Abu Ghraib Inmates Recount Abuse

Hussein Mutar says he was hooded and helpless on a night in 2003 when he fell into the hands of Spc. Charles Graner Jr. and other American guards at Abu Ghraib prison.

Mutar, arrested in Baghdad for theft, ended up as the top man in a naked human pyramid allegedly built by Graner while female soldiers watched and others took photos. He testified Tuesday at Graner's trial that he and six other detainees were later told to masturbate.

"I couldn't imagine it in the beginning," Mutar said through an interpreter in his video-recorded testimony. "I could kill myself because no one over there was stopping it from happening."

The detainee also said "the Americans were torturing us like it was theater to them," CBS News Correspondent Bob McNamara reports.

"Even Saddam didn't do that," the detainee said.

The prosecution rested its case against Graner, the alleged ringleader of the abuse, after Mutar's video testimony. Graner's defense was scheduled to begin Wednesday.

Defense lawyer Guy Womack has maintained that Graner and other soldiers had no choice but to obey orders by military and civilian intelligence officers to soften up detainees for questioning.

Earlier Tuesday, an insurgent from Syria who went to Iraq in 2003 to fight U.S.-led forces told jurors about alleged abuse by Graner. Amin al-Sheikh, also testifying by video, said Graner forced him to eat pork and drink alcohol in violation of his Muslim faith, and on one occasion made him thank Jesus for keeping him alive at the notorious Baghdad prison.

Al-Sheikh described Graner as the "primary torturer" at Abu Ghraib and "a naturally aggressive man" — a characterization that led Graner, sitting in the courtroom, to roll his eyes and chuckle.

Asked if Graner appeared to enjoy hurting him, al-Sheikh said: "He laughed. He was whistling. He was singing."

Al-Sheikh said he was taken to Abu Ghraib after being captured with AK-47 assault rifles, grenades and bomb-making material. While being held at a tent camp next to Abu Ghraib, he said, he was wounded in the leg and chest in a shootout with Americans after he obtained a handgun from an Iraqi guard.

Al-Sheikh said he was later sent to Abu Ghraib, where Graner jumped on his wounded leg and struck it with a collapsible metal stick. Another time, he said, Graner handcuffed him to his cell door with his arms behind his back for eight hours.

Graner also accompanied a U.S. soldier who urinated on him, and the defendant was present when another American threatened to rape him, al-Sheikh said.

Under defense questioning, al-Sheikh said Graner at times worked with American interrogators who made it clear that he would be beaten by Graner if he did not cooperate.

Speaking outside court after the video testimony, Graner said he remembered al-Sheikh: "The last time I saw him, he was threatening to kill me."

Graner, a 36-year-old reservist from Uniontown, Pa., is charged with conspiracy, assault, committing indecent acts and other offenses. He could get up to 17½ years in a military prison if found guilty by a jury of four Army officers and six enlisted men.