Abu Ghraib

The highest-ranking American soldier and first officer to be charged with crimes at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq knew about and failed to halt sexual and physical abuse of Iraqi prisoners, and told investigators that some prisoners were naked simply because of a "lack of clothing," a senior Army investigator said yesterday at a pretrial hearing at Fort Meade. The 12 charges against Army Reserve Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, former head of the interrogation center at Abu Ghraib, include subjecting Iraqi prisoners to forced nudity and to intimidation by military dogs, failing to properly train and supervise interrogators, and lying to investigators about his knowledge of prisoner abuse.

The Army command of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was "absolutely broken," with leaders refusing to work together and disagreeing over what interrogation tactics should be allowed, according to testimony in a military hearing yesterday. The witnesses in the investigation of Lt. Col. Steven Jordan, the highest-ranking officer charged in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, gave conflicting explanations for the nudity of detainees, with some saying it was accidental and others that humiliation was an interrogation strategy.

WASHINGTON -- Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, who was court-martialed at Fort Meade in August for his role in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, has been cleared of his sole criminal conviction, leaving only an official reprimand for the former commander of the notorious Iraqi prison. The action, taken Wednesday by Army Maj. Gen. Richard J. Rowe, commander of the Military District of Washington, eliminates the only criminal finding against any officer for the Abu Ghraib scandal. Rowe's decision prompted complaints that the military justice system is incapable of holding senior officers accountable for the actions of their subordinates.

An American military judge ordered an Army reservist yesterday to stand trial on Jan. 7 in Baghdad on charges related to the Abu Ghraib prison abuse case. The judge, Col. James A. Pohl, set the date for Charles A. Graner Jr.'s appearance in court. Among the charges against him are conspiracy to maltreat subordinates, dereliction of duty, adultery, maltreatment of detainees and obstruction of justice, according to a pool report quoting the charge sheet. Graner, who served in the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company, has emerged as a central figure in the abuse scandal involving Abu Ghraib.

A former warden of Abu Ghraib prison told a hushed courtroom yesterday that interrogation techniques used at Guantanamo Bay were imported to the prison in Iraq. His testimony was a defense effort to tie higher-ups to allegations of prisoner abuse by two dog handlers who could face courts-martial. Maj. David Dinenna testified at a hearing at Fort Meade yesterday that Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the Guantanamo commander, talked in a September 2003 trip about how effective dogs could be at the Abu Ghraib compound outside Baghdad.

WASHINGTON - The second of two Army dog handlers accused in the Abu Ghraib scandal is emerging as the lead defendant, with criminal charge sheets obtained yesterday accusing him of abusing five Iraqi detainees, including a pair of juvenile prisoners, in a macabre game to frighten inmates at the American-run prison outside Baghdad. Army Sgt. Michael J. Smith, expected to appear soon at a preliminary hearing at Fort Myer, Va., is one of two soldiers accused of using trained military dogs to assault prisoners by scaring them into urinating and defecating on themselves.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, entering the heart of the global furor over the mistreatment of Iraqi detainees, walked inside the faded yellow walls and razor wire of Abu Ghraib prison yesterday to pledge that the world would see America mete out punishment openly and freely to any soldier guilty of abuse. "In recent months we've seen abuses here, under our responsibility, and it's been a body blow for all of us," Rumsfeld said. "The people who engaged in abuses will be brought to justice.

FORT HOOD, Texas - Pfc. Lynndie R. England, the young Army reservist whose grinning, thumbs-up image came to symbolize the worst of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, told a military judge yesterday that she knew the detainee abuses were wrong but went along because of peer pressure. Offering the most ordinary explanation of a scandal that ignited international outrage, England said she posed in some of the widely circulated photographs showing humiliating abuses of Iraqi detainees to placate her then-boyfriend and others from her Maryland-based unit.

WASHINGTON - The Army is putting the finishing touches on a new interrogation manual that will specifically prohibit the harsh practices that have come to light since the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, officials said. It will also highlight international treaties on humane treatment of detainees and require more oversight by commanders. The new training manual, expected to be finished in the next two months, will specifically prohibit methods including sleep deprivation, confinement to a darkened cell, stripping prisoners and the use of police dogs, said Thomas A. Gandy, director of counterintelligence and human intelligence for the Army.

U.S. military medical personnel grossly abused medical ethics at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, helping to design interrogation techniques, turning their backs on abuse by guards, failing to protect the rights of detainees and actively hiding evidence of abuse, a Minnesota bioethicist charges in today's issue of the journal Lancet. Some even went so far as to revive prisoners for further torture and falsify death certificates of prisoners killed during interrogation, according to official documents examined by Steven H. Miles of the University of Minnesota.