Posted on 01/15/2005 2:32:03 PM PST by AVNevis
Per MSNBC
Thanks for the link to that MSNBCBS article.I'll post the full text of it here momentarily.
Whoops! I can't post FULL TEXT for PMSNB See BS.Graner gets 10 years
for Abu Ghraib abuseThis is an excerpt:
Graner gets 10 years for Abu Ghraib abuse
Says he was ordered to abuse Iraqi prisoners
The Associated PressUpdated: 8:34 a.m. ET Jan. 16, 2005for the FULL article.
FORT HOOD, Texas - Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr., who grinned in photos of Iraqi prisoners being sexually humiliated but told jurors, I didnt enjoy what I did there, was sentenced Saturday to 10 years behind bars in the first court-martial stemming from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
Graner, labeled the leader of a band of rogue guards at the Baghdad prison in late 2003, could have received 15 years.
Asked if he felt remorse after the sentence was handed down, Graner said, Theres a war on. Bad things happen.
Graner will be dishonorably discharged when his sentence is completed. He also was demoted to private and ordered to forfeit all pay and benefits.
A day after convicting him, the jury of four Army officers and six senior enlisted men deliberated about two hours to determine Graners sentence. He could have received 15 years.
'He's scared to death'
Graner, who had been free prior to trial, was taken into custody after the sentence was read. He gave his mother, Irma, a big hug and his father, Charles Sr., a firm handshake before the jury foreman read the sentence.Hes scared to death, Irma Graner said later.
Graner 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.
Defense lawyer Guy Womack said his client and the six other Abu Ghraib guards charged with abuses were being scapegoated, but added that he thought the jury did its job well.
I firmly believe there should have been reasonable doubt, but we respect their decision, he said outside the courthouse. He added that he had feared Graner could have received a harsher sentence than the 10-year term.
Prosecutors Maj. Michael Holley and Capt. Chris Graveline would not speak to reporters, but they said in a joint statement, We think it is important that the world was able to observe this court-martial.
Under military court rules, Graners case will be automatically appealed to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals. He also could request clemency from his commanding general.
Defense: Graner was following orders
Graner did not testify during his trial, but during the sentencing phase Saturday he took the witness stand to repeat the defense claim that the jury clearly rejected: that he had been ordered by intelligence agents at Abu Ghraib to abuse the prisoners to make them easier to interrogate.Womack asked him why he was smiling in the infamous photos, some of which were shown while Graner spoke.
Im smiling now, and thats a nervous smile, Graner said.
Graner described himself as a by-the-book prison guard corrupted by superiors who ordered him to physically mistreat and sexually humiliate detainees.
Here is Google News Search for Graner New York Times,
and the current top listings there:Search news pages that contain the term Graner New York +Times.
Washington TimesRingleader in Prisoner Abuse Speaks at Sentencing
New York Times -16 hours ago
... I didnt enjoy anything I did there, the reservist, Specialist Charles A. Graner Jr., told the jury at the end of three hours answering questions from ...
US Soldier Found Guilty in Iraq Prison Abuse CaseNew York Times
Military Jury Begins Deliberations in Iraqi Prison Abuse CaseNew York Times
Defense Rests in Prison Abuse TrialNew York Times New York Times -New York Times -all 2,666 related »
Soldiers Testify on Orders to Soften Prisoners in Iraq
New York Times -Jan 12, 2005
... The testimony about orders formed the backbone of the defense as lawyers for Specialist Charles A. Graner Jr., the Army reservist accused of being the ...
Portraits Differ as Trial Opens in Prison Abuse
New York Times -Jan 10, 2005
... In opening arguments here at the court-martial for the soldier, Specialist Charles A. Graner Jr., his lawyers insisted that he was simply following orders and ...
Syrian Prisoner's Account of Abuse Is Heard at Trial
New York Times -Jan 11, 2005
... The reservist, Specialist Charles A. Graner, watched as another soldier urinated on the detainee, the detainee testified, and made another detainee eat from a ...
Defense Witness Says Abuse in Iraqi Prison Was Ordered
New York Times -Jan 12, 2005
... Testimony from Private Frederick and others about orders formed the backbone of the defense argument as lawyers for Specialist Charles A. Graner, Jr., accused ...
Detainees Depict Abuses by Guard in Prison in Iraq
New York Times -Jan 11, 2005
... footsteps running," one of the detainees, Hussein Mutar, testified by videotape on Tuesday at the military trial here for Specialist Charles A. Graner Jr., the ...
New Photos and Video Unveiled in Trial of Iraqi Prison Abuse
New York Times -Jan 10, 2005
... In opening arguments at the court martial for the soldier, Specialist Charles A. Graner, his lawyers insisted he was simply following orders, and using lessons ...
Court-Martial Will Hear Taped Testimony of Prisoners
New York Times -Jan 7, 2005
... The reservist, Specialist Charles A. Graner Jr., 36, is the first soldier to face a contested trial in the abuse case, which broke open last spring with the ...
Jury Selection Begins in Trial of GI at Abu Ghraib
New York Times -Jan 7, 2005
... Charles A. Graner Jr., of Uniontown, Pa., who is charged with of conspiracy to maltreat detainees, assault and committing indecent acts in a series of abuses ...
