Sivits Found Guilty
Associated Press
May 19, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of abuse in the first court-martial stemming from mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.

The court-martial then found Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits guilty of all charges. In a quirk of military law, if the defendant pleads guilty, they have to prove to the court they are guilty and the court then formally renders a finding.

Sivits, at times struggling to hold back tears, was charged with mistreating detainees, dereliction of duty for failing to protect them from abuse, cruelty and forcing a prisoner "to be positioned in a pile on the floor to be assaulted by other soldiers."

Sivits took pictures of naked Iraqi prisoners being sexually humiliated at Abu Ghraib. He could face up to one year in jail, reduction in rank, loss of pay and a bad conduct discharge.

Capt. Scott Dunn, Sivits' lawyer, entered the plea on his behalf and expressed concern about the huge media coverage of the trial, asking "can you make a fair decision?"

The judge, Col. James Pohl, replied: "Just because it's on TV, it doesn't mean it's true."

In an emotional description of the events that took place in the Abu Ghraib prison on the evening of Nov. 8, Sivits said he was asked by Staff Sgt. Ivan L. Frederick of Buckingham, Va., to accompany him to the prison facility. Sivits struggled to describe the events, pausing while telling the judge what happened.

He said he was on detail outside Abu Ghraib and had done some maintenance work on generators when Frederick asked him to accompany him to the prison. Sivits took a detainee with him and when he arrived at the scene where the crimes took place, there were seven other detainees there.

"I heard Cpl. Graner yelling in Arabic at the detainees," he said. "I saw one of the detainees lying on the floor. They were laying there on the floor, sandbags over their heads."

Sgt. Javal Davis, 26, of Maryland, and another soldier, Pfc. Lynndie England, 21, were "stamping on their toes and hands."

"Graner punched the detainee in the head or temple area," Sivits said. "I said. 'I think you might have knocked him out.'"

Sivits also said: "Graner complained that he had injured his hand and said, "Damn, that hurt."'

Sivits said all prisoners were then stripped and forced to form a human pyramid.

Sivits quoted one of the other six accused soldiers, whom he did not identify, as saying guards were "told to keep doing what they were doing by military intelligence." He added, however, that he did not believe the soldier.

Dunn, the defense lawyer, told the judge that Sivits had reached a pre-trial agreement with the prosecution, presumably to testify against others accused in the case.

In Sivits' tiny home town of Hyndman, Pa., more than 200 residents wore yellow ribbons and clutched small American flags during a candlelight vigil to support him.

His father, Daniel Sivits, made a brief statement.

"I want to make explicitly clear, Jeremy, no matter what, is still my son. We still love him," Daniel Sivits said. "I am veteran of the Vietnam war and I want to say one thing - Jeremy is always a vet in my heart and in my mind."

Earlier, three other accused - Davis, Frederick and Spc. Charles Graner Jr., of Uniontown, Pa. - appeared for arraignment in the courtroom at the Baghdad Convention Center, located in the heavily guarded Green Zone.

All three waived their right to have the charges read in court and deferred their pleas pending another hearing June 21.

The U.S. military allowed news coverage of the proceedings in the hope it will demonstrate American resolve to determine who was responsible for the abuse and punish the guilty.

Nine Arab newspapers and the prominent Arab television networks Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya are among 34 news organizations being allowed to have reporters in the courtroom. No audio or TV recordings will be allowed in the courtroom, however.

On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch said that U.S. occupation authorities have refused to allow Iraqi and international human rights groups to attend the court martial.

"Barring human rights monitors from the court martial is a bad decision in its own right," Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch Middle East and North Africa division, said in a statement. "It also sends a terrible signal to Iraqis and others deeply concerned about what transpired in Abu Ghraib."

The case has been closely followed by many of the 135,000 U.S. troops in Iraq - with varied opinions.

"If these people are guilty, it should come out," Marine Gunnery Sgt. Tracey Reddish, 34, of Jessup, Ga., said. "Court-martials are very fair."

Another Marine, Lance Cpl. Kyle Morgan, 20, of Beaumont, Texas, said the case was pushed by "the people in Washington sitting in their cushy chairs, judging our men here who are trying to save lives ... But the politicians are just worried about their own necks."

The scandal broke last month with the broadcast and publication of pictures of prisoners suffering sexual humiliation and other brutality at the hands of American MPs serving as guards at Abu Ghraib.

The pictures generated a wave of international outrage and called into question the Bush administration's moral standing in its campaign to bring democracy to Iraq.

One photo showed a naked, hooded prisoner on a box with wires fastened to his hands and genitals. According to Fredericks' indictment, the detainee had been told he would be electrocuted if he touched the ground.

Another picture showed a female MP holding a leash attached to the neck of a naked prisoner on the floor.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which inspects prisons in Iraq and elsewhere, issued a report on conditions at Abu Ghraib that said some acts against detainees were "tantamount to torture." It said the abuse included brutality, forcing people to wear hoods, humiliation and threats of execution.

The report also said intelligence officers of the U.S.-led coalition had told Red Cross officials that up to 90 percent of Iraqi detainees had been arrested by mistake.

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