By News Bulletin
CNN and Common Ills
Sunday, Aug 7, 2011
| |
| Lynndie England humiliating Muslim prisoners at Abu Ghraib Prison under the supervision of Gharles Graner, Jr., both serving in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. |
Notorious Abu Ghraib guard released from prison
A former guard termed a ringleader in the physical abuse and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was released from prison Saturday.
Charles Graner Jr., a U.S. Army reservist, served 6 ½ years of his 10-year term at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, said Army spokesperson Rebecca Steed.
Graner, from Uniontown, Pennsylvania, was credited with good conduct.
He served his prison term as a private, with no salary, and was to be dishonorably discharged after release.
He was convicted in January 2005 of indecent acts, dereliction of duty, conspiracy to commit maltreatment and assault consummated by battery.
Photos of U.S. military personnel abusing naked and restrained prisoners in the facility outside Baghdad shocked the world when the scandal broke in early 2004.
Graner, a member of the 372nd Military Police Company, was convicted of photographing a detainee being dragged by another guard, Pfc. Lynndie England, by a leash wrapped around the prisoner's neck, and posing for a photograph with Spc. Sabrina Harman behind a pyramid of naked prisoners.
One count of dereliction of duty accused him of "failing to protect prisoners from abuse, cruelty and maltreatment."
The maltreatment of detainees charges accused Graner of placing the prisoners in the pyramid, photographing them and posing with them; ordering prisoners to masturbate in front of other detainees and soldiers and simulate a sex act; being photographed as if he were going to hit a detainee; and encouraging England to drag a prisoner by a leash.
The assault charge accused him of striking a detainee with an expandable baton. He also was convicted of observing detainees masturbating while other soldiers watched and took photos.
Graner, 42, who participated in correctional and vocation programs while incarcerated, will be on supervised release until December 2014, Steed told CNN.
During the penalty phase of his court-martial, Graner said he did not relish doling out what he described as "irregular treatment."
"I didn't enjoy it," Graner testified. "A lot of it was wrong. A lot of it was criminal."
During the court-martial, the defense contended military police were following orders to "soften up" prisoners for interrogation.
Prosecutors showed video and photographs to the jury.
"What we have here is plain abuse, no doubt about it. There is no justification," prosecuting attorney Capt. Chris Graveline said.
CNN's Phil Gast contributed to this report.
Source: CNN
The Common Ills reported the following background on Granger and asks some questions:
The release of a War CriminalAugust 6, 2011
(an excerpt)
After the Gulf War, Graner became a prison guard. In June 2004 (months after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal news broke), David Finkel and Christian Davenport (Washington Post) reported on Graner and his 'work record' which included:
That's not the end of his legal problems, but how did that record escape the military? Or was it because of that record that Graner was assigned to Abu Ghraib?
Graner rejoined the military in 2001. How did that happen and how did he remain in the military?
His first wife was Staci Graner. Whatever the marriage was, the separation and divorce were violent. Dennis Cauchon, Debbie Howlett and Rick Hampson (USA Today) reported in May 2004 about after the marriage broke up:
Over the next four years, Staci Graner obtained three temporary protection of abuse orders.
In an affidavit for the first order, Staci Graner said Charles Graner threatened to kill her and told her "that she could keep his guns, because he did not need them for what he was going to do to the plaintiff." A judge ordered the couple to conduct their child custody exchanges at the police station.
For the 1998 order, Staci Graner testified that one night Charles Graner sneaked into the house where she was living with their children and jumped out at her from the laundry room to scare her. "I just don't think this is normal behavior, and he does frighten me," she testified. "I don't want him anywhere near me."
Her affidavit said that Charles Graner "set up a video camera in my house without my knowledge and showed me the tapes."
In 2001, Staci Graner filed a five-page, handwritten affidavit. She said that Charles Graner had come to her house and "yanked me out of bed by my hair, dragging me and all the covers into the hall and tried to throw me down the steps."
Three protection of abuse orders and the military allowed him to re-enlist? Are you getting why women in the military are sexually assaulted so often? No, I'm not accusing Graner of sexually assaulting a fellow soldier (Iraqi detainees, yes) but a military that can overlook three court orders of protection against someone is a military that embraces violence against women and don't pretend otherwise.
Looking at the issues involved -- and it's not just War Crimes -- today, I'm really shocked because I keep coming back to that idiotic plan by Maj Gen Anthony Cucolo at the end of 2009 when he wanted to court-martial any female soldier who got pregnant. And if she would say who the father was (and if he was in the military), he'd be court-martialed as well. Like that was going to happen in most cases. The plan was thankfully dropped due to public outrage.
