Graner Guilty in Abu Ghraib Torture Case

He was a prison guard at Abu Ghraib, but now Charles Graner will be a prisoner for the next ten years due to his role in the torture scandal that occurred there. He never really had any defense, and with photographic evidence where his face is clearly visible, one wonders why he didn’t just plead guilty and save himself the inconvenience of a trial. But he wasn’t the top dog in this case, and so far, no officer has been arrested. Someone higher up the chain of command than former Specialist Graner is guilty, if not of torture or condoning torture, than of dereliction of duty in letting it happen.

Private Graner (having been busted as low as he could be by the court martial) is a piece of work, but not unusual for a nation that culturally is growing ever farther from the idea of responsibility. His mother said, "He is not the monster he's made out to be. In my eyes he'll always be a hero." For the rest of us, he is a monster. Private Garner himself said to the hero of Abu Ghraib, Joseph Darby who blew the whistle, "The Christian in me says it's wrong, but the corrections officer in me says, 'I love to make a grown man piss himself’.” There isn’t much Christian in Private Graner.

At the same time, he isn’t alone in his depravity. Either he acted under orders or he didn’t. Given the way the Bush administration has played fast and loose with the Geneva Convention and American civil liberties since September 11, 2001, at very least, there was a permissive attitude taken that allowed this torture of prisoners. More than likely, there were verbal orders, but nothing written down. Such orders would come from an officer. Many of the officers at Abu Ghraib refused to testify in Private Graner’s case because of ongoing investigations. It is fair to say that, under military law, smoke is proof of fire, and their silence is as good as a confession to the prosecutors.

Even if one follows the official line coming out of the Pentagon and White House, that a few bad apples at Abu Ghraib have shamed the US military, there is still someone else who needs to be punished. An officer is responsible and accountable for the actions of those under his or her command. If one doesn’t know what is going on in the ranks, one is negligent or derelict in one’s duty. This is much closer to a slam dunk than anything US intelligence had on WMD.

One final note on this sorry affair is the sentence. The ten year maximum may seem like a long time for Private Graner to serve, and frankly, a military prison isn’t the sort of place where time flows quickly. But US Code Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 113C, Section 2340B lays out a 20 year maximum, not the ten Graner faced as a maximum. Two interesting comparisons: first, the penalty for “delivery of marijuana” in the State of Texas carries a maximum of 10 to 99 years or life in prison. Second, Admiral Karl Doenitz, who was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at Nuremberg, also received 10 years. The reader may draw whatever conclusions seem appropriate.

© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.

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