Washington: One of seven American soldiers charged with abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib has said that she was assigned by the military intelligence to break down inmates for interrogation.

"They would bring in one to several prisoners at a time already hooded and cuffed," Specialist Sabrina D Harman, charged with conspiracy, dereliction of duty and cruelty to the Abu Ghraib prisoners, said, 'The Washington Post' reported today (May 8, 2004).

She said there were no rules and she had little training but the mission was clear: She was assigned to break down prisoners for interrogation. "The job of the MP (military police) was to keep them awake, make it hell so they would talk," Harman, 26, said in interviews by e-mail from Baghdad this week.

Harman is one of seven military police reservists charged in the abuse of the detainees at the prison. She is the second of those soldiers to speak publicly about her time at Abu Ghraib and her comments echo findings of the Army's investigation into prisoner abuse there, the 'Post' noted.

That probe documented the maltreatment of detainees and found the prison was chaotically run, that there were no apparent rules governing interrogations and that Harman's military police unit was ill-trained for the job it was asked to perform.

At the hearing at the House and Senate armed services committees, it was also revealed that the guards did not have to wear uniforms or salute officers and there was failure of leadership.