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US officer 'whistled' during Abu Ghraib abuse
A Syrian at the prison testified in a tape that Graner merrily sang, laughed while brutalising him.
A Syrian inmate at Abu Ghraib prison has testified in a videotape played for a jury that Army Spc Charles Graner merrily whistled, sang and laughed, while brutalising him and forced him to eat pork and drink alcohol in violation of his Muslim faith.
Amin al-Sheikh, in a deposition played at Graner's court-martial, said Graner threatened more than once to kill him and told him to thank Jesus for keeping him alive.
The inmate also said he listened through his cell wall as Graner and other Americans forced a Yemeni prisoner to eat from a toilet.
Asked if Graner appeared to enjoy hurting him, al-Sheikh said through an interpreter: "He was laughing. ... He laughed. He was whistling. He was singing."
He described Graner as the "primary torturer" and "a naturally aggressive man" - a characterisation that led Graner, sitting in the courtroom, to roll his eyes and chuckle.
Graner is the first soldier accused in the Abu Ghraib scandal to go on trial.
Prosecutors allege that the army reservist was the ringleader of the abuse.
Three fellow guards from the 372nd Military Police Company have pleaded guilty to abusing detainees.
Graner is charged with conspiracy, assault, committing indecent acts and other offences. He could get to up to seventeen-and-a-half years in a military prison if convicted.
Al-Sheikh said he went to Iraq in 2003 to fight US-led forces, and he was taken to Abu Ghraib after being captured with AK-47 assault rifles, grenades and bomb-making material.
