Jury weighs Abu Ghraib officer's verdict (4th Roundup)

By Tony Czuczka Aug 27, 2007, 21:34 GMT

Fort Meade, Maryland - Prosecutors on Monday wrapped up their case against the only US officer charged in connection with the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib, saying his lack of leadership encouraged the notorious rampages by US soldiers at the prison.

Army Lieutenant Colonel Steven Jordan, 51, neglected to stop alleged abuses during a roundup of Iraqi prison guards and failed to train and supervise soldiers when he headed the interrogation centre in the fall of 2003, prosecutors said in closing arguments at the officer's court-martial.

After Jordan's lawyers made a final plea for his innocence, a 10- member panel of higher-ranking officers began deliberating the verdict. The jury deliberated for nearly four and a half hours Monday without reaching a decision, and deliberations were expected to continue Tuesday.

Jordan risks up to eight-and-a-half years in prison and dismissal from the Army. He is charged with mistreatment or cruelty, disobeying orders and dereliction of duty at Abu Ghraib, which became a searing symbol of US excesses in Iraq after the March 2003 invasion.

'He created the atmosphere that led to the abuse of Iraqi military intelligence detainees and Iraqi correctional officers,' prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel John Tracy told the court.

Jordan denies wrongdoing and claims that the Army made him a scapegoat. He did not take the stand during the trial, being held since last week at a military base north of Washington.

In the defence's closing arguments, Jordan was portrayed as a soldier's advocate who focussed on improving living conditions for his troops and protecting the sprawling prison against mortar and sniper fire from insurgents.

His aim was to ensure that Abu Ghraib's military intelligence soldiers and military police could do their work, not to personally supervise interrogations, defence lawyer Major Kris Poppe told the court.

'It is tempting to say some officer must be held accountable - but not this officer,' Poppe told the jury panel of seven male and three female soldiers.

Jordan headed the interrogation site at the prison outside Baghdad during the time when US military police soldiers on night duty took infamous pictures of naked detainees being mistreated, sexually humiliated and threatened with dogs.

He is not charged specifically for those abuses, but over a November 2003 incident when US troops stripped and lined up Iraqi guards for a search after a detainee smuggled weapons into his cell. Dogs allegedly were used to control the Iraqis.

Prosecutors argue that the actions happened without the required authorization from the top US commander in Iraq and Jordan, as the senior officer at the scene, should have stopped them.

But the potentially most severe charge is disobeying orders. In 2004, Jordan allegedly ignored a general's order not to communicate with other soldiers about an internal investigation into the Abu Ghraib abuses.

Evidence presented in court indicated that he e-mailed several soldiers he knew from Abu Ghraib, asking whether they believed he was connected to any abuses.

Jordan's lawyers argued he effectively had no command authority over the military intelligence and military police stationed at Abu Ghraib.

Eleven lower-ranking US soldiers were convicted of abuses at Abu Ghraib, but Jordan is the first - and likely the last - officer to be charged.

The scandal erupted when the photos became public in 2004, inflaming anti-Americanism in the Middle East, causing worldwide outrage and damaging US credibility.