Sivits' Cops a Plea

Spc. Jeremy Sivits, the first solider charged in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, has copped a plea, according to this report.

One of the military police officers charged in the abuse scandal at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison has offered to plead guilty and provided investigators with a detailed account of how guards humiliated and beat detainees.

Spec. Jeremy Sivits, one of the seven members of the 372nd Military Police Company facing charges in the case, told investigators in a sworn statement that other prison guards forced detainees to strip, masturbate and pile on top of one another.

Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick forced two detainees to punch each other, Sivits told investigators, according to a transcript.

In another instance, he said, Spec. Charles Graner put a sandbag over a detainee's head and "punched the detainee with a closed fist so hard in the temple that the detainee was knocked unconscious."

From this account, it's not clear what charges Sivits has pleaded guilty to. Nor is it clear that, as Pfc. Lynndie England has done in a couple of interviews, implicated higher-ranking soliders for giving orders to abuse the prisoners.