Today's front page article from the New York Slimes:Ringleader in Iraqi Prisoner Abuse
Is Sentenced to 10 YearsABU GHRAIB SCANDAL
Ringleader in Iraqi Prisoner Abuse Is Sentenced to 10 Years
By KATE ZERNIKE
Published: January 16, 2005
ORT HOOD, Tex., Jan. 15 - The Army reservist found guilty of being the ringleader of the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison was sentenced Saturday to 10 years in military prison after telling the jury that he had repeatedly complained about orders to treat detainees harshly but that he had been told to go along.
The reservist, Specialist Charles A. Graner Jr., faced a maximum sentence of 15 years. The jury deliberated for two hours before delivering the sentence, which also reduced his rank to private, the lowest possible, and ordered him dishonorably discharged from the military.
Specialist Graner's case was the first contested court-martial in the abuse scandal that set off international outrage against the United States military and led to nine high-level Pentagon investigations into reports of abuse at American detention centers in Iraq and Afghanistan and at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
"I didn't enjoy anything I did there," Specialist Graner told the jury at the end of three hours of answering questions from his lawyer Saturday morning. "A lot of it was wrong, a lot of it was criminal."
They were his first public comments about what happened at the prison and about the photographs that became symbols of the abuse scandal - detainees bound and cowering, or naked, hooded and forced into sexually humiliating poses.
"I can see, to a layperson, a lot of things happen in prison that may look wrong," Specialist Graner said as his lawyer displayed the photos on a screen. "A lot of things happen in prison that are wrong. But you can have a use of force that looks bad that can be justified."
Specialist Graner, a 36-year-old former prison guard from Western Pennsylvania, spoke to the jury the morning after it found him guilty on charges of assault, maltreatment, conspiracy, indecent acts and dereliction of duty.
He declined to take an oath that would have allowed him to be questioned by the prosecution and the jury.
The explanations he gave for the photographs and the upbeat e-mail messages he sent home about them were starkly different from the picture prosecutors painted of someone who abused detainees, as one prosecutor said, "for laughs, for sport."
Specialist Graner swiveled his chair nervously, occasionally smiling, laughing and gesturing as he explained his actions. He did not deny that the abuse occurred.
Demonstrating how he hit a detainee, he smacked his fist into his hand so loudly that it jolted the small courtroom. But he insisted that he and other military police soldiers were treating detainees harshly at the behest of military intelligence officers who were eager to get better information from them.
When he complained to a superior, he said, "his advice to me was that if M.I. is asking you to do this, it needs to be done. They're in charge, follow their orders."
The broad smiles and thumbs up he gave as he posed behind piles of bound detainees, he said, came from a kind of gallows humor.
"There was a lot of things that we did that were so screwed up that if you didn't look at them as they were funny, you couldn't deal with them," he said.
Asked to explain a photograph of himself stitching up the face of a detainee he admitted hitting, he said he punched the man after telling him three times in Arabic to stay quiet.
"I told you once, I told you twice, if I had to tell you a third time, you got a slap in the head," he said.
Specialist Graner insisted that he was not the sadist the prosecutors described. He went into Abu Ghraib, he said, believing that "all we were going to do was feed them, make sure they were alive when I came onto the shift, make sure they were alive when I left the shift."
He contradicted some of the testimony from witnesses earlier in the week. Other soldiers testified that they had repeatedly been told not to take photographs, and that they would have known that orders to hit prisoners or put them in humiliating positions were wrong.
Maj. Michael Holley, the lead prosecutor, urged the jury to deliver the maximum sentence. "The hour for Specialist Graner to be responsible has arrived," he said.
Major Holley asked the jury not to believe Specialist Graner's statements that he had abused detainees to save the lives of American soldiers.
"Do not let him trade on the honor and sacrifice of your brothers," he told the jury of six enlisted soldiers and four officers, all combat veterans.
"If the maximum punishment was ever appropriate for an accused," Major Holley said, "it is this accused."
Specialist Graner's lawyer, Guy Womack, repeated the assertion he made throughout the trial that the military was making his client the scapegoat for higher-ranking military intelligence soldiers, several of whom have been implicated in a Pentagon investigation, but not charged.
Specialist Graner is one of seven soldiers charged in the Abu Ghraib scandal; three already have pleaded guilty.
Outside the courtroom, Specialist Graner's mother, Irma, said her son was being punished "for something he was told to do," Agence France-Presse reported.
"It's the higher-ups that should be on trial," Ms. Graner said. "They let the little guys take the fall for them. But the truth will come out eventually."
Specialist Graner, who had been free to roam the base here during his trial, left the court building in shackles. Fort Hood officials said he would be transferred to the Bell County Jail until a place for him could be found in a military prison.
LM Otero/Associated PressArmy Spc. Charles Graner Jr. is taken into custody
in shackles after he was sentenced to 10 years in his
court-martial at Fort Hood, Texas.
Thanks, Phil.I just posted a few things from PMSNB SeeBS ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
and the New York Slimes just above, fyi.
