A military judge on Monday dismissed two of the most serious charges against the only officer accused of abusing detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison after an investigator acknowledged he failed to read the defendant his rights.
Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, 51, of Fredericksburg, Va., is the last of 12 Abu Ghraib defendants to be court-martialed. Prosecutors on Monday amended one of the four remaining counts against him, a cruelty and maltreatment charge, by narrowing its scope from three months to a single day.
A 10-member jury composed of nine colonels and a brigadier general was selected Monday, and opening statements were set for Tuesday.
Jordan, the former director of the prison's interrogation center, was charged after photographs surfaced showing low-ranking U.S. soldiers assaulting and humiliating naked detainees at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 and early 2004. Jordan isn't in any of the pictures, but he is accused of allowing the mistreatment to escalate.
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