| Inmate says graner laughed during abuse Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050111/D87I3FVO0.htmlhttp://apnews.myway.com/article/20050111/D87I3FVO0.html
Inmate Says Graner Laughed During Abuse Jan 11, 3:32 PM (ET)
By T.A. BADGER
FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) - A Syrian inmate at Abu Ghraib prison testified in a videotape played for a jury Tuesday that Army Spc. Charles Graner merrily whistled, sang and laughed while brutalizing him and forced him to eat pork and drink alcohol in violation of his Muslim faith.
Amin al-Sheikh, in a deposition played at Graner's court-martial, said Graner threatened more than once to kill him and told him to thank Jesus for keeping him alive. The inmate also said he listened through his cell wall as Graner and other Americans forced a Yemeni prisoner to eat from a toilet.
Asked if Graner appeared to enjoy hurting him, al-Sheikh said through an interpreter: "He was laughing. ... He laughed. He was whistling. He was singing."
He described Graner as the "primary torturer" and "a naturally aggressive man" - a characterization that led Graner, sitting in the courtroom, to roll his eyes and chuckle.
Graner is the first soldier accused in the Abu Ghraib scandal to go on trial. Prosecutors allege the Army reservist was the ringleader of the abuse. Three fellow guards from the 372nd Military Police Company have pleaded guilty to abusing detainees.
Graner is charged with conspiracy, assault, committing indecent acts and other offenses. He could get to 17 1/2 years in a military prison if convicted.
Al-Sheikh said he went to Iraq in 2003 to fight U.S.-led forces, and he was taken to Abu Ghraib after being captured with AK-47 assault rifles, grenades and bomb-making material. While being kept at a tent camp next to Abu Ghraib, al-Sheikh 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 Graner jumped on his wounded leg and struck it with a collapsible stick. On another occasion, 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, al-Sheikh said. Another American threatened to rape him, he said.
Graner said after the video testimony that he remembered al-Sheikh. "The last time I saw him, he was threatening to kill me," the defendant said.
Under defense questioning, al-Sheikh said Graner at times worked with Americans who were interrogating him at Abu Ghraib. He said interrogators known as "Steve" and "Mikey" made it clear that he would be roughed up by Graner if he did not cooperate.
Defense attorney Guy Womack said al-Sheikh's testimony was good for his client. "It was the face of the enemy," Womack said. "It's very clear that he hates America."
The defense maintains that Graner and other soldiers were ordered by military and civilian intelligence officers to soften up detainees for questioning, and that they had no choice but to obey.
Al-Sheikh conceded that he did not see Graner and others making the Yemeni prisoner eat from the toilet, but said it was clear that was happening from what he heard.
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