Abuse wasn't ordered, says investigator

Lynndie England's attorney wished to question Bush administration officials.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- The military police officers accused of abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison "were just joking around, having some fun, working the night shift" and weren't following orders to "soften up" detainees for questioning, an Army investigator testified at a hearing Tuesday.
Chief Warrant Officer Paul Arthur said interviews with more than 400 soldiers, civilians and commanding officers who worked at Abu Ghraib didn't back up claims by Pfc. Lynndie England and six other members of the 372nd Military Police Company that they were following orders.
England, the 21-year-old reservist whose cheerful poses with naked and hooded Iraqis have become a worldwide symbol of American military abuse, "did it for fun," Arthur said.
Arthur was one of two investigators from the Army's criminal investigation division to testify Tuesday as the military began a so-called Article 32 hearing for England to determine if the evidence against her merits putting her on trial in the abuse case.
Her famous smile replaced with a sullen stare, England, dressed in a camouflage uniform and a black beret, listened quietly to the testimony during the morning, occasionally responding to procedural questions in a soft voice. She didn't return after a noon recess.
Defense questions
Richard Hernandez, England's lead attorney, attacked the Army's Abu Ghraib investigation as incomplete, understaffed and riven by internal conflicts of interest.
He demanded the right to question senior Bush administration officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney, about interrogation policy.
But the officer in charge of the hearing, Col. Denise Arn, in rejecting that request, made it clear that she wasn't going to allow the hearing to become a trial of whether top U.S. officials had encouraged abuse. She also barred testimony from Capt. Carolyn Wood, who supervised interrogations at Abu Ghraib, and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who was the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq when the abuses occurred.
Hernandez repeatedly pressed Arthur and fellow investigator Special Agent Warren Worth about the involvement of military intelligence officers in the case. Both acknowledged England and other soldiers said military intelligence officers had told them they could "rough up" the detainees.