Courts Martial For Abuse Suspects

Two more American soldiers have been ordered to stand trial in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal although no date for the courts martial have been set, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt announced Wednesday.

Sgt. Javal Davis, 26, of Maryland and Staff Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II of Buckingham, Virginia were ordered to undergo a general court martial, Kimmitt said. He said the trial date and venue had not been set.

Sgt. Davis has been charged with conspiracy to maltreat detainees, dereliction of duty for failing to protect detainees from abuse, maltreatment of detainees, rendering false official statements and assault.

Sgt. Frederick has been charged with conspiracy to maltreat detainees, dereliction of duty for negligibly failing to protect detainees from abuse, maltreatment of detainees, and wrongfully committing an indecent act by watching detainees commit a sexual act.

In writings home, Frederick has suggested that intelligence officers urged the abuse.

"Military intelligence has encouraged and told us 'Great job,'" he wrote.

Army Pvt. Lynndie England, a 21-year-old who features in some of the abuse photographs, also puts the blame elsewhere in an interview with reporter Brian Maass of Denver CBS station KCNC.

"I didn't really, I mean, want to be in any pictures," England said. "I was instructed by persons in higher rank to stand there and hold this leash and look at the camera. And they took a picture for psy-op (psychological warfare operations). And that's all I know."

A new video obtained by CBS News' 60 Minutes II, shot by a GI serving at the Camp Bucca and Abu Ghraib prisons, shows the soldier's disdain for Iraqi prisoners. Of two who died, she says, "That's two less for me to worry about."

Meanwhile, the U.S. military has opened an investigation into allegations that an Afghan police officer was stripped naked, beaten and photographed at a U.S. base in Afghanistan.

Also Wednesday, U.S. senators are getting a look at more photos of American soldiers brutalizing Iraqi prisoners but won't have the authority to release the pictures that the Pentagon worries might deepen international fury over the abuses.
Fears that the prisoner abuses would trigger a violent backlash appeared to be realized Tuesday when a video was posted on an al Qaeda linked Web site showing the beheading of an American civilian. The video said the killing was to avenge the prisoner abuse.

Senators were being allowed to view the photographs for three hours Wednesday afternoon in a high-security, classified office in the Capitol.

The material senators were reviewing Wednesday was expected to show abuses that go well beyond the sexual humiliation depicted in photos already circulating publicly.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters last week, "The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder." Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said of the photos and videos: "If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse."

Some lawmakers have urged President Bush's administration to release all the photos at once. They say that would be less damaging than seeing the photos gradually surface in the media a few at a time over weeks or months. Administration officials say they are worried that releasing more photos could derail criminal prosecutions for the abuse.

The viewing of pictures in the Capitol comes a day after senators challenged military officials who pinned most of the blame for the mistreatment on a small group of soldiers and on supervisors who provided inadequate training and leadership.

The Army officer who investigated the abuses, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that military police who acted improperly did so "of their own volition."

Asked to put in simple words how the abuses happened, Taguba said: "Failure in leadership, sir, from the brigade commander on down. Lack of discipline, no training whatsoever and no supervision. Supervisory omission was rampant."

Taguba also said that the guards at Abu Ghraib "were directed to change facility procedures to 'set the conditions' for (military intelligence) interrogations." Disagreeing with Defense Undersecretary for intelligence Stephen Cambone, seated next to him, Taguba said those orders were inappropriate.

However, Taguba did not conclude that the abuses were part of an official policy.

"I think it was a matter of soldiers with their interaction with military intelligence personnel who they perceive to be competent authority who were influencing their action to set the conditions for interrogations," he said.