The defense lawyer said he wanted Bush questioned

BAGHDAD, June 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A defence lawyer for American soldiers accused of abuse in Abu Ghraib prison Monday, June 21, called for questioning US President George W. Bush  and his Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the case, saying his clients were forced to take the blame for the scandal.

Paul Bergrin, a defence attorney for one of three prison guards whose pre-trial hearings into the scandal began in Baghdad Monday, admitted the move was unlikely as the President was "too well insulated".

Bush said on national television the rules of law under the Geneva Convention did not apply in the "war on terror", Bergrin told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Memos from the highest Washington echelons prove that people in command knew of the harsh interrogation techniques being conducted at Abu Ghraib, Bergrin said, explaining that his client Sergeant Javal Davis was merely following orders from military intelligence.

The problem was finding the proof that linked the chain of command to the President, he admitted.

"He has insulated himself very, very well but we know he has knowledge otherwise (Secretary of Defence Donald) Rumsfeld would not be as involved as he is," said Bergrin, who already announced he wanted to question the US Defence Secretary about how much he knew about the issue.

"I would love to question George W. but I don't think he will ever permit that. I don't think he has got the guts to do that," Bergrin said.

If proof was found, however, that put Bush in the loop, "we will walk right into the White House and question him," Bergrin said.

The civil lawyers for the defendants won permission to seek testimony from the top U.S. general in Iraq , Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez and from the chief of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. John Abizaid.

But the judge turned down a request to seek testimony from higher-ranking witnesses, including Rumsfeld, at this time.

Crime Scene

A hearing for England will be held separately at Fort Bragg , North Carolina

In another development, a military judge in the case, James Pohl, declared the Abu Ghraib prison a crime scene and said it cannot be demolished as Bush had offered.

Bush had offered to dismantle Abu Ghraib to help remove the stain of torture and abuse from the new Iraq - an offer Iraqi officials had already dismissed, saying it would be a waste of the building. Former ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein reportedly used Abu Ghraib to torture and murder his opponents.

The three US soldiers under trial are among seven soldiers accused of abusing prisoners. One of them, Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits, pleaded guilty last month and was sentenced to a year in prison.

After the pre-trial hearing in Baghdad , lawyers for the three defendants said their clients were following orders by senior officers and military intelligence.

"We can't have American soldiers in a war zone questioning the legality of orders," Guy Womack, was quoted by the New York Times as saying to reporters.

Recent reports indicated the torture was okayed by senior Pentagon officials, including Rumsfeld and Sanchez.

The Washington Post said Saturday, June 12, that Sanchez, gave free reign to US officers in charge of Abu Ghraib prison to adopt various torture and abuse tactics used at the US detention center in Guantanamo.

Lawyers for two of the soldiers also sought unsuccessfully to have the trial moved to the United States or Germany . However, Pohl said he might reconsider his ruling if future events in Iraq precluded a fair trial.

The hearings took place in the Baghdad Convention Center in the heavily guarded Green Zone, the nerve center of the American-run occupation of Iraq . U.S. authorities hope the proceedings will convince Iraqis that the United States does not tolerate abuses of civil liberties.

No date for a trial has been set, but Womack said he did not believe it would begin before October.

One of the soldiers has been accused of jumping on several detainees as they were piled on the floor. He is also charged with stomping the hands and bare feet of several prisoners and punching one inmate in the temple so hard that he lost consciousness.

Another is accused of forcing detainees to masturbate, placing naked detainees into a human pyramid and placing wires on a detainee's hands, telling him he would be electrocuted if he fell off a box on which he was forced to stand.

The third is accused of maltreating detainees, stomping on their hands and feet and putting detainees in a pile on the floor to be assaulted by other soldiers. He faces maximum of eight and a half years in jail, forfeiture of pay, reduction in rank and a dishonorable discharge.

A hearing for another soldier charged in the scandal, Pfc. Lynndie England , 21, will be held separately Tuesday, June 22, at Fort Bragg , North Carolina , where she is now stationed.

England had said she was "instructed" by her commanders to pose for photographs with naked Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison.

The military has not decided whether to refer the cases against two others - Spc. Sabrina Harman and Pfc. Megan Ambuhl - to courts martial.

The abuse scandal broke in April when CBS' "60 Minutes II" aired photographs of hooded and naked prisoners. Since then other photographs showing sexual humiliation have surfaced in a scandal that has sparked massive international criticism and undercut the moral authority of the U.S.-led mission in Iraq .

In March, Antonio Taguba, the US Army officer who investigated abuses at the Abu Ghraib, criticized the practice of allowing ghost detainees as "deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine, and in violation of international law."

On Sunday, June 20, the British Ministry of Defense (MoD) said it is investigating charges that its soldiers mutilated the bodies of Iraqis last month, amid reports of "buying off" families of Iraqis killed by its troops to silence them.