ARAB-US RELATIONS - June 21 - Commanders To Testify At Iraq Court Martial.

Military Judge Col James Pohl agrees to call CentCom head Gen John Abizaid and Lt Gen Sanchez to testify at the court martial of three soldiers charged with abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. This comes as the Bush administration waits to hear a Supreme Court ruling on whether prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba can challenge their detentions in US courts. Defence lawyers made it clear they hoped testimony from the commanders would support their case that the defendants' behaviour was part of a deliberate strategy. The lawyer of alleged abuse ringleader Charles Graner, Guy Womack, has said: "No one can suggest with a straight face that the MPs [military police] acted alone. They were directly under the supervision of military intelligence officers". Gen Sanchez has come under scrutiny for a November 2003 order that placed Abu Ghraib under the control of military intelligence officers. The Pentagon recently removed him from oversight of military investigations into the Abu Ghraib abuses to allow him to give evidence. The Defence Counsel for Sgt Javal Davis Paul Bergrin said he hoped to call Pres Bush and the Defence Secretary Rumsfeld as witnesses on grounds they had sanctioned abuse of prisoners through statements that the Geneva Convention did not apply in the "war on terror". Judge Pohl says Abu Ghraib (which was notorious for torture and executions under Saddam), was a "crime scene" and could not, at least for now, be demolished as Pres Bush had recently suggested. A scheduled pre-trial hearing for a third defendant, Staff Sgt Ivan Frederick, is postponed to July 23 because his civilian defence counsel, Gary Myers, failed to appear after the judge rejected his request to represent his client by telephone rather than enter Iraq. No date has yet been set for the start of the trial and the three defendants have still to plead. Graner, who faces the most serious accusations, may get up to 24 years in prison if convicted. The US army has charged seven low-ranking soldiers over the abuses. One, specialist Jeremy Sivits, has been sentenced to a year in prison after admitting charges.