Abu Ghraib inmate identifies his primary teacher
A Syrian inmate at Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison told a court martial today that US army Specialist Charles Graner was the primary torturer who laughed while physically abusing him and threatened to kill him more than once.
Amin al-Sheikh, testifying via videotaped deposition shown in court at Ford Hood, Texas, today, said Graner also made him eat pork and drink alcohol, in violation of his Muslim faith.
He said he listened through his cell wall while Graner and other Americans forced a Yemeni prisoner eat from a toilet.
Graner is the first soldier accused in the Abu Ghraib scandal to go on trial, and prosecutors allege he was the ringleader of the abuse. Three guards from the 372nd Military Police Company have pleaded guilty to abusing detainees.
Asked if Graner appeared to enjoy hurting him, al-Sheikh said through an interpreter: “He was laughing… He laughed. He was whistling. He was singing.”
Graner, a reservist, is charged with conspiracy to maltreat detainees, two counts of assault, dereliction of duty and committing indecent acts. He faces more than 17 years in a military prison if the jury of four Army officers and six enlisted men convict him on all counts. Testimony began Monday.
Al-Sheikh said he went to Iraq in 2003 to fight US-led forces, and he was taken to Abu Ghraib after being captured with AK-47 assault rifles, grenades and bomb-making material.
While being kept at a tent camp next to Abu Ghraib, al-Sheikh said, he was wounded in the leg and chest in a shoot-out with Americans after he obtained a handgun from an Iraqi guard because he feared for his life.
He said Graner, whom he described as the “primary torturer", jumped on his injured leg and struck it with a collapsible stick. That is the basis for one of the assault charges. On another occasion, he said, Graner handcuffed him to his cell door with his arms behind his back for eight hours.
Graner also on different occasions accompanied a US soldier who urinated on him, al-Sheikh said. Another American threatened to rape him, he said.
Under defence questioning, al-Sheikh said Graner at times worked with Americans who were interrogating him at Abu Ghraib.
The defence maintains that Graner and other soldiers were ordered by military and civilian intelligence officers to soften up detainees for questioning, and that they had no choice but to obey.
Al-Sheikh said interrogators known as Steve and Mikey made it clear that he would be roughed up by Graner if he did not cooperate.
