WASHINGTON – A fourth soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal has pleaded guilty and provided authorities with new details on how an Iraqi inmate was dragged naked on a dog leash around the prison near Baghdad at the behest of intelligence officers who could not control him.
The photograph of the man on the leash shows Spc. Megan Ambuhl in the background as Pfc. Lynndie England holds the leash.
Ambuhl, considered the least culpable of the seven guards and one intelligence officer charged so far in the case, pleaded guilty Saturday to one count of dereliction of duty for not reporting the dog-leash incident.
As part of a plea agreement disclosed Tuesday, Ambuhl, of Centreville, Va., forfeited a half month’s pay and was reduced in rank from specialist to private. She is to cooperate as a government witness in court-martial proceedings against others accused in the scandal.
Ambuhl’s psychological report states she arrived in Baghdad with little training on how to treat detainees and no prior prison guard experience. From the outset, she told Lt. Col. Rebecca Dyer, the licensed clinical psychologist, Ambuhl assumed that harsh and humiliating treatment of detainees was acceptable.
According to transcripts of an Oct. 5 interview with Army psychologists, Ambuhl said prison guards were told by military intelligence officers to move the prisoner because they “had another detainee they wanted to put in the hole.” She said the inmate was labeled “of interest” to intelligence officers and that they personally directed how he was to be treated, either with “soft or harsh” treatment.
The man’s clothes had been taken away, Ambuhl said, because he was ripping them and tearing them off, she said, and finally intelligence officers instructed guards to move him from the small cell they called “the hole” to make room for another prisoner.
“I just didn’t think about it being wrong at the time,” she said. “We were told to get him out. We had tried to get him to cooperate, but nothing was working.
“These detainees were so difficult, I just didn’t think about it. Then someone put the leash on and got him out,” she said.
Because none of the intelligence officers intervened, she assumed the dragging was done at their request.
England, the other soldier in the photo of the leashed prisoner, is awaiting court-martial.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
