by Lorne Cook
MANNHEIM, Germany, Aug 24 (AFP) - A lawyer for a US soldier accused of abusing prisoners in Iraq requested Tuesday that a military judge subpoena US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to testify in his court martial.
Lawyer Paul Bergrin, representing Sergeant Javal Davis, said that Rumsfeld had signed off on a military document in 2002 authorising severe interrogation techniques on prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
He claimed the methods, including the hooding of inmates, 20 hour interrogations and long isolation periods, were later employed on Iraqis being held in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.
"It also includes nudity and inducing stress, and as an example it includes dogs," Bergrin told a pre-trial hearing in Mannheim, southern Germany.
He claimed that an initialled sentence added to the document, presumably by Rumsfeld, read: "However I stand for eight to 10 hours a day, why should the stress positions be limited to four hours?"
"These are approved techniques by Donald Rumsfeld," Bergrin said. "It is impossible to believe that seven rogue MPs (military police officers) did this by coincidence."
Davis, 26, is charged with cruelty and maltreatment, dereliction of duty, assault and making a false statement over the humiliation of inmates last year.
Rumsfeld has been intensely embarrassed by the scandal, in which Iraqi prisoners were photographed stripped naked, piled on top of each other, cowering from dogs or with electrodes attached to parts of their bodies.
However the judge, James Pohl, ruled that Bergrin had not provided enough evidence of a link between the accused and Rumsfeld to warrant a subpoena.
"I'm not saying there is not a link, I'm saying at this point you have not shown me sufficient evidence," Pohl said. "If you do want to establish a factual predicate, feel free to renew the motion."
During the hearing, which is dealing with procedural matters in the cases of four US soldiers before they face a court martial, prosecutors said they were also preparing to charge some intelligence officials over the abuses.
Prosecutor Major Michael Holly warned that any testimony the officers, including colonels Steven Jordan and Thomas Pappas, might make in the court martials could compromise the case being built against them.
"We are still trying to identify the culpability of Colonel Jordan and Colonel Pappas," he said.
"You are telling me that there is thought to criminally prosecute these individuals and that, as such they should be given immunity," said Pohl. "It strikes the court ... that this (their evidence) would appear to be critical information to the defence."
Holly asked the judge to wait until a new report into the scandal, compiled by Major General George Fay, is published at the latest on September 10 before considering any further action.
"The government has to 17 September to show cause why I should not grant immunity, so that the officers can testify," said Pohl.
Later Tuesday, Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick, a suspected ringleader in the abuses, will also be heard amid reports that he will plead guilty to some of the charges against him.
Frederick, 37, is charged with cruelty and maltreatment, dereliction of duty, assault and indecent acts.
According to US media reports, he is said to be willing to plead guilty to many of the charges and may try to bargain on those remaining.