Home > Agent: England described ’humiliation’ techniques
Whistle-blower says turning over Abu Ghraib photos ’a hard call’
FORT BRAGG, North Carolina (CNN) — An investigator testified Friday that Army Pfc. Lynndie England identified herself in Abu Ghraib prison photos, and described the way Iraqi detainees were being treated as "intimidation" and "humiliation" techniques.
Special Agent James Stewart said that when he questioned England in May about the photo showing her with a dog leash around a detainee’s neck, she called it an "intimidation device" to try to get him to move to another cell.
He said she described a human pyramid of naked prisoners shown in another photo as "humiliation tactics."
"She said she stepped on some of them," he testified.
Stewart said he interviewed England in May after she had been transferred back to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, because she had become pregnant by her boyfriend, former Abu Ghraib guard Spc. Charles Graner, who also is charged in connection with the abuses.
Witnesses have said England, a clerk, was not assigned to the high-security prison area, and was there only as a friend of Graner’s. Graner is awaiting a court-martial in Baghdad.
Stewart’s testimony came in the fourth day of a preliminary hearing to determine whether England should face a court-martial on a series of possible charges that could send her to prison for up to 38 years.
England’s lawyers have said she was only following orders, but Stewart told the court, "She didn’t know who told anybody to do any of that."
In all, seven soldiers have been charged in connection with abuses at Abu Ghraib. The seven are from the 372nd Military Police Company, a unit of reservists based near Cumberland, Maryland.
’Love to make a grown man piss himself’
Earlier, the young military policeman who blew the whistle on Abu Ghraib testified that he had waited a month to turn over incriminating photos to investigators because it was "a hard call" to send his own friends to prison.
But Sgt. Joseph Darby said at the hearing that he finally acted because he was shocked by the photos and worried that the abuse was about to resume.
"It violated everything I personally believed in and everything I had been taught about war. It was more of a moral call than anything," Darby testified.
He testified via telephone. His location was not disclosed.
Darby said he got the photos on a computer disc from Graner in early December 2003. Darby turned them over to investigators at the prison in mid-January, just before Graner was due to return to duty in the high-security area where the abuses had taken place.
"I was concerned it was going to start again," Darby testified.
Darby testified that in October, months before he received the disc, Graner had shown him one photo of a detainee with a bag over his head, handcuffed to the bars of a cell, his arms stretched apart.
Darby testified that Graner said, "The Christian in me knows it was wrong, but the corrections officer in me can’t help but love to make a grown man piss himself."
Graner had worked as a prison guard in Pennsylvania.
Darby said Graner and other guards involved were personal friends. He told the court Friday, "It’s a hard call to make a decision to put your friends in prison."
Call for generals
Darby said he returned to Abu Ghraib after being on military leave around Thanksgiving last year, and asked Graner about photos of an unrelated incident that had happened while Darby was away. A week or two later, Graner gave him three compact discs.
When Darby started looking through them, he discovered "a large number of pictures involving prisoners and poses with prisoners."
Darby said, "Initially I was kind of shocked and bewildered, and I didn’t know what to do."
By January, Darby said, Graner was scheduled to return to guard duty after a temporary assignment to another job. That’s when Darby said he dropped off an anonymous letter and a disc of photos for the Criminal Investigative Division agents at the prison.
Also Friday, England’s attorneys asked the hearing officer for permission to call a number of high-ranking officers who have had some role in oversight or investigation of Abu Ghraib.
The requested witnesses include
– Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. troops during the war
– Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, former commander of the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and now overseer of all prisons in Iraq
– Maj. Gen. George Fay, in charge of a Pentagon investigation of Abu Ghraib
– Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the commander of the military police brigade running Abu Ghraib at the time of the incidents. Karpinski has been reprimanded in the scandal and removed from that duty.