Posted on 01/14/2005 3:01:58 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
FORT HOOD, Texas - Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr., the reputed ringleader of a band of rogue guards at the Abu Ghraib prison, was convicted Friday of abusing Iraqi detainees in a case that sparked international outrage when photographs were released that showed reservists gleefully torturing prisoners.
Graner, the first soldier to be tried on charges arising from the scandal, was convicted of all five charges and faces up to 17 1/2 years behind bars.
The jury took less than five hours to reach the verdict.
The verdict came after a five-day trial in which prosecutors depicted Graner as a sadistic soldier who took great pleasure in seeing detainees suffer. He was accused of stacking naked prisoners in a human pyramid and later ordering them to masturbate while other soldiers took photographs. He also allegedly punched one man in the head hard enough to knock him out, and struck an injured prisoner with a collapsible metal stick.
The jury of four Army officers and six senior enlisted men rejected the defense argument that Graner and other guards were merely following orders from intelligence agents at Abu Ghraib when they roughed up the detainees.
Graner, a 36-year-old reservist from Uniontown, Pa., was convicted of conspiracy, assault, maltreating prisoners, dereliction of duty and committing indecent acts.
Each count required that at least seven of the 10 jurors to agree for conviction.
Fragglemorph ... double-play.
Good! Wasn't he a prison guard back home before going to Iraq? I guess that's the kind of thing he'd do to American prisoners if it weren't for laws against that sort of thing.
Graner is a grinning ignoramus, the picture of a sadistic prison guard. May he rot in jail.
Especially since the ones that he's alleged to have maltreated were incarcerated there for theft, assaults, and .. one female who was forced to strip so that nude photos could be taken of her .. prostitution. These were not there for "intelligence information mining".
Yes, he was a prison guard in cilivian life and was fired from one prison, forced to resign from another and had multiple write-ups for abusing prisoners as well.
This guy was nothing but a BULLY Shawshank Redemption Guard.
"And when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back at you . . . He who hunts monsters must take care that he does not himself become a monster." -- Nietschze
He did do that sort of thing to Americans--he got canned from at least one prison for that stuff.
The guards in the American prisons where he worked and was fired said the guy was outta control. When a guard says that about another things are bad.
He's guilty and deserved punishment. But 17 years is way too much. Waaaaayyy too much.
Didn't know this! Doesn't anyone EVER screen people before placing them in sensitive position??? Kerik Revisited!
My guess is that someone in a position to know about this guy's MO knew but did nothing about it. (It was after all a localized Reserve unit he was attached to)
A person like this is not fit for latrine duty let alone a front line, sensitive position. IMO he shouldn't have been in the Service under ANY circumstances.
drtl
I believe he was under suspension or being investigated at his current prison job but was then called up to active duty. His firing(s) and write-ups are on the smoking gun and have been posted on this site as well as Drudge etc.
You are probably right, he was reservist and probably only the local townspeople knew what was going on.
I still don't get what was so bad. Naked pyramids? Scare tactics with dogs? Female humiliation of male prisoners? Big freakin deal.
Quote: I still don't get what was so bad.
What is so bad is this is the stuff Saddam did to his own people, albeit his were worse, and the exact thing we went to Iraq to eliminate in the first place. It also made us look bad to the muslim world and we lost some credibility.
He's guilty and deserved punishment. But 17 years is way too much. Waaaaayyy too much.
For what he has done to the image of the United States, he should go down for the max, which I believe is about 17 years. Ten minimum. This SOB doesn't belong on the streets of America.
Agreed, but the real damage was done by the hysterical press that gave it unprecedented front page coverage every day to undermnine the war effort. - Tom
bump!
By T.A. BADGER, Associated Press Writer
FORT HOOD, Texas - Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr., the reputed ringleader of a band of rogue guards at the Abu Ghraib prison, was convicted Friday of abusing Iraqi detainees in a case that sparked international outrage when photographs were released that showed reservists gleefully abusing prisoners.
