Battalion Leader Testifies She Didn't See Abuse at Afghanistan Prison

FORT BLISS, Texas – The captain of an intelligence battalion in Afghanistan testified Wednesday that she didn't see Pfc. Damien M. Corsetti do anything wrong at an American prison while he was stationed at Bagram Air Field.

Corsetti, a counter intelligence soldier from the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion at Fort Bragg, N.C., is accused of hitting, kicking and threatening to sexually assault detainees. He is on trial on charges that include assault, maltreatment, dereliction of duty and using hashish and drinking alcohol while in Afghanistan.

Capt. Carolyn A. Wood, who ran Corsetti's intelligence battalion in Afghanistan and was in charge of interrogations at Abu Ghraib, Iraq, when prisoners were abused there, testified that she never saw Corsetti do anything wrong. She also told an Army jury that no one reported any problems about him.

Wood was called by both the prosecution and the defense. Lawyers in the case said Wood was granted immunity from prosecution.

Defense witnesses are expected to return to the stand on Thursday.

The prosecution rested its case Wednesday afternoon, after calling nine witnesses and reading aloud a nearly 50-page deposition taken from Ahmed al-Darbi, a terrorist with ties to Al Qaeda and the brother-in-law of one of the Sept. 1, 2001, hijackers. The deposition was taken at a detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He picked Corsetti out of a photo lineup and told investigators that Corsetti abused him.

Defense lawyers have argued that Corsetti did nothing wrong at the Bagram jail and pointed out Wednesday that there were no "hard and fast" rules about how to interrogate prisoners at the facility. They also described al-Darbi as a dangerous terrorist trained to make up stories about U.S. soldiers.

Corsetti is the last of 15 soldiers to face charges in the abuse investigation launched after two detainees died in 2002. Corsetti is not charged with abusing the deceased men.