U.S. Soldier Jailed, Discharged Over Iraqi Abuse

A military policeman, the 24-year-old Sivits was given a bad conduct discharge and reduced from the rank of specialist to the lowest rank of private, which he will keep until he is discharged from the army after completing his jail sentence, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

He admitted conspiracy to maltreatment of detainees and dereliction of duty around November 8 last year in the first trial over the scandal that has badly damaged the image of the U.S. army worldwide.

Sivits also admitted leading a detainee to a pile of inmates on the floor and then took a photograph of them while another guard, Specialist Charles Graner, kneeled on them.

He told the court that one of the six soldiers he was with told him they were softening up the detainees on behalf of military intelligence.

"They had told me before they were asked to do this and keep doing what they were doing.

"They said they were told by military intelligence … to keep doing what they were doing to the inmates because it was working, they were talking."

The female U.S. soldier who appeared in many abuse photos admitted that she was "instructed" by her commanders to pose for photographs with naked Iraqi detainees.

Sivits also admitted being involved in a conspiracy to pile inmates on top of each other in a pyramid but denied having taken any photos on that occasion.

In a graphic description of the events, he told the court that he first heard Graner yelling at inmates in Arabic at the prison.

He had been asked to bring a detainee to the area but said he did not know of the abuse before he arrived.

He turned the corner and saw inmates lying on the floor with sandbags on their heads and saw some having their hands and toes "stomped on" by two other soldiers when he arrived at the scene.

Sivits said that naked detainees with bags over their heads were made to line up against the wall.

One detainee was picked out by other soldiers and forced to simulate oral sex with another inmate and another was ordered to masturbate, he told the court.

The pictures of grinning U.S. soldiers posing by a heap of naked Iraqi men revealed last month sparked worldwide outrage that has continued to dog the administration.

U.S. President George W. Bush had denounced the misconduct as "abhorrent, shameless and unacceptable" and apologized for it.

However, his apologies failed to water the anger in the Arab world, with Arabs saying that the U.S. has robbed them of their honor and dignity.

The three other soldiers involved in the abuse appeared for pre-trial hearing Wednesday and will appear for another hearing on June 21.

Sergeant Javal Davis, Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick and Graner face courts martial able to give tougher sentences than those available in the Sivits case.

‘Terrible Signal’

Human rights groups complained that their representatives were barred by the U.S.-led occupation authorities from the courtroom.

"Barring human rights monitors from the court martial is a bad decision in its own right," said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division, in a statement.

"It also sends a terrible signal to Iraqis and others deeply concerned about what transpired in Abu Ghraib."

U.S. Captain Mark Doggett told the international watchdog that senior officers had discussed attendance by the group and other human rights organizations and decided not to permit their attendance for unspecified "security among other reasons".

"It is unreasonable to exclude Human Rights Watch and other rights monitors who have expertise in the abuses at the heart of the court martial," Whitson countered.

On Tuesday, May 18, the U.S. military took a group of journalists on a tour inside Abu Gharib in what was described as a charm offensive. The jail’s authorities, however, denied them interviews with the detainees.

‘Cover-Up’

The U.S. refusal to allow human rights organizations into the courtroom came as a U.S. soldier close to the brutal interrogations of Iraqi prisoners said dozens of soldiers were involved in the abuse.

"There’s definitely a cover-up," Sgt. Samuel Provance told ABCNEWS. "People are either telling themselves or being told to be quiet."

Provance, 30, was part of the 302nd Military Intelligence Battalion stationed at Abu Ghraib last September.

"What I was surprised at was the silence."

"The collective silence by so many people that had to be involved, that had to have seen something or heard something."

Provance, who ran the top secret computer network used by military intelligence at the prison, said the abuse and sexual humiliation of prisoners were authorized by the military commanders.

"Anything [the Military Police] were to do legally or otherwise, they were to take those commands from the interrogators.

"One interrogator told me about how commonly the detainees were stripped naked, and in some occasions, wearing women’s underwear," Provance told the American network.

Provance also described an incident when two drunken interrogators took a female Iraqi prisoner from her cell in the middle of the night and stripped her naked to the waist. The men were later restrained by another MP.

He said he was intimidated and discouraged by his commanders not to speak his mind out.

"I feel like I’m being punished for being honest," Provance told ABCNEWS.

"You know, it was almost as if I actually felt if all my statements were shredded and I said, like most everybody else, ‘I didn’t hear anything, I didn’t see anything. I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ then my life would be just fine right now."

The New Yorker magazine dropped a bombshell Sunday, May 16, saying the torture was okayed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

In a damning report presented to the U.S. administration in February, U.S. Major General Antonio Taguba found numerous "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" at Abu Gharib.