SAN DIEGO — Amid special procedures to safeguard secret CIA and Navy SEAL missions, the court-martial of a Navy lieutenant accused in the death of an Iraqi prisoner began Monday.
Lt. Andrew K. Ledford, a SEAL team member and 1995 graduate of the Naval Academy, is accused of assault, dereliction of duty, filing a false report and conduct unbecoming an officer in the death of Manadel Jamadi at the Abu Ghraib prison on Nov. 4, 2003.
Ledford, who faces a maximum 12 years in prison, was part of an elite SEAL unit assigned to find and arrest "high-value" Iraqis and bring them to the prison for interrogation by the CIA.
Jamadi died within an hour of being brought to the prison. His body, packed in ice, was smuggled out to avoid infuriating other prisoners, according to prosecutors.
He had been suspected of involvement in an attack on the Red Cross facility in Baghdad that killed 12 people.
The CIA also thought he might have had information about future attacks and weapons caches.
Pictures were taken of smiling Army personnel hovering over his body.
Of 10 SEAL team members charged with abuse involving Iraqis, Ledford is the only one to be ordered to a court-martial; the other cases were handled by a senior officer with authority to mete out punishment, but not incarceration.
Six officers from the Navy's Special Warfare Command, which includes the SEALs, were seated as jurors. Several have been deployed to war zones, but none has seen combat. One has experience interrogating prisoners.
Two CIA operatives who may have interrogated Jamadi are listed as possible witnesses.
Navy Cmdr. Chris Reismeier, the court-martial judge, ruled that their names would not be spoken aloud.
Also, their faces would be blocked from public view by a thick blue curtain.
Each juror was given a sheet of paper with the names of the two to see if they were known. The sheets were then collected and ordered destroyed.
Jurors, who are allowed in courts-martial to ask questions, were instructed to be careful not to provide details about secret SEAL missions. When one juror mentioned that he knew one of the Navy witnesses from a deployment in Afghanistan, Reismeier stopped the juror and told him to "talk around" such details.
Reismeier said the court might be closed to reporters and spectators on days when secret information would be discussed.