But Cucolo thought it was needed. And, reality, not only was it not needed but there was no effort to follow existing rules.
Spc Charles Graner used Abu Ghraib as a sexual hookup. How did it help unit cohesion for him to sleep with Megan Ambuhl while both were stationed at Abu Ghraib prison? (He would marry Ambuhl after he was in prison -- with a friend standing in for him in the ceremony.) And do we not grasp how many rules were broken when he entered into a sexual relationship with Pfc Lynndie England? How many rules did that violate and why didn't the military punish Graner for that as well?
Lynndie England (in the photo above) was 21 when the story broke. I've stated many times that she needs to take accountability for her role in the abuse and stop making excuses. Her actions were criminal, they were War Crimes. That doesn't mean on other areas, she doesn't have several arguments to make. Certainly she was used and abused by a superior who not only had a sexual relationship with her but also is the father of her child.
Graner needed to be punished for the War Crimes. That's not in doubt. But the military allowing him to come in after all his domestic abuse issues and the military's refusal to punish him for his relationship with England (or any of the other women) goes a long way towards explaining why the rate of sexual assault is not declining in the military. When they can make an example, they chose not to. By choosing not to, they repeatedly send a message that sexual assault and misconduct is acceptable and just part of being in the military.
They're not the only ones sending that message. Lynndie England immediately became the fact of the Abu Ghraib story. She was a woman so it was 'surprising' to some that she could abuse. She wasn't the only woman involved in the scandal (or in the photos). Long after details began emerging about Charles Graner (who was clearly the ringleader of those who were punished), about his past abuse as a prison guard, about his domestic abuse, long after all of that was in the news, Lynddie was still the shocker. Still the one to glom on. For some sexists.
A former guard termed a ringleader in the physical abuse and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was released from prison Saturday.
Charles Graner Jr., a U.S. Army reservist, served 6 ½ years of his 10-year term at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, said Army spokesperson Rebecca Steed.
Graner, from Uniontown, Pennsylvania, was credited with good conduct.
He served his prison term as a private, with no salary, and was to be dishonorably discharged after release.
He was convicted in January 2005 of indecent acts, dereliction of duty, conspiracy to commit maltreatment and assault consummated by battery.
Photos of U.S. military personnel abusing naked and restrained prisoners in the facility outside Baghdad shocked the world when the scandal broke in early 2004.
Graner, a member of the 372nd Military Police Company, was convicted of photographing a detainee being dragged by another guard, Pfc. Lynndie England, by a leash wrapped around the prisoner's neck, and posing for a photograph with Spc. Sabrina Harman behind a pyramid of naked prisoners.
One count of dereliction of duty accused him of "failing to protect prisoners from abuse, cruelty and maltreatment."
The maltreatment of detainees charges accused Graner of placing the prisoners in the pyramid, photographing them and posing with them; ordering prisoners to masturbate in front of other detainees and soldiers and simulate a sex act; being photographed as if he were going to hit a detainee; and encouraging England to drag a prisoner by a leash.
The assault charge accused him of striking a detainee with an expandable baton. He also was convicted of observing detainees masturbating while other soldiers watched and took photos.
Graner, 42, who participated in correctional and vocation programs while incarcerated, will be on supervised release until December 2014, Steed told CNN.
During the penalty phase of his court-martial, Graner said he did not relish doling out what he described as "irregular treatment."
"I didn't enjoy it," Graner testified. "A lot of it was wrong. A lot of it was criminal."
During the court-martial, the defense contended military police were following orders to "soften up" prisoners for interrogation.
Prosecutors showed video and photographs to the jury.
"What we have here is plain abuse, no doubt about it. There is no justification," prosecuting attorney Capt. Chris Graveline said.
CNN's Phil Gast contributed to this report.
Source: CNN
The Common Ills reported the following background on Granger and asks some questions:
The release of a War CriminalAugust 6, 2011
(an excerpt)
| |
| Charles Graner Jr. and Lynndie England, United States Army, torturing Afghan prisoners at Abu Ghraib Prison in 2004. |
- In 1992, he was working at a county prison in Pennsylvania with guards who acknowledge beating up prisoners as a means of control.
- In 1994, he made a fellow prison guard sick by spraying Mace into his coffee.
- In 1997, he was accused by his wife of threatening to kill her.
That's not the end of his legal problems, but how did that record escape the military? Or was it because of that record that Graner was assigned to Abu Ghraib?
