have said they were encouraged or directed by interrogators to mistreat prisoners as a means of softening them up for questioning. Rivera said that was not the case. "Anyone who says this was condoned by MI â no, absolutely not," he said, adding that Cruz knew about the activities in the cellblock only because he was friends with an MP, Spc. Sabrina Harman, who has since been charged. .... Rivera did not accuse Nakhla of abusing detainees, but said Nakhla translated the MPsâ shouts and orders. .... Rivera said that he did not personally take part in any abuse that night. In the pictures, "Iâm shown doing exactly what I did that night â stupidly watching, like a moron," he said. ... After about 15 minutes, Rivera said, he left the cellblock. The next day, Rivera said, he described what he saw to another soldier from his unit, Spc. Hannah Schlegel. Schlegel urged informing superiors, Rivera said, but he refused. Later that day, she indicated that she had done so herself. "She comes back and said, âIzzy, you know that thing, donât worry about it, I took care of it.â " Rivera said he and Schlegel also sought to discourage Cruz and Krol from taking part in any future incidents by telling them that military investigators had heard about the incident in late October and were "sniffing around." .... |
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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Chalabi quits after US raid |
| 2004-05-21 |
| A LEADING member of the Iraqi Governing Council, Ahmed Chalabi, cut ties with the US-led coalition after a police and military raid on his house, as President George W. Bush sought to ease Republican fears over Iraqâs future. But new photos of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, a report of abuses at another secret facility, and accusations - strongly denied by the US military - that 41 people celebrating a wedding were killed in a US air raid cast fresh shadows over the US occupation. US forces were also involved in fierce clashes with militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. Chalabi, once the darling of the Pentagon, said his relations with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) were "non-existent" after Iraqi police and US troops stormed his house and office, confiscating files and computers. Chalabi said after the overnight attack on his complex in Baghdad that the governing council would hold emergency talks today to discuss a response. "I am Americaâs best friend in Iraq; if the CPA finds it necessary to direct an armed attack against my home you can see the state of relations between the CPA and the Iraqi people," he said. Coalition spokesman Dan Senor dodged questions about the raids, saying they had been "Iraqi-led" and that "Chalabi has worked closely with us over a number of months" to rebuild the country. Washington has sought to distance itself from Chalabi, a secular Shiite Muslim, in recent months amid claims his Iraqi National Congress (INC) fed false information to the US government before the March 2003 US-led invasion. In Washington, the Pentagon said Wednesday it had halted its monthly payments of $US340,000 to the INC and would seek other intelligence sources on Iraq. A report commissioned by the US Congress said the INC had received about $US33 million from the US between March 2000 and September 2003, in part to set up regular television broadcasts beamed at the Iraqi interior. But because of distrust between the INC and the State Department, the money was disbursed in short-term and irregular increments, short-circuiting efforts to realise the goal of the money, the General Accounting Office said. Meanwhile, Bush made a rare visit to Congress to rally fellow Republicans rattled by the Iraq unrest and polls showing him in trouble ahead of the November 2 elections. Lawmakers emerging from the closed-door session described Bush as optimistic about his re-election bid and determined to return Iraq to self-rule June 30. "The President was upbeat," said Senator Rick Santorum. "He talked about Iraq, about getting the budget passed, and assured the June 30 handover to the Iraqis." Recent opinion polls show Bushâs job approval ratings at the lowest levels of his presidency. Bush has apologised for the Abu Ghraib scandal but it resurged with the release of two new photographs of US troops with a dead Iraqi. In the images, US soldiers identified as Specialist Charles Graner and Specialist Sabrina Harman are seen grinning with their thumbs up as they stand over the corpse of an Iraqi detainee lying on a black bag. The two are among the seven US guards at Abu Ghraib already charged with prisoner abuse. One, Jeremy Sivits, was sentenced to a year in jail on Wednesday in the first court-martial over the affair. The Defence Department is also investigating claims that US troops violated the Geneva Conventions interrogating Iraqis at a top-secret jail near Baghdadâs airport, US television NBC News reported, citing two senior government officials. Coalition military leaders also scoffed at another potential scandal, saying US troops attacked a suspected safe house used by foreign fighters, killing 41 people. Residents of the western desert town of Qaim, near the Syrian border, said US helicopters targeted a district early Wednesday where a wedding was being held. The US military has agreed to investigate the incident, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the coalitionâs military spokesman, said, stressing the attack was based on intelligence that insurgents were gathering in the remote desert region. "How many people go to the desert 16km from the Syrian border and hold a wedding many miles from the nearest city?" Marine Major General James Mattis asked. The strike however prompted swift concern from the International Committee of the Red Cross about the use of force by the US military. "We are concerned about the excessive use of force which violates international human rights," Nada Dumani, the ICRC spokeswoman in Baghdad, said. "Even if (you come under) fire, there are rules of proportion in retaliation and the absolute need to prevent civilian casualties." |
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| Iraq-Jordan |
| US Military Policeman Describe Abuse of Prisoners |
| 2004-05-14 |
