A military judge yesterday declared the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad a crime scene that cannot be dismantled -- as US President George W. Bush had offered -- and denied a defense motion to move the trial of a soldier accused of abusing prisoners there out of Iraq.
The judge, Colonel James Pohl, issued the orders at pretrial hearings for Sergeant Javal Davis, one of the seven soldiers who had been accused of mistreating Iraqi detainees. One of the seven, Specialist Jeremy Sivits, pleaded guilty last month and was sentenced to one year in prison.
PHOTO: AP
Pohl was also to hear motions yesterday in the cases against two other defendants, Specialist Charles Graner, Jr., and Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick II.
In the first hearing, Pohl turned down motions submitted by Davis' lawyers to move the trial from Iraq and to order a new Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding.
Pohl declared the prison a crime scene and said it could not be destroyed until the case was adjudicated. Bush had offered to dismantle the facility to help remove the stain of torture and abuse from the new Iraq -- an offer Iraqi officials had already dismissed.
Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein used Abu Ghraib to torture and murder his opponents.
Davis' civilian lawyer, Paul Bergrin, won permission to seek testimony from the top US general in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, and from the chief of the US Central Command, General John Abizaid.
But the judge turned down a request to seek testimony from higher-ranking witnesses, including US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
But Pohl left open the possibility of calling other senior figures if the defense could show their testimony was relevant.
Defense lawyers for the soldiers have long maintained their clients were simply following orders and that instructions for harsh treatment of detainees came from the highest levels of the US government.
Bergrin told reporters during a recess that he thought the hearing had gone well. He said that lower-echelon troops at the prison had worked under intense pressure from their commanders and the CIA and were using "Israeli methods" -- including nudity -- known to work against Arab prisoners.
The hearings took place in the Baghdad Convention Center in the heavily guarded Green Zone, the nerve center of the US-run occupation of Iraq. US authorities hope the proceedings will convince Iraqis that the US does not tolerate abuses of civil liberties.
Davis' military lawyer, Captain Scott Dunn, failed to win an order to reopen the Article 32 investigation, which would have dismissed the current charges. Dunn had argued that the military failed to make available a witness during the Article 32 proceedings, which ended with a recommendation for court martial.
However, the judge granted a request by Bergrin to declassify all parts of an Army investigation report conducted by Major General Antonio Taguba.
As the session began, Dunn, the military lawyer, said the defense understood that security conditions in Iraq made it difficult to provide access to some witnesses. He wanted to question an inmate at Abu Ghraib.
Dunn said his client still had a right to confront his accusers.
"We couldn't go to him. They wouldn't bring him to us. They said it was impossible to obtain any telephone testimony. We object to not obtaining his testimony at all," Dunn said.
Meanwhile, four US soldiers were found dead in a building site in the town of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, apparently killed in an attack by insurgents, witnesses said.
NETWORK-MAPPING PROJECT: The database contains 170 detailed files of Taiwanese politicians and about 23 million records of household registration data in Taiwan China has developed a network-mapping project targeting political figures and parties in Taiwan to monitor public opinion during elections and to craft tailored influence campaigns aimed at dividing Taiwanese society, according to documents leaked by Chinese technology firm GoLaxy (中科天璣). The documents, collected by Taipei-based Doublethink Lab, showed a database was specifically created to gather detailed information on Taiwanese political figures, including their political affiliations, job histories, birthplaces, residences, education, religion and a brief biography about them. Several notable Taiwanese politicians are in the database, including President William Lai (賴清德), former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍),
RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if
UPGRADED MISSILE: The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology is reportedly to conduct a live-fire test of the Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missile on Thursday next week The US Army is planning to build new facilities to boost explosives production and strengthen its supply chain, a move aimed at addressing munitions shortages and supporting obligations to partners including Taiwan, Ukraine and Israel, Defense News reported. The army has issued a sources sought notice for a proposed Center of Excellence at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, the report said. The facility would serve as a hub within the US industrial base for the production of key military explosives, including research department explosives (RDX) and high melting explosives (HMX), while also supporting research and development of next-generation materials. The proposed
SOUTH KOREA DISPUTE: If Seoul continues to ignore its request, Taiwan would change South Korea’s designation on its arrival cards, the foreign ministry said If South Korea does not reply appropriately to a request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, the government would take corresponding measures to change how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. Taipei has asked Seoul to change the wording. Since March 1, South Koreans who hold government-issued Alien Resident Certificates (ARC) have been identified as from “South Korea” rather than the “Republic of Korea,” the
RSS