From the Shit rolls down hill department:
US prison guard Jeremy Sivits was sentenced to the maximum term of one year in jail today after pleading guilty to charges over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners inside Abu Ghraib jail at a court martial in Baghdad.
A military policeman, the 24-yearold 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.
Sivits admitted conspiracy to maltreat detainees, maltreatment of detainees and dereliction of duty around Nov 8 last year in the first trial over the scandal that has rocked the US-led coalition and President George W. Bush's administration.
He 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 and pretended to punch another in the head.
Sivits told the court that one of the six soldiers he was with claimed they were softening up the detainees on behalf of military intelligence. He told the court he did not believe it.
"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." 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.
"I led the detainee in and pushed him into the pile." — AFP
US prison guard Jeremy Sivits was sentenced to the maximum term of one year in jail today after pleading guilty to charges over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners inside Abu Ghraib jail at a court martial in Baghdad.
A military policeman, the 24-yearold 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.
Sivits admitted conspiracy to maltreat detainees, maltreatment of detainees and dereliction of duty around Nov 8 last year in the first trial over the scandal that has rocked the US-led coalition and President George W. Bush's administration.
He 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 and pretended to punch another in the head.
Sivits told the court that one of the six soldiers he was with claimed they were softening up the detainees on behalf of military intelligence. He told the court he did not believe it.
"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." 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.
"I led the detainee in and pushed him into the pile." — AFP
