Female MPs at Abu Ghraib were told to laugh at naked detainees: witness

FORT HOOD, Texas, Jan 13 (AFP) - Interrogators at Abu Ghraib routinely told female soldiers to ridicule naked detainees and asked MPs to rough up a prisoner, a witness said Thursday at a court martial examining abuses at the US-run Iraqi prison.
"They wanted me to be in the shower, point to the detainees' genitals and laugh," said Megan Ambuhl, a former soldier who was dismissed from the US Army last year after pleading guilty in the prisoner abuse scandal.
This happened "fairly often" and also involved other female MPs, she said in testimony before the court at the Fort Hood army base in Texas.
Ambuhl was called to the witness stand by lawyers for Specialist Charles Graner, who have struggled to demonstrate that their client was merely following orders.
Graner, 36, had pleaded not guilty to charges of abusing inmates at the prison near Baghdad in late 2003.
Ambuhl said that in one case two interrogators encouraged Graner and another MP to "go in and rough up the detainee," but admitted under cross-questioning that the two were low-ranking soldiers in their early 20s.
She also acknowledged hearing a civilian contractor say that MPs should "soften up" a detainee she said was a member of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network.
But under cross-examination, she admitted that she had never heard of any orders to pile up naked detainees, force them to masturbate or put them on a leash -- acts which Graner is accused of conducting.
She admitted that while at Abu Ghraib, she started an affair with Graner. The defendant also was involved with another accused soldier, Private Lynndie England, whose recently born child he is believed to have fathered.
The prosecution cited an e-mail in which Ambuhl wrote to Graner: "Study finds frequent sex raises cancer risk -- we could have died last night." The message was sent in April 2004, three months after Graner, Ambuhl, England and others were charged in the prison scandal.
The prosecution cast doubt on the veracity of some of Ambuhl's testimony, particularly when she suggested that Graner had not initiated a notorious incident in which prisoners were made to masturbate and simulate oral sex.
Graner said he looked forward to the opportunity to defend himself, but his lawyers said they had yet to decide whether to put him on the stand.
The defense has suffered a series of setbacks since the trial opened, particularly on Wednesday, when a fellow MP testified that Graner had often disobeyed orders when he was a guard at Abu Ghraib.
Three Abu Ghraib detainees whose videotaped depositions were shown at the court martial also said that Graner subjected them to brutal beatings, sexual humiliation and religious insults.
The court was told that around the time of the alleged abuses, Graner was chastised by a superior after a prisoner claimed that wounds on his face were the result of a beating by the soldier.
But the document also showed that Graner was praised for generally doing "a good job."
Graner faces a maximum sentence of 17 and a half years' imprisonment if found guilty.
The heavy-set, bespectacled Graner, who in earlier days smiled and chatted with reporters as he emerged from the courtroom, now appeared more subdued and referred all questions to his lawyer.
Defense Attorney Guy Womack was also less upbeat than he had been in recent days. "When you try enough cases, you know they don't all go the way you want them to," he said Wednesday evening.
The court martial is expected to conclude by the end of the week.

01/13/2005 17:45 GMT - AFP