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Reservist faces trial for abuse
Cpl. Charles A. Graner, 35, an Army reservist who moved to Fayette County more than 10 years ago, was ordered by American military officials to stand trial for mistreating Iraqis at Saddam Hussein's former torture center in Iraq.
Another prison guard, Spc. Jeremy Sivits of Hyndman, Bedford County, accused Graner of being the ringleader of a group of soldiers who laughed and joked as they beat, stripped and sexually humiliated detainees, according to published reports.
Sivits, who took photos of the abuse, is cooperating with prosecutors and is expected to plead guilty to charges Wednesday in Baghdad.
He and Graner are members of the 372nd Military Police Company based in Cumberland, Md.
Graner, whose home is in Uniontown, will be arraigned Thursday in Iraq on charges of assault, committing indecent acts, adultery, obstruction of justice, cruelty and maltreatment, conspiracy to maltreat detainees and dereliction of duty for "woefully failing to protect detainees from abuse."
Guy Womack, who is Graner's lawyer, has said Graner was following orders.
The adultery charge stems from a sexual relationship Graner had with another guard, Pfc. Lynndie England, 21, of Fort Ashby, W.Va., who was married. Adultery is a crime in the U.S. military. Her family said she is four months pregnant with Graner's child.
England is now under investigation at Fort Bragg, N.C. Graner was her military supervisor at the prison.
Sivits said the mistreatment was not authorized 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."
Transcripts of Sivits' statements were provided to the Washington Post by Harvey Volzer, a lawyer representing Spc. Megan M. Ambuhl, another soldier being investigated. The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times also printed stories based on the investigative documents.
In one instance, according to Sivits, a prisoner handcuffed to a bed with bullet wounds in his legs screamed, "Mister, mister please stop," as Graner struck him with a police baton.
Sivits also said Graner once punched a detainee in the head so hard that the man fell unconscious to the floor.
In his statement, Sivits said Graner was joking and laughing during the abuse, "acting like he was enjoying it."
Graner also has been accused by others of ordering the mistreatment of detainees through a series of sexually related acts.
"I was laughing at some of the stuff that they had them do," Sivits told investigators in January. "I was disgusted at some of the stuff as well."
Womack and lawyers for other accused soldiers said that Sivits' statements are of questionable value because they believe he has worked out a plea arrangement with prosecutors.
Graner's lawyer also said he doubted that his client would have hit a detainee.
"I don't think he was that kind of guy," Womack told the New York Times. "He would have done it if he was ordered to do it."
Womack said military intelligence soldiers were in one of the graphic photographs, indicting that they were aware of what was going on.
Sgt. Ivan L. "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.
Frederick and Davis, who also are members of the 372nd Military Police Company, will be arraigned Thursday with Graner.
Womack said Graner will enter a plea of not guilty.
All three have be reassigned to duties that don't involve contact with detainees at Camp Victory, a U.S. military base near Baghdad.
Sivits said he was told not to report the abuse but wouldn't say who told him that.
"I was asked not to," Sivits said. "And I try to be friends with everyone. I see now where trying to be friends with everyone can cost you."
The Baltimore Sun reported that one of the written charges against Graner accuses him of telling Sivits that he should pretend not to have seen the abuses he witnessed at the prison.
Sivits' father, Daniel, said he had not seen the reports and wasn't interested in what they had to say. He said he had been told not to comment.
Graner's parents have a note posted on the door of their home saying they don't wish to comment because anything they say could be misinterpreted or taken out of context and harm their son.
The former mayor of Hyndman said he is skeptical of the statement that Sivits' superiors did not know about the abuse.
"It sounds like a prepared statement forced on him. It sounds like the same statements that Secretary (of Defense Donald H.) Rumsfeld has been saying," said Tom Cunningham who was mayor from 1967-97.
"This town is both sad and mad," Cunningham said. "They know Jeremy and know he couldn't do it willingly. He's being used as a sacrificial lamb and that's why they're mad."
A prayer vigil is being organized for Tuesday at the flag pole in front of the high school.
The charges against Graner were announced by Brig. General Mark Kimmitt. No trial date has been set.
Graner has worked since 1996 as a prison guard at the State Correctional Institution in Greene County, and prior to that worked six years in the Fayette County Jail. Pennsylvania Department of Corrections officials say they are monitoring the proceedings against Graner in Iraq and will later determine whether he will return to work at SCI Greene.
According to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Graner could be sent to a federal military prison for some 17 years if he is convicted of all the charges brought against him.
The code indicates the most serious charges against Graner are assault, committing indecent acts and obstruction of justice. Each carries a maximum five-year term of confinement. Some of the lesser charges -- adultery, and cruelty and maltreatment -- each carry a maximum one-year prison sentence.
The cases against three other military police soldiers is still under investigation.
The mostly open-air Abu Ghraib prison houses about 3,500 Iraqi detainees. Few, if any of them, have been charged with crimes.
U.S. military officials say the prison has cleaned up its act, in part by replacing reserve military police with more seasoned active-duty soldiers.
Kimmitt announced yesterday that the new commander of the prison released 293 Iraqis after reviewing their cases; American officials said they'd free another 475 prisoners next week.
The interrogation techniques that no longer can be employed also include sensory deprivation, the presence of dogs at interrogations and manipulation of a detainee's diet.
Isolating a prisoner more than 30 days was the only technique retained from a list of those that had required legal review and top-level approval before they could be used, the defense officials said.
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