Graner rejoined the military in 2001. How did that happen and how did he remain in the military?
His first wife was Staci Graner. Whatever the marriage was, the separation and divorce were violent. Dennis Cauchon, Debbie Howlett and Rick Hampson (USA Today) reported in May 2004 about after the marriage broke up:
Over the next four years, Staci Graner obtained three temporary protection of abuse orders.
In an affidavit for the first order, Staci Graner said Charles Graner threatened to kill her and told her "that she could keep his guns, because he did not need them for what he was going to do to the plaintiff." A judge ordered the couple to conduct their child custody exchanges at the police station.
For the 1998 order, Staci Graner testified that one night Charles Graner sneaked into the house where she was living with their children and jumped out at her from the laundry room to scare her. "I just don't think this is normal behavior, and he does frighten me," she testified. "I don't want him anywhere near me."
Her affidavit said that Charles Graner "set up a video camera in my house without my knowledge and showed me the tapes."
In 2001, Staci Graner filed a five-page, handwritten affidavit. She said that Charles Graner had come to her house and "yanked me out of bed by my hair, dragging me and all the covers into the hall and tried to throw me down the steps."
Three protection of abuse orders and the military allowed him to re-enlist? Are you getting why women in the military are sexually assaulted so often? No, I'm not accusing Graner of sexually assaulting a fellow soldier (Iraqi detainees, yes) but a military that can overlook three court orders of protection against someone is a military that embraces violence against women and don't pretend otherwise.
Looking at the issues involved -- and it's not just War Crimes -- today, I'm really shocked because I keep coming back to that idiotic plan by Maj Gen Anthony Cucolo at the end of 2009 when he wanted to court-martial any female soldier who got pregnant. And if she would say who the father was (and if he was in the military), he'd be court-martialed as well. Like that was going to happen in most cases. The plan was thankfully dropped due to public outrage.
But Cucolo thought it was needed. And, reality, not only was it not needed but there was no effort to follow existing rules.
Spc Charles Graner used Abu Ghraib as a sexual hookup. How did it help unit cohesion for him to sleep with Megan Ambuhl while both were stationed at Abu Ghraib prison? (He would marry Ambuhl after he was in prison -- with a friend standing in for him in the ceremony.) And do we not grasp how many rules were broken when he entered into a sexual relationship with Pfc Lynndie England? How many rules did that violate and why didn't the military punish Graner for that as well?
Lynndie England (in the photo above) was 21 when the story broke. I've stated many times that she needs to take accountability for her role in the abuse and stop making excuses. Her actions were criminal, they were War Crimes. That doesn't mean on other areas, she doesn't have several arguments to make. Certainly she was used and abused by a superior who not only had a sexual relationship with her but also is the father of her child.
Graner needed to be punished for the War Crimes. That's not in doubt. But the military allowing him to come in after all his domestic abuse issues and the military's refusal to punish him for his relationship with England (or any of the other women) goes a long way towards explaining why the rate of sexual assault is not declining in the military. When they can make an example, they chose not to. By choosing not to, they repeatedly send a message that sexual assault and misconduct is acceptable and just part of being in the military.
They're not the only ones sending that message. Lynndie England immediately became the fact of the Abu Ghraib story. She was a woman so it was 'surprising' to some that she could abuse. She wasn't the only woman involved in the scandal (or in the photos). Long after details began emerging about Charles Graner (who was clearly the ringleader of those who were punished), about his past abuse as a prison guard, about his domestic abuse, long after all of that was in the news, Lynddie was still the shocker. Still the one to glom on. For some sexists.
| Common Ills continues with references to Lynndie England by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, Editors of Counterpunch: |
"Indeed, Charles Granier, one of the abusers at Abu Ghraib and the lover of Linndie England the Trailer Park Torturer, worked as a guard at Pennsylvania's notorious Greene Correctional Unit and has since gone back to work there."
- Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
CounterPunch
May 8/9, 2004
Graner (his name is mispelled) is just "one of the abusers" but Lynndie (her name is also mispelled) is a "torturer" and, not only that, she's so damn trashy: "Trailer Park".
Do you not get the huge pass that's given to Graner in that sentence which demonizes Lynndi who served under him? The sentence acknowledges awareness of Graner's prison work in the US but even that awareness didn't lead to a cute little nickname for Graner like "Trailer Park Torturer," now did it?
And that template can be found in the reports on Graner's release which refuse to hold him accountable or express shock in the way that was repeatedly done in articles on Lynndie England.
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