Top generals ordered to testify

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A military judge ordered top U.S. generals Monday to answer questions about abuse at Abu Ghraib prison and ruled that the infamous facility should be preserved as a “crime scene” for now and not be torn down as President Bush has suggested.

Judge James Pohl, an Army colonel, granted the requests of two defense attorneys for permission to question the top generals in the Iraq region, including Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command, and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the senior officer in Iraq last fall when the abuses allegedly occurred.

But Pohl denied defense requests to force Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his top aides to testify.

Pohl also denied for now defense motions to move the case out of Iraq to a safer location.

Both attorneys argued that most of the witnesses no longer are in Iraq, and civilian witnesses cannot be compelled by the court to appear outside the United States.

Pohl’s rulings came during pretrial court-martial proceedings for Spc. Charles Graner and Sgt. Javal Davis.

They are accused of physically and mentally abusing Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib last fall, allegedly to soften them up for interrogation.

One soldier has pleaded guilty in the scandal; six others, including Graner and Davis, face criminal charges.

Bush has said the notorious prison near Baghdad, a site of torture and killings under former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, should be torn down.