Soldiers 'laughed as they tortured prisoners'

Army Specialist Jeremy Sivits, who took photos of abuse at the Abu Ghraib detention centre in Iraq, described soldiers laughing and joking as they beat, stripped and sexually humiliated detainees, according to newspaper reports.

Sivits, the first soldier scheduled to be court-martialed in the abuse scandal, is expected to plead guilty when he appears in Baghdad on Wednesday. He has cooperated with prosecutors and faces lesser charges than his colleagues.

He said the mistreatment was not authorised by higher-ups in the chain of command.

“Our command would have slammed us,” he said. “They believe in doing the right thing. If they saw what was going on, there would have been hell to pay.”

Sivits’ statements are the most in-depth descriptions of the abuse by a defendant to have been made public. Lawyers for the soldiers that Sivits named said his statements were “fabricated” and questionable because of his plea deal.

In one instance, a prisoner handcuffed to a bed with bullet wounds in his legs screamed “Mister, mister, please stop,” as Military Police Corporal Charles Graner struck him with a police baton, according to statements Sivits made to military investigators.

“I was laughing at some of the stuff that they had them do,” Sivits told investigators. “I was disgusted at some of the stuff as well.”

Transcripts of Sivits’ statements were provided to The Washington Post by Harvey Volzer, a lawyer representing Specialist Megan Ambuhl, another soldier charged in the case.

The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, which also cited investigative documents, did not name the source who provided them.

Ambuhl was the only soldier who Sivits did not accuse of wrongdoing in the statements.

Sivits said his superiors were unaware of the abuse, which came to light after another guard tipped off authorities in January.

The other guards facing charges have said they acted on orders from superiors or from military intelligence, and all six have declared their innocence.

Sivits described Graner as one of the ringleaders. The former prison guard was joking, laughing, angered and “acting like he was enjoying it,” Sivits said.

He said Graner once punched a detainee in the head so hard the man fell unconscious.

Sgt Ivan “Chip” Frederick II forced naked detainees to masturbate, showing them how to do it “right”, and seemed to enjoy watching the prisoners beaten, Sivits said.

Sivits said Sgt Javal Davis threw himself on a pile of prisoners and “then stomped on either the fingers or toes of the detainees,” as they screamed in pain.

Sivits said Specialist Sabrina Harman and Private Lynndie England, who is pregnant with Graner’s child, smiled in some of the pictures, but that Harman sometimes “had a look of disgust on her face”.

Harman wrote the word “rapist” on the leg of one inmate after she learned he had raped someone, he said.

Sivits said he was told not to report the abuse.

“I was asked not to,” he said. “And I try to be friends with everyone. I see now where trying to be friends with everyone can get you.”