I seem to recall hearing on one of the talk shows from one of the soldiers who was there at the time, that one of the perps in the photos had been arrested for the rape of a mother and her daughters-one of them only about 8 years old.
It seems that the son/brother had come to the authorities several times begging for help and they were reluctant to come-fearing a set-up. Finally, they went with him.
On arriving at the young man's home they found his little sister in very bad shape as well as on older one and the mother.
The perp was passed out upstairs.
That's just ONE of those poor, "abused" prisoners of Abu Grebe!
Mistake was not offing him on the spot. IMHO
Link please!!
He also aided the enemy,although I don't think that was his intention at the time, that is what he did.
But ten years?! I think that is wayyy to long.
Fercryinoutloud!! This was just wrong on so many levels. This punk got what he deserved, and I can't believe you really think otherwise. Because they were Iraqi prisoners (NOT POWS, or enemy combatants, but car thieves and other such criminals),so I guess that makes it all hunky dory. He wasn't doing this to AMERICANS, after all./sarcasm off
I really have to wonder about you if you don't think there is anything wrong with what Garner and his little buddies did. Being bored is no excuse, that's just disgusting.
"THEY that ran Abu-Ghraib headlines for ~28 CONSECUTIVE days - even when there was NO NEW information to report, it was front page news in their biased rag."
That really says a lot doesn't it. I don't believe NYT ran stories on 9/11, Beslan school massacre or the Train bombings in Spain for 28 straight days... but then that wouldn't aide their agenda.
"I can imagine their take is that the punishment is too lenient. Whatcha wanna bet?"
No bet. ;)
Thanks for thet link. :^)Bump to come back here shortly and check it out.
Last Updated: Sunday, 16 January, 2005, 17:08 GMT
Iraqis have reacted angrily to a 10-year sentence imposed on a US soldier for abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad. Many said Spc Charles Graner deserved a harsher punishment for his part in the prison abuse scandal.
Graner was jailed on Saturday and received a dishonourable discharge from the US army.
He said he was only following orders to "soften" detainees for questioning, but prosecutors said Graner was a sadist.
The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says with elections only two weeks away, violence wracking many areas and daily life for many people a harsh struggle for survival, most Iraqis have not exactly been following the Abu Ghraib prosecutions with baited breath.
But he says, now that the verdict on Graner is out, most of those who are aware of the case believe the sentence should have been tougher.
One Iraqi who saw pictures of the abuse on the internet said Graner should be sent back to Abu Ghraib to serve his sentence among the prisoners still there, our correspondent says.
Another said that many others of higher rank must have been involved in such systematic abuse and should be prosecuted too, our correspondent adds.
Trader Ali Ahmed, 23, said Graner's sentence was "too little, too late. This isn't justice.
"Even capital punishment isn't enough. But since it's forbidden to torture him the way he tortured the prisoners, I would have settled for the death penalty," he was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.
'I did what I did'
But Iraq's Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin told the BBC News website he was "satisfied" that justice was being done in putting abuse suspects on trial.
"Those criminals are getting their right punishment, and I believe the American justice system is strong. They brought to justice Presidents Nixon and Clinton - we have never had this in the Arab world," he said.
A former military policeman, Graner was pictured abusing inmates in a series of photographs which sparked outrage around the world.
Before his sentencing, 36-year-old Graner asked for leniency.
He said he was only following orders and that he had complained about the treatment of detainees at the prison.
Graner told the jury at the Fort Hood army base: "I did what I did. A lot of it was wrong, a lot of it was criminal. I did not enjoy it."
But he said when he complained to superiors he was ordered to do what he was told and to obey military intelligence personnel, who gave orders at the prison.
Asked after sentencing if he had any regret, Graner said simply: "There's a war on. Bad things happen."
An MP battalion has an E-9 (Sergeant Major) in their Operations shops? Can't say I ever saw a battalion with multiple E-9s. Usually we had E-6s doing E-8 jobs and O-1s doing O-3 jobs.
Hmmm. Interesting. Thanks.
Reporter: "Any regrets?"Graner: "No, ma'am."
Reporter: "Any apologies?"
Graner: "No, ma'am."
NPR - Graner Sentenced to 10 Years for Abu Ghraib Abuse
A U.S. Army reservist sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for abusing detainees at Iraq's infamous Abu Ghraib prison has said he does not regret his actions.
While leaving the courtroom after his sentencing, Spc. Charles Graner was twice asked if he had any regrets, CNN reported. He twice answered, "No ma'am."
Graner, labeled by many as the ringleader of the abuse scandal, will serve his time as a private and will be dishonorably discharged upon his release. also given a dishonorable discharge by a Fort Hood, Texas, military court.
The military jury passed sentence a day after Graner was convicted at a court martial in Fort Hood, Texas.
Graner claimed in his testimony that he was following orders to soften up prisoners.
An Army reservist from Uniontown, Pa., Graner is the first soldier to face trial among seven military guards charged in the Abu Ghraib scandal. Three guards already have pleaded guilty in the scandal.
"Where will he serve his sentence?"
Very likely the Disciplinary barracks at Ft. Leavenworth.
Not a happy place to be.
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