Key Figure [SIC] in Abu Ghraib Atrocities Freed from Prison
August 8th, 2011The “key figures” are Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld…
Via: AP:
The convicted ringleader of detainee abuses at Abu Ghraib was released Saturday from a military prison, an Army spokeswoman said.
Charles Graner Jr., 42, was released from the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after serving more than 6½ years of a 10-year sentence, spokeswoman Rebecca Steed said. Graner will be under the supervision of a probation officer until Dec. 25, 2014, she said.
Steed said she could not release any information about Graner’s whereabouts or his destination after release. Neither Graner nor his wife — who was a fellow Abu Ghraib defendant — have responded to interview requests from The Associated Press. Calls and emails to Graner’s father and lawyer were not immediately returned.
Graner was an Army Reserve corporal when he and six other members of the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company were charged in 2004 with abusing detainees at the prison in Iraq.
The strongest evidence was photographs of grinning U.S. soldiers posing beside naked detainees stacked in a pyramid or held on a leash.
The pictures complicated international relations for the U.S. and provoked debate about whether harsh interrogation techniques approved by the Pentagon amounted to torture.
Graner was convicted of offenses that included stacking the prisoners into a pyramid, knocking one of them out with a head punch and ordering prisoners to masturbate while soldiers took pictures.
He maintained that the actions were part of a plan directed by military intelligence officers to soften up prisoners for interrogation.
Graner is the last Abu Ghraib defendant to be released from prison and received the longest sentence.
Hana Adwar, an Iraqi human rights activist, told The Associated Press that the “easy” release of a criminal who “committed a war crime” would be met with outrage in Iraq.
“He was charged with a crime that shocked the international community, and then he was released,” she said. “I believe that such an act is an attempt to deceive and blind the Iraqi nation.”
Steed said Graner’s obligation to the military ends at the end of 2014. Until then, his supervised release could be suspended.
I will bet the world a Eurobuck that he ends up a valuable employee of Blackwa… ahem, Xe.
@Miraculix: I’ll take that bet; he failed the most important test of a potential employee: make sure someone else takes the heat.
That’s one way of seeing it Nut, for certain.
But they are also looking for those ultra-loyal soldiers of empire, who will fall on their sword before ratting out anyone playing for the home team, especially superiors.
He has used the classic “I was just following orders” foil from the get-go, but didn’t name names. He has proven he possesses the blind faith necessary to this form of blinkered loyalty.
That he wasn’t able to successfully shift the blame to others speaks more to his relatively low link in the chain of command than his smarts.
But perhaps you’re right, and he’s just another stupid fall guy in the litany of stupid fall guys throughout recorded (and unrecorded) history.
In which case he’s suited to work as a street-level contractor at the pointy end of the spear, rather than a handler or in management.
At very least he’ll get the big book deal.
That is if he knows how to write.