Civilian interrogator defends work at Abu Ghraib, tells jury he was promoted

livemint.com:

delayed by more than 15 years of legal wrangling, is the first time that Abu Ghraib detainees have been able to bring their abuse claims in front of a U.S. jury.

Jurors previously heard testimony from two retired Army generals who investigated Abu Ghraib, and both concluded that Stefanowicz had a role in the abuse of detainees, either by directing military police to “soften up" inmates for interrogation, by using dogs to intimidate them, and by other means of mistreatment. The reports also concluded that Stefanowicz lied to Army investigators in 2004 when he was questioned as part of those investigations.

At trial Thursday, Stefanowicz acknowledged that he implemented a “sleep management plan" for a detainee he was interrogating, meaning that military police played loud music at night to prevent him from sleeping. But Stefanowicz said the sleep deprivation plan was approved by Army officers who oversaw his work.

He said he hewed to the Army's rules for interrogations and that while he requested the ability to use dogs during interrogations, he never did because he never received approval. During testimony that came in through a recorded deposition he gave last month, Stefanowicz said he never sought to abuse or humiliate detainees and said his duties were to “extrapolate information to thwart the war on terror." Stefanowicz said he left Abu Ghraib in 2004, after photos of detainee abuse came to light, but only because his parents were receiving death threats after his work at the prison became public.

In fact, he said he was promoted by CACI to become their site lead at Abu Ghraib. Jurors saw emails indicating that Stefanowicz was being promoted in April 2004 from his job as interrogator and receiving a 48% pay raise, to