Graner, the first soldier to be tried on charges arising from the scandal, was convicted of all five charges and faces up to 17 1/2 years behind bars.
The jury took less than five hours to reach the verdict.
The verdict came after a 4 1/2-day trial in which prosecutors depicted Graner as a sadistic soldier who took great pleasure in seeing detainees suffer. He was accused of stacking naked prisoners in a human pyramid and later ordering them to masturbate while other soldiers took photographs. He also allegedly punched one man in the head hard enough to knock him out, and struck an injured prisoner with a collapsible metal stick.
The jury of four Army officers and six senior enlisted men rejected the defense argument that Graner and other guards were merely following orders from intelligence agents at Abu Ghraib when they roughed up the detainees.
Graner, a 36-year-old reservist from Uniontown, Pa., was convicted of conspiracy, assault, maltreating prisoners, dereliction of duty and committing indecent acts.
Each count required that at least seven of the 10 jurors to agree for conviction.
In his closing argument Friday, Capt. Chris Graveline, one of the prosecutors, recounted the abuse allegations, buttressing many with photos and video taken inside the prison in October and November 2003.
"It was for sport, for laughs," Graveline told jurors. "What we have here is plain abuse. There is no justification."
One witness, Syrian prisoner Amin al-Sheikh, had characterized Graner as the "primary torturer," who merrily whistled, sang and laughed while brutalizing him and forced him to eat pork and drink alcohol in violation of his Muslim faith.
An Iraqi detainee told the court that he was among a group of prisoners stripped by Graner and other Abu Ghraib guards, stacked up naked in a human pyramid while female soldiers watched, and later told to masturbate.
"I couldn't imagine it in the beginning," Hussein Mutar testified. "I could kill myself because no one over there was stopping it from happening."
Graner's attorney, Guy Womack, contended that his client and other Abu Ghraib guards were under extreme pressure from intelligence agents to use physical violence to prepare detainees for questioning.
"It was a persistent, consistent set of orders," Womack said in his closing argument. "To soften up the detainees, to do things so we can interrogate them successfully in support of our mission. ... We had men and women being killed."
Womack described the notorious photos taken inside the prison as "gallows humor" arising from unrelenting stress felt by the Abu Ghraib guards.
He reminded jurors that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was not yet in U.S. custody when the alleged abuse happened.
"There was somebody very important on everybody's mind," Womack said. "Wouldn't it be logical to have your interrogators use pressure to get information to try to find him?"
He also tried to plant the seed that Graner and the other low-level guards were being used in a cover-up to protect Army officers once those photos went public.
The shocking photos of reservists abusing and sexually humiliating prisoners were first broadcast on CBS's "60 Minutes II" in April. The photos showed naked detainees posed in sexual positions, hooked to electrodes and tethered to a leash.
A month later, President Bush (news - web sites) urged Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to make sure that any guilty U.S. soldiers are punished for "shameful and appalling acts." Many critics called for Rumsfeld to step down in the aftermath of the scandal.
Graner did not testify during the trial, which included testimony from three guards who had made plea deals with prosecutors.
Graner's demeanor at the beginning of the trial was upbeat, telling reporters at one point, "Whatever happens is going to happen, but I still feel it's going to be on the positive side, and I'm going to have a smile on my face." As the trial wore on, his expressions grew more stoic.
Two other guards from the 372nd Military Police Company, a reserve unit from Cresaptown, Md., are awaiting trial, along with Pfc. Lynndie England, a clerk at Abu Ghraib who last fall gave birth to a baby believed to be fathered by Graner.
'I still don't get what was so bad. Naked pyramids? Scare tactics with dogs? Female humiliation of male prisoners? Big freakin deal.'
It was bad. These people should have known what they were doing was wrong and they are being punished. However, the actions of a handfull of idiots shouldn't have been used to smear the entire military as the MSM did. That was bad too and they are being punished as well.
We should all take great pride in our ability to police and punish those among the best of us who do the worst.
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