| When a fresh crop of detainees arrived at Abu Ghraib prison one night in late October, their jailers set upon them. The soldiers pulled seven Iraqi detainees from their cells, "tossed them in the middle of the floor" and then one soldier ran across the room and lunged into the pile of detainees, according to sworn statements given to investigators by one of the soldiers now charged with abuse. He did it again, jumping into the group like it was a pile of autumn leaves, and another soldier called for others to join in. The detainees were ordered to strip and masturbate, their heads covered with plastic sandbags. One soldier stomped on their fingers and toes. "Graner put the detaineeâs head into a cradle position with Granerâs arm, and Graner punched the detainee with a lot of force, in the temple," Specialist Jeremy C. Sivits said in his statements to investigators, referring to another soldier charged, Specialist Charles A. Graner Jr. "Graner punched the detainee with a closed fist so hard in the temple that it knocked the detainee unconscious. He was joking, laughing,like he was enjoying it. He went over to the pile of detainees that were still clothed and he put his knees on them and had his picture taken." .... The soldiers knew that what they had done was wrong, Specialist Sivits told investigators, at least enough to instruct him not to tell anyone what he had seen. Specialist Sivits was asked if the abuse would have happened if someone in the chain of command was present. "Hell no," he replied, adding: "Because our command would have slammed us. They believe in doing the right thing. If they saw what was going on, there would be hell to pay." The evening began with Staff Sgt. Ivan L. Frederick II casually telling Specialist Sivits to join him where the detainees were held. They escorted the detainees from their holding cells and piled them up. "Graner told Specialist Wisdom to come in and `get him some.â Meaning to come in and be part of whatever was going to happen," Specialist Sivits told investigators, referring to Specialist Matthew Wisdom. "A couple of the detainees kind of made an ahh sound as if this hurt them or caused them some type of pain when Davis would land on them," he said. Sergeant Javal C. Davis responded by stepping on their fingers or toes, Specialist Sivits said, and the detainees screamed. The platoon sergeant standing on a tier above the room heard the screams and yelled down at Sergeant Davis to stop, surprising the other soldiers with the anger in his command, Specialist Sivits said. But within two minutes, the platoon sergeant left, and the soldiers resumed the abuse. "Next Graner and Frederick had the detainees strip," Specialist Sivits said. "Graner was the one who told them to strip in Arabic language." The detainees hesitated. Specialist Graner and Sergeant Frederick took them aside and instructed them again. Specialist Graner told them to sit. "I do not know what provoked Graner," Specialist Sivits said, "but Graner knelt down to one of the detainees that was nude and had the sandbag over his head" and punched the detainee unconscious. .... Sergeant Frederick was standing in front of another detainee. "For no reason, Frederick punched the detainee in the chest," Specialist Sivits said. "The detainee took a real deep breath and kind of squatted down. The detainee said he could not breathe. ... Frederick and Graner then tried to get several of the inmates to masturbate themselves .... Staff Sergeant Frederick would take the hand of the detainee and put it on the detaineeâs penis, and make the detaineeâs hand go back and forth, as if masturbating. He did this to about three of the detainees before one of them did it right." "After five minutes, they told him to stop. Specialist Graner then had them pose against the wall, and made one kneel in front of the other, Specialist Sivits said, "So that from behind the detainee that was kneeling, it would look like the detainee kneeling had the penis of the detainee standing in his mouth, but he did not. Specialist Sabrina Harman and Private England "would stand in front of the detainees and England and Harman would put their thumbs up and have the pictures taken." .... He [Sivits] described another night when a dog was set upon a detainee, and another when a detainee was handcuffed to a bed. "Graner was in the room with him," he said. "This detainee had wounds on his legs from where he had been shot with the buckshot." Specialist Graner, he said, would "strike the detainee with a half baseball swing, and hit the wounds of the detainee. There is no doubt that this hurt the detainee because he would scream he got hit. The detainee would beg Graner to stop by saying `Mister, Mister, please stop,â or words to that effect." ... |
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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Enlisted Military Policemen Wonât Take Fall Alone in Interrogation Scandal |
| 2004-05-07 |
| An American general recommended that Army prison guards in Iraq become more involved in "softening up" prisoners for interrogations shortly before abuses occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison last fall, according to an internal report at the heart of the controversy. .... In a report citing "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" inflicted on Iraqis held at Abu Ghraib between October and December 2003, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba said he found credible evidence that military police guards were improperly drawn into the role of setting "physical and mental conditions for favorable interrogation" of prisoners. Tagubaâs report says the practice of using MPs to help break down prisoners may have been imported from the Guantanamo Bay prison complex and possibly others in Afghanistan used to hold terrorist suspects. The Guantanamo Bay prison complex was run by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller. In late August 2003, Miller conducted an inquiry on interrogation and detention procedures in Iraq and suggested that prison guards could help set conditions for the interrogation of prisoners, according to the Taguba report. ... A November 2003 report by Maj. Gen. Donald Ryder, the Armyâs provost marshal, concluded that the Army Reserveâs 800th Military Police Brigade, which was running Abu Ghraib, was not given official orders to get involved in setting conditions for interrogations. Taguba, however, offered a different view. "It is obvious," he wrote, that at least some at lower levels of the 800th did get involved. Interrogators from military intelligence and other government agencies, believed to include the CIA, actively requested that MPs guarding prisoners at Abu Ghraib set the conditions for interrogations, Taguba reported. This is in violation of Army Regulation 190-8, he said. That regulation states: "All persons captured, detained, interned or otherwise held in U.S. armed forces custody during the course of conflict will be given humanitarian care and treatment from the moment they fall into the hands of U.S. forces until final release or repatriation." It also runs counter to the MPsâ intended mission of maintaining a safe and orderly prison, he said. The Armyâs top officer, Gen. Peter Schoomaker, confirmed that on Wednesday. "Itâs a misstatement to say that the military police are trained to soften everybody up," he said. "Their job is to provide a safe and secure environment for those that we detain." Taguba, however, received sworn statements from MPs who said they were involved in such activities. Spc. Sabrina Harman of the 372nd Military Police Company said a detainee was placed on a box and had wires attached to his fingers, toes and other extremities, and her task was to keep the detainee awake. Military intelligence, she said, "wanted to get them to talk." As a result of the Taguba report, which the Pentagon still classifies secret, the Army has begun a separate probe of military intelligence. |
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