Making prison a 'hell' was her job

The Washington Post reported that Spec. Sabrina Harman told it in e-mail interviews that detainees were handed over to her military police unit at the Abu Ghraib prison by military intelligence officers, or by civilian contractors who conducted interrogations.

She was assigned to break the detainees down for interrogation, Harman said in e-mails this week from Baghdad, the Post said on its Web site. But she did not discuss specific charges against herself.

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"They would bring in one to several prisoners at a time already hooded and cuffed," Harman, a military police reservist, was quoted as saying. "The job of the MP was to keep them awake, to make it hell so they would talk."

A Pentagon spokeswoman declined comment on the Post article, saying the matter was under investigation.

The spokeswoman also declined comment on whether military intelligence officers or civilian contractors delivered prisoners to the Abu Ghraib prison. The issue of who was in charge of the prison during the reported abuse was a prominent one in hearings on Capitol Hill on Friday.

A senior general, Air Force Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, said during one of the hearings that Abu Ghraib had been put under the control of military intelligence last November.

Rep. Heather Wilson, a New Mexico Republican, told the hearing she thought it was contrary to Army regulations to put military police under the control of military intelligence.

Harman, 26, said that prisoners at Abu Ghraib were stripped, searched and then "made to stand or kneel for hours." Sometimes they were forced to stand on boxes or hold boxes or to exercise to tire them out, she said.