GI who exposed Abu Ghraib feared revenge

NEW YORK - The soldier who triggered the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal by sending incriminating photos to military investigators says he feared deadly retaliation by other GIs and was shocked when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld mentioned his name at a Senate hearing.

Within days, Joe Darby was spirited out of Iraq at his own request. But his family was besieged by news media, and close relatives called him a traitor. Ultimately he was forced to move away from his hometown in western Maryland.

"I had the choice between what I knew was morally right and my loyalty to other soldiers. I couldn't have it both ways," the 27-year-old military policeman said in the just-released September issue of Gentleman's Quarterly.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, Darby said that if presented with the same circumstances at Abu Ghraib today, he would do the same thing. "It was a hard decision to make when I made it, but it had to be done," he said.

Darby also said he later learned that Rumsfeld was not the first to identify him, and he did not see "anything intentional or malicious" on the Pentagon chief's part.

Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib were brutalized and sexually humiliated by military police and intelligence agents in the fall of 2003. Photos of the abuse — the same ones that Darby provided to investigators — stirred global condemnation of U.S. military practices in Iraq.

At least 11 U.S. soldiers have been convicted in the scandal. Spc. Charles Graner of Uniontown, Pa., and Pfc. Lynndie England of Fort Ashby, W.Va., who were depicted in the photos, are serving 10 years and three years in prison respectively.

Darby has not previously detailed his role at Abu Ghraib to the media, according to Dan Scheffey, a spokesman for GQ.

In the as-told-to article by Wil S. Hylton, Darby said he never expected the Abu Ghraib story to "explode the way it did."

The abuse of prisoners, he said, was going on before his Army Reserve MP unit was assigned there in October 2003.

"The day we arrived ... we saw like 15 prisoners sitting in their cells in women's underwear," and MPs explained they were being punished for firing mortars at the compound, he said. "After we took over it just basically escalated."

Former Brig. Gen. Janet Karpinski, who commanded the jail housing hundreds of known criminals and suspected terrorists, was there only when dignitaries visited, Darby said. "Other than that, she had no idea what was going on," he said.

Karpinski was demoted to colonel last May. The Army cleared four other generals of wrongdoing, while 17 other officers drew lesser penalties after a broader inquiry into abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Darby said he discovered the abuse photos inadvertently in January 2004 while flipping through other pictures on a CD that Graner had given him. "To this day I'm not sure why he gave me that CD," he said. "He probably just forgot which pictures were on it, or he might have assumed I wouldn't care."

At first amused by some of the photos, Darby finally decided "it just didn't sit right with me," and sent the CD to the Army's Criminal Investigation Division. Although he did so anonymously, CID agents quickly pinpointed him as the source.

Darby said he was still being interviewed when Graner and two others were brought in, and the agents had to smuggle him out wrapped in rugs and blankets to conceal his identity.

Stunned when Graner and the others returned for a month's duty at the prison, he slept with a loaded pistol. "They'd be walking around with their weapons all day long, knowing somebody had turned them in and trying to find out who. That was one of the most nervous periods of my life," Darby said.

His worst moment, he said, came on May 7, 2004, during lunch with 10 fellow MPs in a mess hall filled with 400 troops.

"It was like something out of a movie," he recalled. Rumsfeld appeared on television, dropped Darby's name, "and the guys at the table just stopped eating and looked at me. I got up and got the hell out of there."

Only later did he learn he had been named in a New Yorker magazine article a few days earlier, he told AP in the telephone interview.

In response to queries from AP, Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said he recalled no effort to protect Darby's identity. It was known "very early and quickly became common knowledge," and people were "talking about his courage in coming forward," he said.

Darby is scheduled to leave the Army and the Reserves, after eight years of duty, on Aug. 31. He no longer lives in his hometown of Cumberland, Md., where "a lot of people up there view me as a traitor. Even some of my family members think I'm a traitor."

He said he has returned home only twice, for a wedding and his mother's funeral.

"I'm not welcome there. People there don't look at the fact that I knew right from wrong," he said. "They look at the fact that I put an Iraqi before an American."

I wonder how much $$$$$$$ he got for the pictures?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1318092/posts?page=44#44

(AG) Mar: SSg Frederick's uncle William sent an e-mail message to retired colonel David Hackworth's Web. The NY Times describes Hackworth as "a retired colonel and a muckraker who was always willing to take on the military establishment." That e-mail message would put Mr. Lawson in touch with the CBS News program "60 Minutes II" and help set in motion events that led to the public disclosure of the graphic photographs and an international crisis for the Bush administration. The Times reports on 8 May: (7)

The irony, Mr. Lawson said, is that the public spectacle might have been avoided if the military and the federal government had been responsive to his claims that his nephew was simply following orders. Mr. Lawson said he sent letters to 17 members of Congress about the case earlier this year, with virtually no response, and that he ultimately contacted Mr. Hackworth's Web site out of frustration, leading him to cooperate with a consultant for "60 Minutes II."

"The Army had the opportunity for this not to come out, not to be on 60 Minutes," he said. "But the Army decided to prosecute those six G.I.'s because they thought me and my family were a bunch of poor, dirt people who could not do anything about it. But unfortunately, that was not the case." (7)

The abusers at Abu Ghraib should've been hanged for treason in a time of war. Their 'frat boy' perversion and stupidity made it far harder to win the WOT and made a wonderful recruiting tool for terrorists.

This guy is a 'hero'. It's a shame the press couldn't see past its obsession with embarrassing Bush and to the greater good of letting military justice sort this out.

While the whole incident is/was over blown, this soldier did the right thing. He saw something that he thought was not in compliance with his understanding of the required conduct of his fellow soldiers ... and contacted the military investigators with his concerns.

Precisely. If the government takes the position that this is necessary to get the prisoners to cooperate, then the people in charge should take responsibility for it, not just let the grunts on the ground do it while they look the other way.

"I liked your bio page. Count me a sheepdog. Wife is a sheep learning to grow fangs.... she will be a sheepdog soon."

Thanks, if there had been a sheepdog (regardless of his rank )among that Abu Grahib group of losers, he would have put a stop to that nonsense before it turned into a permanent stain on the United States armed forces.

At least this decent soldier learned what was happening and passed the info to the army higher ups, which ended this sick prison guard behavior before it spun totally out of control.

"No he did not, see Polybius's post #17."

I wasn't aware of the information flow. If he only went to the CID then that was appropiate. Although for the vast majority of what I've seen even that was overkill. Most university treat their pledges far worse. Making a man sit in womens underwear is encouraged by liberals here in the US but is somehow evil in this case. Intimidating and yes even torture are acceptable in my book if its for the sake of critical information. If the prisoner doesn't have any information then by all means put them in jail and don't put them in panties.

Making someone jump off a bridge is murder. Putting a hood on them isn't. If these soldiers had been led properly this behavior would have ended the first or maybe the second time it happened.

A few days ago we saw another story of a CIA guy on trial and the testimony was that he was extremely angry at the terrorist. Good grief I think that should be a job requirement and not a black mark.

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