Lynndie England admitted abuse of Iraqis, says witness

1.00pm

FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA - The female US soldier, who outraged the Arab world by being photographed holding an Iraqi prisoner on a leash, admitted she "stepped on" inmates and said no one ordered her to abuse prisoners, a criminal investigator testified on Friday.

Lynndie England, seen in a series of photographs that damaged the US image in Iraq, has said in the past she was following orders in the abuse scandal that prompted an apology from US President George W Bush.

Sergeant James Stewart, a military investigator, said he interviewed England on May 5, showed her 23 pictures from Abu Ghraib and asked her questions about them.

When he asked her if she abused prisoners, "She said a couple times she had stepped on someone," Stewart said.

"She said she was never ordered to do that, and she didn't know if anyone told them to do it," he added, saying England told him they were trying to humiliate the prisoners.

Later in the interview, England said Military Intelligence agents had told her to "keep it up; we were doing a good job."

President Bush pinned the blame for the Abu Ghraib abuse on a small group of soldiers, but England has said she was following orders, and her lawyers have sought to link the US military chain of command to the abuse.

The four-day military court hearing was called to determine whether England should stand trial. Stewart's was the first direct testimony that England physically abused prisoners.

The pregnant, 21-year-old is charged with 19 counts of prisoner abuse, committing indecent acts and disobeying orders. She faces up to 38 years in prison if convicted.

She told Stewart that Spc. Charles Graner, another of the seven soldiers charged in the abuse at Abu Ghraib, is the father of her child, Stewart said.

In earlier testimony, a US soldier testified that Abu Ghraib was "hell," a dangerous place staffed by poorly trained guards and short on basics like clothes and soap for prisoners; England's lawyers used the testimony to paint a disturbing picture of turmoil at the notorious jail near Baghdad.

Sergeant Hydrue Joyner, a member of England's 372nd Military Police Company, said "the whole prison system was corrupt."

He described a prison painfully short on supplies, where he handed out personal items from his own "Care" packages from home because the place smelled. Prisoner jumpsuits and men's underwear were scarce.

Joyner said he and many of his colleagues had no training as prison guards when they went to Abu Ghraib and worked minimum 12-hour days while there.

"No one knew what we were supposed to do. Basically, I was shooting from the hip and hoping to God I didn't screw up," he said.

The court also heard testimony from Staff Seargeant Joseph Darby, who turned over prisoner abuse photos to military investigators in January. He said he got them on CDs given to him by Graner, who has been described as the "ringleader" of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.

Darby said he struggled with the decision to turn the photos over to military officials, because Graner was a friend, but did so about a month after he received them.

What he saw on the CDs, he said, "violated everything I personally believed in and everything I had been taught about the rules of war."

England's lawyers repeated a request to call to the witness stand some top US officials, including former Iraq commander Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, Major General Geoffrey Miller, and Iraq prison boss Brigadier General Janis Karpinski. No ruling was made on the request.

Prosecutors tried to reach Private Jeremy Sivits, the only soldier so far convicted for abuse, to testify but were startled to learn he was in Germany.

Sivits admitted sexually humiliating prisoners and pleaded guilty to maltreating detainees, dereliction of duty and conspiracy. He was jailed for a year, demoted and given a bad conduct discharge.

- REUTERS