Judge threatens to drop Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse case

THE United States government must speed up its investigations into the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison or risk having the case against one of the defendants dropped, a military judge warned yesterday.

Colonel James Pohl issued a 10 September target for the government to complete three reports so that they can be used as evidence in army hearings of soldiers charged with abuse at the prison. Col Pohl expressed particular displeasure after being told that only one army criminal investigator had been assigned to review thousands of pages of records on a secret computer server at Abu Ghraib.

"The government has to figure out what they want to do with the prosecution of this case," the judge said.

Turning to the military prosecutor, Col Pohl said he wanted to have the report on the server inquiry available by 1 December. But he added he would "seriously revisit" a defence motion to dismiss the case against Specialist Charles Graner at the next hearing in October in Baghdad if there was no sign of progress by then.

Graner, identified in previous testimony as the alleged ringleader of the abuse and infamous for the photograph showing him giving a thumbs up next too a pile of naked Iraqis, appeared for several hours yesterday at a heavily secured US military base in the German city of Mannheim. Graner’s lawyers suggested he had been too tired to make a clear decision about his rights when he allowed investigators to take a laptop and CDs from his prison quarters in January.

But Col Pohl rejected a defence request to bar anything found on the laptop as evidence, while stressing that the point could be revisited later.

When computer specialists looked at the laptop and 11 CDs found in the search, they discovered "numerous, dozens of pictures related to the investigation", another investigating agent, Tyler Pieron, told the hearing.

Graner, 35, is accused of photographing a detainee being dragged by Private First Class Lynndie England on a leash, and posing for a picture by a pile of naked detainees in November. Among other charges against Graner is that of committing adultery with England, an offence against military discipline.

Defence lawyers for the accused - specialists Graner and Megan Ambuhl, Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick and Sergeant Javal Davis - argue their clients were following orders to break inmates systematically for interrogation. But US officials deny this.

In a statement given by his attorney yesterday, Frederick

said: "I have accepted responsibility for my actions at Abu Ghraib prison. I will be pleading guilty to certain charges because I have concluded that what I did was a violation of law."

Frederick is charged with maltreating detainees, conspiracy to maltreat detainees, dereliction of duty and wrongfully committing an indecent act. He is due to appear today.