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</font><font face="arial" size=2><a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B8F63BDF-39B6-401E-A2EB-36D7AE75F9B8.htm">http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B8F63BDF-39B6-401E-A2EB-36D7AE75F9B8.htm</a><br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=4><b> <br><br>
Cheerleader excuse for Iraq abuse<br><br>
</b></font><font face="verdana" size=1>Tuesday 11 January 2005, 2:51
Makka Time, 23:51 GMT <br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2><b>A lawyer representing one of the
alleged ringleaders in the Iraq prison abuse scandal has said piling
naked prisoners into pyramids was comparable to cheerleader
shows.<br><br>
</b></font><font face="verdana" size=2>Charles Graner's attorney, Guy
Womack, told the 10-member US military jury at the Texas court martial on
Monday that leashing detainees was also an acceptable prisoner
control.<br><br>
In opening arguments at the reservist sergeant's trial in Fort Hood,
Womack asked: "Don't cheerleaders all over America form pyramids six
to eight times a year. Is that torture?" <br>
<br>
Graner and Private Lynndie England, with whom he fathered a child and who
is also facing a court-martial, became the faces of the Abu Ghraib prison
scandal after they appeared in photographs that showed degraded, naked
prisoners. <br>
<br>
The trial is expected to last at least a week. The 36-year-old faces up
to 17 years in prison, but has pleaded not guilty.<br>
<br>
But four of seven accused members of Graner's unit have already pleaded
guilty to abuse charges and three have been sentenced to prison.
<br><br>
<b>Court martial debate<br><br>
</b>The prosecution showed some of those pictures in their opening
argument, including several of naked Iraqi men piled on each other and
another of England holding a crawling naked Iraqi man on a leash.
<br><br>
Womack said using a tether was a valid method of controlling detainees,
especially those who might be soiled with faeces. <br>
<br>
"You're keeping control of them. A tether is a valid control to be
used in corrections," he said. "In Texas we'd lasso them and
drag them out of there." <br><br>
He compared the leash to parents who place tethers on their toddlers
while walking in shopping malls. <br>
<br>
<b>Bigger picture<br><br>
</b>However, pictures of the humiliating treatment of the prisoners at
the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad prompted outrage around the world
and further eroded the credibility of the US already damaged in many
countries by the 2003 Iraq invasion. <br>
<br>
The Bush administration has said the actions were those of a small group
and were not part of a policy or condoned by senior officers. <br>
<br>
But investigations have shown many prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and at
the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba also suffered abusive
treatment after the government considered ways to obtain information in
the war against terrorism.<br><br>
</font><font face="verdana" size=1>Reuters<br>
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San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
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