FORT HOOD, Texas -- A military jury is to begin deliberations today to determine whether Army Spc. Charles A. Graner criminally assaulted Iraqi prisoners or was a good soldier just following orders to "break the spirit" of the prisoners.

	LM Otero, Associated Press Spc. Charles A. Graner Jr. enters the judicial complex for his court-martial at Fort Hood, Texas. A military jury is expected today to begin deliberating his fate. Click photo for larger image.

"I feel great," Graner said shortly after his lead attorney, Guy Womack of Houston, announced that the defense was resting in the first contested court-martial stemming from the scandal at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.

Womack and co-counsel Capt. Jay Heath, who called 11 witnesses over two days, had listed four additional witnesses and hinted that Graner himself might take the stand. But Graner told the judge, Col. James L. Pohl, that he had decided not to testify and Womack told reporters the defense was satisfied with its case.

"We came in with a checklist of things we wanted to present to the jury," Womack said. "Once we accomplished that, there was no reason to continue. We presented all the evidence we wanted."

Defense attorneys and prosecutors then met with Pohl in chambers to discuss how he will instruct the 10-member jury on the law applicable to the charges of aggravated assault, maltreatment of subordinates, dereliction of duty, indecent acts and conspiracy.

First today will be closing arguments, followed by Pohl's charge to the jury. Then the panel of two colonels, two lieutenant colonels, five sergeants major and one first sergeant -- all men who served in Iraq or Afghanistan -- will seek to determine whether Graner, 36, of Uniontown, is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt for actions he took at Abu Ghraib from October to December 2003.

If convicted of all charges, Graner, a Whitehall native, would face a maximum sentence of 17 1/2 years in prison, a dishonorable discharge, reduction in rank to private and forfeiture of all pay and allowances.

Under military law, a minimum of seven jurors must agree on a verdict. If a guilty verdict is rendered on any charge, the jury will be sent back to deliberate on a sentence. There is no probation in the military justice system.

The testimony of two witnesses yesterday, who provided some of the strongest defense support of the trial, dramatically changed the mood for Graner and his supporters from what it had been Wednesday. On that day, the defense appeared to falter badly when many of their nine witnesses didn't appear to testify in the way Graner's attorneys had anticipated. That opened the door for prosecutors to hammer home their version of the case using the defense's own witnesses.

Yesterday, the defense turned the tables, getting particularly strong support from a witness the prosecution had put on the stand Monday -- former Spc. Megan Ambuhl, who served in Iraq with Graner in the 372nd Military Police Company based in Cresaptown, Md. Unlike her brief testimony for the prosecution, when Ambuhl was uncomfortable and had little noticeable impact, she assertively testified yesterday for more than two hours, giving the defense a needed boost.

Ambuhl said she was present when two military intelligence officers told Graner to "rough up" an interview subject in a prison shower area where interrogations were routinely conducted. She said she wasn't surprised by the directive because MPs were regularly told by military intelligence, other government agents and civilian contractors to "soften up" detainees for interrogations.

In fact, Ambuhl, 29, of Herndon, Va., said she and other MPs were told to "break" a detainee nicknamed "al-Qaida" and were often told their actions were contributing to the saving of American lives.

"MI encouraged us all the time," she testified.

On many occasions, she added, she was told by intelligence officials to jeer and point at naked detainees while they showered, a tactic considered particularly humiliating in the Arab culture.

Ambuhl also said Graner was not the person who forced naked, hooded detainees to simulate oral sex on one another, one of many sexually humiliating scenes of abuse at Abu Ghraib that was captured in photographs that shocked sensibilities worldwide when they were leaked to the media. Moreover, Ambuhl said she never saw Graner otherwise abuse any detainee.

On cross-examination, lead prosecutor Maj. Michael Holley sought to impeach a witness prosecutors had presented as truthful three days earlier. He got Ambuhl to admit she had a brief sexual relationship with Graner in December 2003 and January 2004 while they were at Abu Ghraib. And, she said, they remain close friends to this day.

"You don't want your friend to go to jail, do you?" Holley asked.

"No," Ambuhl said. Under redirect examination by Heath, she forcefully testified she was not lying.

Ambuhl pleaded guilty in October to her role in the prisoner abuse scandal. She was sentenced to a reduction of rank to private, forfeiture of one-half a month's pay and was separated from the Army.

The final witness, Sgt. Kenneth A. Davis of Hagerstown, Md., testified that on Oct. 25, 2003, he saw military intelligence soldiers sexually humiliate three naked Iraqis by handcuffing them in homosexual poses. Davis, a member of the 372nd who didn't work in Abu Ghraib, said Graner was present as the MI soldiers tried to get the three prisoners to confess to the rape of another detainee, a 15-year-old boy.

Davis said MI was clearly in charge and Graner followed orders to yell commands at one of the men to strip and helped handcuff another.

He said one of the MI soldiers, Spc. Armin J. Cruz Jr. of Plano, Texas, approached him as he walked in on the scene.

"Did we cross the line? We're MI, we know what we're doing," Davis quoted Cruz as saying. "He was kind of smug."

Davis said he left the area as the yelling of "Confess! Confess!" continued. The next day, he reported the incident to his platoon leader, Lt. Lewis Raeder.

"I told him MI was doing some pretty weird things with naked detainees," Davis testified. "I felt he would handle it."

An investigation didn't begin until Jan. 13, 2004, when then-Spc. Joseph Darby, now a sergeant, anonymously delivered to Army criminal investigators digital photographs of detainee abuse given to him by Graner.

Cruz, 24, of the 325th MI Battalion, pleaded guilty in September and received eight months in prison, reduction in rank to private and a bad conduct discharge. In addition to Ambuhl, two other members of the 372nd have pleaded guilty in the scandal.

Photographs of the encounter described by Davis were taken by Graner's former girlfriend, Pfc. Lynndie England, who gave birth in October to a boy she says he fathered. England, 22, of Fort Ashby, W.Va., like three others from the 372nd, is awaiting her court-martial in the Abu Ghraib case.