Abu Ghraib guard gets 6-month term

FORT HOOD, Texas – An Army reservist who appears in several of the most infamous abuse photos taken by guards at Abu Ghraib prison was sentenced Tuesday to six months in prison for her role in the scandal that rocked the U.S. military’s image at home and abroad.

The sentence for Spc. Sabrina Harman came a day after she was convicted on six of seven counts for mistreating detainees at the Baghdad-area lockup in late 2003. She faced a maximum of five years, though prosecutors asked the jury to give her three years.

With credit for time served, Harman’s actual sentence is just more than four months. She will be reduced in rank to a private and receive a bad conduct discharge after she finishes the sentence.

Defense lawyer Frank Spinner said his client was offered the chance to plead guilty last year with a two-year sentencing cap, but Harman turned down the proposal.

“I felt very strongly in Sabrina Harman,” said Spinner. “I feel she’s a very naive, very innocent person. … She didn’t know how to react to that experience (at Abu Ghraib).”

Harman, 27, of Lorton, Va., was the second low-level soldier from the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company to go to trial on Abu Ghraib charges. Pvt. Charles Graner Jr. was found guilty in January and is serving a 10-year sentence.

Four other soldiers from the 372nd made plea deals with prosecutors, as did two soldiers from a military intelligence unit operating at Abu Ghraib.

Pfc. Lynndie England, the best-known defendant in the abuse case, could face trial after her effort at a plea deal fell through earlier this month.

During Tuesday’s sentencing, Harman tearfully apologized for mistreating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

“As a soldier and military police officer, I failed my duties and failed my mission to protect and defend,” Harman said. “I not only let down the people in Iraq, but I let down every single soldier that serves today.

“My actions potentially caused an increased hatred and insurgency towards the United States, putting soldiers and civilians at greater risk,” she continued. “I take full responsibility for my actions. … The decisions I made were mine and mine alone.”

Among other things, Harman was found guilty of taking part in a photographed incident in which a hooded Iraqi was threatened with electrocution while standing on a box with electrical wires in his hands.

Earlier Tuesday, witnesses testified that the former pizza shop manager was kindhearted and helpful while serving in an Iraqi city.

Two Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, whose testimony was read into the record, said Harman’s gentle treatment was unique among guards in the part of the prison reserved mostly for detainees believed to have intelligence value.

“She has no cruelty in her,” said Amjad Ismail Khalil al-Taie through an interpreter. “Even though she is an American woman, she was just like a sister.”