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Chain of command blurred at Iraqi prison: lawyer
An attorney for one of the soldiers accused of prisoner abuse in Iraq said the chain of command had become blurred at Abu Ghraib.
An attorney for one of the soldiers at the center of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal said the chain of command had become blurred at the Abu Ghraib prison, where private contractors worked with military personnel.
Rose Mary Zapor said Pfc. Lynndie England was "uncomfortable" with orders to pose for now-infamous pictures, but didn't know who to turn to. Zapor refused to say who ordered England to pose.
In one, England is shown smiling, cigarette in mouth, as she points at the genitals of a naked Iraqi. Another shows her holding a leash around the neck of a naked Iraqi man.
Zapor and co-counsel Giorgio Ra'shadd are seeking documents explaining the chain of command in the prison.
They also want to know if the prisoners in the section where the photographs were taken were considered enemy combatants, like those held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. In that case, Zapor said, the Geneva Convention - International rules governing the treatment of prisoners of war - would not apply.
While England had the right to refuse an unlawful order, Zapor said, if a civilian was giving orders it wouldn't be clear whether it was lawful.
According to the Army general who first investigated abuse at the prison, control was transferred from Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski of the 800th Military Police Brigade to a military intelligence colonel.
Zapor said the transfer created confusion just as soldiers were also getting the message that softening up prisoners might help get information that could stop a future terrorist attack.
