IRAQ: The highest-ranking US soldier accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners has reached a deal to plead guilty to some charges at his court martial in Baghdad in October, one of his lawyers said yesterday.
"He has, unlike many, accepted responsibility for corrupt behaviour generated by the circumstances that existed in Abu Ghraib," Mr Gary Myers told reporters beside Sgt Ivan Frederick after a pre-trial hearing in Germany.
"There have been deals over charges and the sentence," he said as the silent Sgt Frederick (37) held his wife's hand.
Mr Myers declined to give details but said Sgt Frederick, a suspected abuse ringleader, hoped others would acknowledge their role in the scandal.
Photographs of smiling American soldiers tormenting naked detainees rocked the US military when they emerged in April, prompting claims that policies adopted in President Bush's "war on terror" had encouraged the cruelty.
Military prosecutors said yesterday they would lay charges against two military intelligence specialists and were considering charges, notably dereliction of duty, against more senior officers.
However, judge James Pohl dismissed the motion brought by another defendant yesterday to force US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld to testify.
Defence lawyers for four accused who appeared at the hearings in Germany - Sgt Frederick, Sgt Javal Davis and Army Specialists Charles Graner and Megan Ambuhl - say their clients were following orders to break inmates for interrogation.
US officials say the accused were wayward individuals and their actions isolated ones.
However, Mr Myers and other defence lawyers say the guilt stretches far higher. "These specific acts were within a sea of multiple acts," he said, adding that the number of soldiers deemed "rogue" was steadily rising.
One of Sgt Davis's lawyers, Mr Paul Bergrin, referred to memos which showed Mr Rumsfeld had approved hooding and stripping of prisoners, who could also be put in stress positions and subjected to "physical conduct".
"As insurgencies increased, the need for actionable intelligence increased. These techniques were approved by Donald Rumsfeld," Mr Bergrin said.
Mr Bergrin was among defence lawyers who last week questioned four generals, including Maj Gen Geoffrey Miller, former commander of Guantanamo Bay detention centre, and Maj Gen Barbara Fast, head of US military intelligence in Iraq. Mr Bergrin said senior officers wanted useful intelligence and were prepared to humiliate and intimidate detainees to that end.