US intelligence soldier jailed for Iraqi prisoner abuse

BAGHDAD - The first United States military intelligence soldier to be court-martialled over the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal was sentenced on Saturday to eight months in jail, a reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge.

Specialist Armin Cruz, 24, had pleaded guilty to maltreatment and conspiracy to maltreat detainees at the prison near Baghdad on the night of October 25, 2003. The court martial accepted his guilty plea.

As the first intelligence soldier to be tried, Cruz's case was significant because the Pentagon maintains the abuse was the work of a few renegade military police acting on their own accord, not on the orders of intelligence personnel.

In emotional testimony before being sentenced, Cruz told the court he took full responsibility for his actions but offered few explanations.

"I knew my actions were wrong," he said. "There's no way to justify it."

At one point Judge James Pohl asked him to say why he thought he had done what he did. "There's no very good reason, sir," said Cruz, a military intelligence analyst.

Cruz, one of eight people to be indicted for abusing Iraqi detainees in an affair which provoked worldwide outrage when it broke in April, was the second to be sentenced.

Defence lawyers for some indicted soldiers say intelligence officers ordered military police to "soften up" prisoners before interrogation, and that senior commanders knew about or even sanctioned the abuse.

But Cruz did not point the finger at more senior intelligence officers, saying he took full personal responsibility for his actions at Abu Ghraib -- a notorious detention centre in Saddam Hussein's era.

Cruz's civilian lawyer, Stephen Karns, described his client as a "war hero" who acted out of character in Abu Ghraib because he was suffering traumatic stress after a mortar attack which killed a close colleague in September 2003.

Karns said he was disappointed with the bad conduct discharge and would appeal.

"I believe he can still make contributions to the US Army ... I think the army is losing a lot in this soldier."

In a report into the Abu Ghraib abuse by US Army Major General George Fay issued last month, Cruz was identified as having taken part in the mistreatment of three prisoners.

A photograph taken on October 25, 2003 showed Cruz and two other intelligence soldiers standing in the background as military police abused three detainees in the foreground.

On Saturday, the court heard Cruz used his foot to force naked detainees to crawl across the floor, their genitals dragging on the concrete. He also stood by as prisoners were handcuffed so tightly they bled from the wrists.

During questioning from the judge, Cruz said he thought perhaps one reason why he behaved in the way he did that night was because of the mortar attack the month before which left him shell-shocked, angry and desperate for revenge.

"In a way, I saw those detainees as responsible, even though I know they probably weren't," he said.

Cruz, a reservist from Texas, was assigned to the 325th Military Intelligence Battalion in Iraq. As an analyst he was not supposed to be involved in interrogations, but, like other analysts, was often drafted in to help with questioning.

The night the abuses occurred, however, he had no interrogation role, and merely went to the part of the prison where the worst offenders were kept on a passing invitation from a colleague in his battalion.

Cruz was awarded a Purple Heart after being wounded in the September mortar attack on Abu Ghraib and was also nominated for a Bronze Star for bravery, an award that was suspended pending the abuse investigation.

In his report, Fay said Cruz was joined in the prisoner abuse by at least two military policemen, Sergeant Ivan Frederick and Corporal Charles Graner.

Frederick and Graner are two of the seven military police soldiers so far charged in the scandal.

The first to be tried, Private Jeremy Sivits, pleaded guilty at a court martial in May and was sentenced to a year in prison.

Frederick is due to face a court martial next month.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq