By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer

"BAGHDAD, Iraq - A 24-year-old U.S. military policeman will be the first soldier to face a court-martial in connection with the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, the military said Sunday.

Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits of Hyndman, Pa., a member of the 372nd Military Police Company, will stand trial in Baghdad on May 19, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said.

Sivits has been charged with conspiracy to maltreat subordinates and detainees, dereliction of duty for negligently failing to protect detainees from abuse and cruelty and maltreatment of detainees, Kimmitt said.

If convicted of all charges, Sivits could face one year in prison, reduction in rank to private, forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay for a year, a fine or a bad conduct discharge, military officials said. Penalties could include only one, all or any combination of those punishments, officials said.


Seven soldiers, including Sivits, face criminal charges for alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Photographs of the abuse were published throughout the world.

Sivits is the first soldier whose trial date has been set.

President Bush vowed Saturday that "we will learn all the facts and determine the full extent of these abuses. Those involved will be identified. They will answer for their actions."

The Army trained Sivits as a truck mechanic, not as a prison guard, his father, Daniel, has said. His son "was just doing what he was told to do," he said last week.

Sivits' family said they had no comment when reached by telephone Sunday morning.

Sivits' trial will be open to media coverage, Kimmitt said.

U.S. officials have insisted that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were carried out by a handful of soldiers who failed to follow procedures and were not part of a systematic program of brutality.

"It is not much larger than the people already suspended, in the number of people already charged," Kimmitt said. "We may see more people involved. We still think this is still a very small number of guards involved.

"Please don't paint with such a wide brush that it indicts the other 135,000 American soldiers and Marines out there doing the right thing."

One of the soldiers facing charges, Spc. Sabrina Harman, said she and other members of the 372nd Military Police Company took direction from Army military intelligence officers, CIA operatives and from civilian contractors who conducted interrogations.

In an interview by e-mail from Baghdad, Harman told The Washington Post it was made clear that her mission was to break down the prisoners.

"They would bring in one to several prisoners at a time already hooded and cuffed," Harman said. "The job of the MP was to keep them awake, make it hell so they would talk."

Harman, 26, is one of two smiling soldiers seen in a photo taken at Abu Ghraib as they stand behind naked, hooded Iraqi prisoners stacked in a pyramid.

On Saturday, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the head of U.S. detention centers in Iraq, said the military has no plans to close Abu Ghraib, and he blamed the abuse of detainees there on poor leadership and disregard for the rules.

Miller, who visited all 14 prison facilities in Iraq to review procedures, said an Army team of 31 specialists was in the country retraining prison guards, a process that would last until June 30.

He insisted that Iraqi prisoners were now being treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and that interrogation teams were following Army guidelines while trying to get "the best intelligence as rapidly as possible."

Miller was named head of prisons in April after Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the commander of Abu Ghraib, was suspended amid the allegations of abuse by U.S. soldiers.

The United States does intend to cut the number of prisoners to help improve conditions but added that "we will continue to conduct interrogation missions at the Abu Ghraib facility," Miller said.

Kimmitt said Sunday that 325 prisoners had been released from various detention centers over the past two weeks."

This will probably be the first of many Courts-Martial.

Patti

What these soldiers did was stupid and unprofessional, but I am sick of the media referring to it as torture. As an interrogator, I was taught that the US military does not use torture, but that the interrogator is still trying to maintain a sense of disorientation in the prisoner, because that is the best way to get useful information. There's a lot more to it than that, but you get the idea.
I agree they should not have done it, but the incident is being investigated and dealt with. If these actions were inappropriate, they still only represent the acts of a handful of personnel among over 150,000.
Second, overemphasizing these incidents gives aid and comfort to the enemy and puts the lives of US personnel in grave danger. It is simply not worth the lives of Americans.
Third, as an interrogator, if I thought I would get information that would save the lives of Americans, I would not have treated these guys to tea and crumpets either.
Fourth, being hooded and naked isn't torture. We are taught to search, silence, and segregate prisoners. That's a fact of life.
Fourth, most of the people being punished are young and low ranking. Where the hell were their supervisors all this time?
Fifth, the Arabs do not look at these things the way we do. The Iraqis understand power and force and it's all they respect. I have seen at least one analysis that says this might have helped slap them into line a little bit. I am not saying it was right, but if it means fewer bombings and dead Americans, I say what the hell.....We are in the middle of a war. Can you imagine what it would have been like if the US press had been whipping up sympathy for the Germans on the eve of D-Day?
Finally, if we are going to attempt an operation on the scope of the one in Iraq, we need to be willing to do whatever turns out to be necessary to bring the operation to a successful conclusion with the least damage and loss of life. If we don't have the stomach for it in the first place, we shouldn't make the attempt. The Roman Army was possibly the most successful army in history primarily because they did whatever was necessary to accomplish the mission. period.
I realize this is a touchy subject, but I think we all need to realize there is more than one way to look at it.

Patti--I keep wondering why they aren't being charged with a sex offense. Any civilian would be charged as an so for doing even a little bit of what they did...

Deb

You know what I don't like? The fact that the media is so damn interested in the prisoner abuse over there but don't seem to give a DAMN about the real brutality that the prisoners in the U.S. are facing.

These news outlets are whores for ratings.. They don't give a damn about whether someone is getting abused or anything else unless it is going to sell to the viewers..

If they think those Iraqi prisoners were getting abused, they need to wake the hell up and come to Polunsky or any one of a 100+++ different jails and prisons where prisoners are regularly getting the crap beat out of them..

Just wanted to say KUDOS for making your post...thank you!!


What these soldiers did was stupid and unprofessional, but I am sick of the media referring to it as torture. As an interrogator, I was taught that the US military does not use torture, but that the interrogator is still trying to maintain a sense of disorientation in the prisoner, because that is the best way to get useful information. There's a lot more to it than that, but you get the idea.
I agree they should not have done it, but the incident is being investigated and dealt with. If these actions were inappropriate, they still only represent the acts of a handful of personnel among over 150,000.
Second, overemphasizing these incidents gives aid and comfort to the enemy and puts the lives of US personnel in grave danger. It is simply not worth the lives of Americans.
Third, as an interrogator, if I thought I would get information that would save the lives of Americans, I would not have treated these guys to tea and crumpets either.
Fourth, being hooded and naked isn't torture. We are taught to search, silence, and segregate prisoners. That's a fact of life.
Fourth, most of the people being punished are young and low ranking. Where the hell were their supervisors all this time?
Fifth, the Arabs do not look at these things the way we do. The Iraqis understand power and force and it's all they respect. I have seen at least one analysis that says this might have helped slap them into line a little bit. I am not saying it was right, but if it means fewer bombings and dead Americans, I say what the hell.....We are in the middle of a war. Can you imagine what it would have been like if the US press had been whipping up sympathy for the Germans on the eve of D-Day?
Finally, if we are going to attempt an operation on the scope of the one in Iraq, we need to be willing to do whatever turns out to be necessary to bring the operation to a successful conclusion with the least damage and loss of life. If we don't have the stomach for it in the first place, we shouldn't make the attempt. The Roman Army was possibly the most successful army in history primarily because they did whatever was necessary to accomplish the mission. period.
I realize this is a touchy subject, but I think we all need to realize there is more than one way to look at it.

deb,

You are correct, however, in the the military system there is what is called "lesser included offenses".

Say just as an example: on service member is charged with assault, now one of the "lesser included offenses" could be say, Sexual Assualt, now this is just an example of how it works.

I did hear on the news today that one of the charges is - oh doggone it! - I can't remember the exact wording, however, it basically amounted to being charged with observing a sexual crime in progress. So that does lead me to believe that there are sex offense charges being leveled at the main participants.

I saw your question this morning and was going to look and see if I could the charges and specifications at lunch, but I ended up working through lunch. I will see what I can find.

Fed-X, frankly I am glad that this has made the news - even if it is from Iraq. A number of CO's (and I am not saying that all co's are like these) from stateside prisons are involved. I think that point needs to be brought out over, and over, then maybe it we can get the treatment of inmates by staff investigated here.

I hope that this wakes people up and starts a groundswell, but in the long run it is up to us - not the media - to keep the fight going, we have to remain in our legislators faces, and, yes, in the media's faces.

The problem we have is if we complain too loadly who is hurt even more? Our loved ones, and when it comes to family we tend to shut up to protect them.

I also believe that these individuals should be court-martialed, regardless of the security and intelligence issues. The American Government always says that it's way is better than any other way, and that the American Government and people are morally above all other civilizations (I guess I have been listening to george bush and Rush Limbaugh to long), so, I say prove it and the only way that it can be proved in my mind is to court-martial not only the ones involved, but also their superior officers.

After all "I was just following orders" did not work for us Germans or the Japanese for that matter.

Patti

Fed-X has a very good point. I got to thinking about it, and it seems that the only stories about the prison system that we see in the media are about how outrageously well prisoners are treated. Apparently, most prisons are real country clubs. Could somebody please tell me where these are? I don't see too many stories in the major media about what it's like to be locked in an un-airconditioned cell in an un-airconditioned wing when the temperature hits 115 degrees and the humidity is like being in a goldfish bowl. I don't see too many major stories about the prison medical care that can charitably be referred to as "sub-standard." Stories about inmates getting free college educations via Pell Grants and the like (How DARE they commit crimes and then get rewarded with free educations!!!) led to the elimination of Pell grants for inmates. Most of the inmates I have known couldn't afford to pay for classes out of pocket. I did see stories about how outrageous it is for the US to buy Chinese products because they are made with cheap Chinese prison labor. These same Americans buy products made with cheap American prison labor, though. And so it goes...We all could add more examples...

The vibes I am getting is that there will almost certainly be sex charges filed on some people before it's all over. One thing has troubled me here. It seems like all the military people being interviewed in the news are young junior enlisted. These folks just finished a basic school where they maybe had ten hours of training in prisoner handling, and maybe did a few practice strip searches. And the reason for all this seems to be "the CIA made me do it." Is this a 21st Century equivalent of "the devil made me do it"? Where the hell are the officers and senior NCOs'? Junior enlisted weren't supervising shifts in that prison. Maybe they should have had a couple of military intelligence case officers in attendance. We KNEW better than to trust the CIA! But where were the officers who should have said, "wait a minute here?" If this crap was going on in the halls, they should have known. If they knew and let it happen, they are the ones liable. If they DIDN'T know, they had to have been criminally negligent....I dunno..maybe I am over-reacting here, but.....

abndave,

Thank you, no I do not believe you are overreacting. I wish I knew where the officers and NCOs were as well. They I get the feeling are running for cover, and leaving the junior enlisted out to dry.

Patti

I disagree with you on some of this abndave ... the media on this isn't about whipping up sympathy for the enemy on 'D-Day' in Iraq ... it is about exposing the ramifications and consequences of a flawed decision so the public can see what happens when a leader ignores the advice of experts and allies.

I understand the hoods and the nudity and I'm not disturbed at all about the hoods and the nudity ... it is the other things that disturbs me ... things like the the posed sexual photos ... and the things that are not yet seen, but implied. Things like this stuff was so common place that they felt it was no big deal to document their actions on photos to send home to 'Mom' ... things like the photos that our government is afraid to release to the public, because they actually do document rape and real torture ... things like a good portion of these guards being prison guards here in America when they are not on active duty ... all very disturbing to me.

America's government and military, if left unchecked would be very much like the Romans or Nazis ... they would do anything ... PERIOD to do their mission ... and that is why they need to be 'checked' and exposed ... supposedly our civilian leaders should know where to draw the line ... but when that fails, then maybe the media needs to do the 'checking' and exposing.

I also don't like the idea that the junior folks are getting the press ... but this really doesn't end at the Officers in charge ... the responsibility goes all the way back to George W. Bush.

The people who run our government are like most others ... they have flaws ... they get sucked into revenge ... they make bad decisions. Iraq and the consequences of Iraq are just the result of our leaders being flawed ... like the rest of us. George made some really poor decisions ... he is ultimately responsible.

I think that is what the media is trying to expose.

James