Torture pictures 'a bit of fun'

Taking photos of Iraqi prisoners as they lay naked in a heap was 'just for fun', a US military hearing was told yesterday.

A four-day military hearing opened yesterday to determine if the private, who is heavily pregnant, should face a court martial.

Army investigator Paul Arthur told the hearing at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, that he interviewed England months before the prison photos became public in April.

She told him the shots were taken while 'they were joking around, having some fun, working the night shift.' Mr Arthur said he believed the reservists from the 372nd Military Police Company were responding to the stress of being in a war zone.

'It was just for fun, kind of venting their frustration,' he added.

The hearing is the first chance in court for the army reservist's lawyers to make their case that she was following orders from superiors when she was photographed mocking naked detainees at the prison.

But Mr Arthur said that, although England initially told him military intelligence officers allowed the reservists to take the photos for use in interrogating other prisoners, there was no indication that ever happened.

'No one said they were going to turn them over to military intelligence,' he added.

In cross-examination, England's military lawyer, Capt Jonathan Crisp, pressed Mr Arthur about whether military intelligence officers ordered the reservists to take the pictures.

Mr Arthur replied that officials continued to investigate the use of military intelligence techniques at the prison. However, in his interviews with 372nd members, 'none of them stated that military intelligence specifically told them to do this, except for the statement I got from Pte England'.

Earlier, the officer in charge of the jail at the time of the abuse, Brig Gen Janis Karpinski, supported the claim

that England was being made a scapegoat and was acting under orders.

Gen Karpinski told an interviewer: 'What caused those photographs to be taken, I think, is a very important point in any of the soldiers' defence.'

But she added that, even if the orders came from the top, this did not 'forgive the acts, their participation'.

England is charged with 13 counts of abusing detainees and six counts stemming from possession of sexually explicit photos. She could face 38 years in prison.

England is one of seven reservists charged. One, Jeremy Sivits, pleaded guilty and was jailed for a year.

There are 25 witnesses listed, including vice-president Dick Cheney and defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, although they are unlikely to be called.