Prisoner accounts add to Abu Ghraib shame

The statements provide the most detailed picture yet of what took place on the cellblock. Some of the detainees described being abused as punishment or discipline after they were caught fighting or with a prohibited item. Some said they were pressed to denounce Islam or were force-fed pork and liquor.

Many provided graphic details of how they were sexually humiliated and assaulted, threatened with rape, and forced to masturbate in front of female soldiers. ‘‘They forced us to walk like dogs on our hands and knees,’’ said Hiadar Sabar Abed Miktub Al-Aboodi, detainee No. 13077. ‘‘We had to bark like a dog, and if we didn’t, they would hit us hard on our face and chest. After that, they took us to our cells, took the mattresses out and dropped water on the floor and they made us sleep on our stomachs on the floor with the bags on our head and they took pictures of everything.’’

The prisoners also provided accounts of how some of the now-famous photographs were staged, including the pyramid of hooded, naked prisoners.

Eight of the detainees identified by name one particular soldier at the centre of the abuse investigation, Spc. Charles Graner, a member of the 372nd Military Police Company from Cresaptown, Md. Five others described abuse at the hands of a soldier who matches Graner’s description. ‘‘They said we will make you wish to die and it will not happen,’’ said Ameen Saeed Al-Sheik, detainee No. 151362. ‘‘The stripped me naked. One of them told me he would rape me. He drew a picture of a woman on my back and made me stand in shameful position holding my buttocks.’’

The disclosures come from a new cache of documents, photographs and videos obtained by The Post that are part of evidence assembled by Army investigators putting together criminal cases against soldiers at Abu Ghraib.

The sworn statements, taken in Baghdad between January 16-21, span 65 pages. Each statement begins with a handwritten account in Arabic that is signed by the detainee, followed by a typewritten translation by US military contractors.

While military investigators interviewed the detainees separately, many of them recalled the same event or pattern of events and procedures in Tier 1A.

Military intelligence officers took over the cellblock last October and were using MPs to help ‘‘set the conditions’’ for interrogations, according to an investigative report complied by Maj Gen Antonio Taguba. Several MPs have since said in statements that they were roughing up detainees at the direction of US military intelligence officers.

Kasim Mehaddi Hilas, detainee No. 151108, said when he first arrived at Abu Ghraib last year, he was forced to strip, put on a hood and wear rose-coloured panties with flowers on them. ‘‘Most of the days I was wearing nothing else,’’ he said. Hilas also said he witnessed an Army translator having sex with a boy at the prison. He said the boy was between 15 and 18 years old. Hilas said he heard the boy’s screams and climbed a door to get a better look. He said he watched the assault and said that it was documented by a female soldier taking pictures.

Hilas, like other detainees interviewed by the military, said he could not identify some soldiers because they either covered their name patches or did not wear uniforms. But he and other detainees did know the names of three, including Graner and Sgt Javal Davis, both of whom have been charged and now face courts-martial. Some of the detainees described a short woman MP with dark hair and a blond woman MP of medium height who watched and took part in some of the abuses.

Mohanded Juma Juma, detainee No. 152307, said he was stripped and kept naked for six days when he arrived at Abu Ghraib. One day, he said, US soldiers brought a father and his son into the cellblock. He said the soldiers covered them with hoods and removed their clothes. Then, they removed the hoods. ‘‘When the son saw his father naked he was crying,’’ Juma said. He also said Graner repeatedly threw the detainees’ meals into the toilets and said, ‘‘Eat it.’’ — (LAT-WP)