Defense Rests in Court-Martial

Lawyers for Army Spc. Charles A. Graner Jr. rested their case Thursday, after the accused ringleader of detainee abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison told the judge that he had made a “voluntary choice” not to testify.

Graner had said since his court-martial began that he was eager to address the jury. But his civilian lawyer, Guy Womack, said that the defense “presented all the evidence we wanted.”

“We came in with a checklist of things we wanted to present to the jury,” Womack said. “Once we accomplished that, there was no reason to continue.”

The all-male jury of four Army officers and six enlisted men will begin deliberating after both sides present closing arguments this morning.

“I feel fantastic,” Graner told reporters outside the courtroom. “I’m still smiling.”

Graner, 36, has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment, aggravated assault and indecent acts. A guilty verdict on all charges could bring him a maximum of 17 1/2 years in prison.

Other soldiers accused of the abuse -- including one who testified on Graner’s behalf Thursday -- have pleaded guilty and received sentences including separation from the Army with no jail time and eight years in prison.

If Graner is convicted, the prosecution and the defense will have the opportunity to present additional testimony and evidence at a sentencing hearing.

Army Capt. Chuck Neill of the Judge Advocate’s Office said that prosecutors planned to play a fresh part of the video deposition from Ameen Said Sheikh, an Iraqi detainee.

In the deposition, Neill said, Sheikh describes how he was traumatized physically and emotionally by injuries that he says were inflicted by Graner.

The prosecution also might put on a witness from Graner’s Army unit to tell how the abuse scandal has devastated the morale and reputation of the 372nd Military Police Company, Neill said.

The defense could put on Graner’s parents, who have attended the court-martial, along with an Army psychiatrist who has examined the defendant, Neill said.

Graner could also choose to testify at that point, either by reading a statement -- which would not allow him to be cross-examined -- or by speaking directly to the jury, which would permit prosecutors to question him afterward.

At the heart of Graner’s defense is his contention that he and other guards abused and sexually degraded prisoners at the direct behest of military interrogators.

In the fall of 2003, when the abuse occurred, the Iraqi insurgency was rising against U.S. and coalition forces, the hunt was still on for Saddam Hussein, and some military authorities believed that harsh treatment of detainees could serve to “soften them up” for interrogators.

The first defense witness Thursday, the fourth day of testimony, was Megan Ambuhl, another guard accused in the abuse, who pleaded guilty to minor charges and was discharged from the Army in return for no prison time.

“The MIs would come down and let us know what they wanted us to do with the detainees,” she said, referring to military intelligence personnel. She said they would let the guards know which prisoners were cooperating and which were not.

Sometimes, Ambuhl said, intelligence personnel asked for certain detainees to be kept separated or they wanted others to undergo harsh physical exercise. They also had her watch prisoners take showers and “point and laugh” at them as a way to humiliate them, she said.

“They told us we were doing a good job in breaking down Al Qaeda,” Ambuhl said. “That we were saving a lot of lives. The detainees had information the interrogators had to find out.”

Ambuhl said that she was shocked to see detainees forced to engage in simulated sex acts but that she did not believe Graner was behind it.

She also could not place Graner as having played a part in stacking naked prisoners in a pyramid, although she said she provided an inhaler for one inmate who became ill during the incident.

Not all of her testimony was helpful to the defense -- such as her statement that she never heard interrogators order the kind of abuse seen in the photographs from Abu Ghraib.

She also said that Graner maintained an office near the prison’s Tier 1A -- where the worst abuse occurred -- and kept about a thousand photographs of abused inmates and other scenes of Abu Ghraib on his computer, including on his desktop.

She said she had stored similar photos on her computer but deleted them after she learned of the Army’s investigation into Abu Ghraib.

Ambuhl’s testimony was further clouded when she admitted that she, like Army Pvt. Lynndie R. England, had carried on a “romantic relationship” with Graner. England also worked with Graner at Abu Ghraib, and she gave birth to his son in October. Her court-martial is expected later this year.

Also testifying Thursday was Sgt. Kenneth A. Davis, a guard who said he saw interrogators abusing three inmates accused of rape by making them do a “low crawl” naked on their hands and knees along the cellblock floor, throwing a Nerf football at them and shoving them with their boots.

He said guards never joined in the abuse.

Davis said he complained the next day to his platoon leader, Lt. Lewis Raeder, “that military intelligence was doing some pretty weird things with naked detainees.”

Davis said Raeder promised to report the abuse, but Davis said he never was asked about it -- even though he complained three months before the formal investigation into Abu Ghraib was opened last January.