GI Gets 8-Year Sentence After Guilty Plea in Abuse Scandal

BAGHDAD —  The highest-ranking U.S. soldier charged in the abuse of detainees at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib jail was sentenced to eight years in prison Thursday, the longest term handed down so far in the scandal.

Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Ivan L. “Chip” Frederick II, who was found guilty of assault, maltreatment, dereliction of duty, indecent acts and conspiracy, was also reduced in rank to private, ordered to forfeit pay and given a dishonorable discharge from the military.

Frederick, 38, had faced a possible 10 years in prison, but the term was reduced as part of a plea bargain. Defense lawyer Gary Myers called the punishment excessive and said he would appeal.

As part of the plea deal with prosecutors, Frederick confessed to beating and humiliating Iraqi prisoners while taking souvenir pictures of the deeds. He agreed to cooperate with other prosecutions.

Frederick said he wrapped loose wires around a prisoner’s finger and threatened to electrocute him if he fell off a narrow box. He confessed also to punching a prisoner and ordering him to masturbate in front of others “just to humiliate him.”

On Thursday, his lawyer placed much of the blame for the abuse last November on the Army.

Myers argued that Frederick was thrown into a stressful, chaotic environment where military intelligence officers had encouraged the abuse so that prisoners would be more likely to divulge information during interrogation. He also said the defendant, a Virginia prison guard in civilian life, was never properly trained by the Army for his job as night supervisor at Abu Ghraib.

“Punish him, yes,” the lawyer said. “But please try to understand

Army prosecutor Maj. Michael Holley argued that the case was a simple matter of right and wrong.

“He’s an adult capable of making decisions,” Holley told the court prior to sentencing. “He’s an adult capable of telling, as we learned, the difference between right and wrong. How much training do you need to learn that it’s wrong to force a man to masturbate?”

The judge, Army Col. James Pohl, offered no comment on the sentence.

Frederick, a resident of Buckingham, Va., is one of seven members of the Army Reserve’s 372nd Military Police Company based in Cresaptown, Md., to be charged in the scandal. Another member, Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits, in his mid-20s, of Hyndman, Pa., is serving a one-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in May to three counts.

A military intelligence soldier, Spc. Armin J. Cruz, 24, was sentenced in September to eight months in prison, a reduction in rank to private and a bad-conduct discharge for his role.

During the two-day trial, which was held at a military base in Baghdad, defense witnesses described Frederick as an “all-American boy” who was warped by “inhumane” working conditions created by the Army.

In a videoconference call to the court, San Francisco psychologist Philip Zimbardo said Frederick found himself working 12-hour days in an overcrowded prison that saw frequent violence among detainees and mortar attacks from insurgents. Frederick lived in a cell without bathroom facilities.

“When he went out of control, I want to argue, it’s because he was put in a situation that was totally out of control,” the psychologist said.

Frederick’s wife, who also testified in a videoconference call, said she responded with disbelief when she heard the accusations.

“The things he’s accused of are not in his nature,” Martha Anne Frederick said during the first day of the trial. “He is a good person, not some rogue soldier or bad apple.”

But Holley, the prosecutor, said that by failing to stop the abuse, Frederick potentially jeopardized the lives of Americans and invited abuse of U.S. soldiers who might be taken prisoner.

“The enemy feeds on morale like we do, and this can form a rallying point for enemies now and forever,” he said. “We need the moral high ground to rally ourselves.”