Veterans for Peace
Chapter 98
Taos, New
Mexico
|
SGT Joseph Darby |
| Veterans for Peace, Chapter 98 Taos, New Mexico  |
|---|
|
ABCNEWS.com Person of the Week: Spc. Joseph Darby By Peter Jennings May 7, 2004 — Army Spc. Joseph Darby, 24, is the man who sounded
the first alarm about the abuse of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison — by
people in his own 372nd Military Police Company. "It was really hard on him," said Margaret Blank, Darby's mother. "He didn't want to go against...his troops. It cut him in half, but he said he could not stand the atrocities that he had stumbled upon. He said he kept thinking, 'What if that was my mom, my grandmother, my brother or my wife?'" Darby later came forward and identified himself as the person who had sent the note. "I told him, 'Your picture is in the paper,'" Blank said. "I said, 'Honey, I'm so proud of you because...you did a good thing and good always triumphs over evil. And the truth will always set you free.' And he said, 'You're right, mom.'" The photographs have had enormous consequences, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cited Darby's actions during testimony before Congress today. "There are many who did their duty professionally," Rumsfeld said. "Spc. Joseph Darby...alerted the authorities that abuse was occurring." Human rights workers say that such horror can only be exposed if someone has the courage to come forward. "Torture flourishes in the dark," said Carroll Bogert of the group Human Rights Watch, "and what Darby has done is to shine a light on what was happening in a place that was dark." Stood Up for His Beliefs Darby grew up in western Pennsylvania. His family moved around a lot, but when Darby was a teenager they lived in the mining town of Jenners. Bob Ewing, Darby's 10th-grade history teacher and football coach at North Star High, described Darby as an average player and an average student, but one who knew his own mind. "In school, if Joe believed in something, Joe stood up for it, and it didn't matter if it was unpopular, or the politically correct thing," Ewing said. "If Joe believed in something, that's what Joe stood up for." His parents didn't have a lot of money. And after his little brother was born, Joe went to work at a Wendy's to help out. "He never let anyone know he was down and out," said a neighbor, Gilbert Reffner. "He was out to make a better life for himself." He thought the Army might lead to a better life — even a college education, which the Army would pay for. Like so many others, he ended up in Iraq. 'Tell The Truth' Today, Darby is a hero to some — but not to all. He is married, but his wife's name is being withheld at her request, because in the wake of what her husband has done she fears retaliation. "Darby told the truth," Human Rights Watch's Bogert said. "Telling the truth doesn't always make you popular. And I think a lot of public opprobrium has come down on his head for the fact that he told the truth. But I think that history will put him in a good light." Darby's mother has had a hard life. She had cancer. She lost an eye. She has diabetes. But this week she said that her faith in God has made the difference. That, and a son she is proud of. "Tell the truth, always remain true to yourself and remain true to your country," Blank said. "And I think he did all three." 'Moral Call' Led Soldier to Expose
Abuse By ALLEN G. BREED, Associated Press Writer FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) - The soldier who was the first to report his colleagues were abusing Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib prison testified Friday that he agonized for a month about disclosing what he had seen, but decided he could not let the abuse go on. "It violated everything I personally believed in and all I'd been taught about the rules of war," Sgt. Joseph Darby testified during a pretrial hearing for Pfc. Lynndie England. "It was more of a moral call." Darby turned over two compact discs of photos, including some that showed England leading a naked prisoner by a leash and smiling as she points at the genitals of a hooded detainee. Darby had known the 21-year-old reservist since basic training with the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company and wrestled with the decision to come forward. "These people were my friends," Darby testified by phone from an undisclosed location. "It's a hard call to have to make the decision to put your friends in prison." The Article 32 hearing at Fort Bragg is to determine whether England should face a court-martial on 13 counts of abusing detainees and six counts stemming from possession of sexually explicit photos. If convicted, she could get up to 38 years in prison. Friday's fourth day of testimony painted a picture of a prison in disarray, where it was often unclear whether guards or military intelligence officers were in charge and where barely trained reservists were often left to make decisions alone. Darby testified that he received the now-notorious photos in early December on computer discs from Spc. Charles Graner, with whom England was having a sexual affair. There had been a prison uprising while Darby was on leave, and he had asked Graner if he had any photos. When he looked at the photos, Darby was "bewildered" by what he saw — prisoners chained together in sexual poses, piled on the floor naked and forced to form a nude human pyramid. Finally, on Jan. 13, Darby decided to make copies of the CDs and write an anonymous letter to military investigators. Graner was scheduled to return to the prison the next day from another assignment, and Darby said he was "concerned about the abuse starting again." England has said the guards were told to "soften up" prisoners for interrogators. But Darby said England was a clerical worker who did not even belong in that part of the prison and that guards had no role in interrogations. When asked by defense attorney Rick Hernandez to speculate why Graner and the others would do these things, Darby replied: "I don't know if they were bored, sir, or doing things they couldn't do at home. But I knew there was no good reason for it." Hernandez asked Darby whether he would have followed an order to put a naked prisoner into the prison's "hole" as punishment, as was a common practice at Abu Ghraib. Darby said he would not have. "Every soldier had the obligation to follow lawful orders — and not follow unlawful orders," he said. Darby, who is from Cresaptown, Md., where the 372nd is based, acknowledged that he had seen at least one image of detainee abuse as far back as October, when Graner showed him a still from a video camera of a hooded detainee handcuffed to the bars of his cell. Darby quoted Graner, a prison guard in civilian life, as telling him: "The Christian in me knows it's wrong, but the corrections officer in me can't help but love making a grown man piss himself." Graner and England are among seven 372nd members who have been charged with abuse. Graner also faces adultery charges for having sex with England, who her lawyers say is seven months pregnant with his child. Throughout the hearing, prosecutors have contended that England was part of a group of rogue reservists who went outside the chain of command to abuse prisoners for sport on the night shift at Abu Ghraib. Defense attorneys have attempted to show that the guards were poorly trained and that intelligence officers had control of the site where the photos were taken. Bolstering that contention, Sgt. Hydrue Joyner testified Friday that the 372nd's members were not initially trained for prison duty and that most of what they did learn was taught on the job. "No one knew what we were supposed to do," said Joyner, who was in charge of the day shift in the unit where the abuse occurred. "Basically, I was just shooting from the hip and hoping to God I didn't screw up." He said he gave male prisoners women's underwear because that was all he had at one point and that he was often unable to get enough jumpsuits for them to wear. Joyner injected some rare levity into the hearing, telling how he gave prisoners nicknames such as "Spiderman," "Groucho," "Big Bird." Even England, who has been mostly stone-faced during the proceedings, laughed so hard she became red in the face. Family of Iraq Abuse Whistleblower
Threatened WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Relatives of the U.S. soldier who sounded the alarm about abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison said on Monday the family was living in protective custody because of death threats against them. Reservist military police officer Staff Sgt. Joseph Darby alerted U.S. Army investigators about the abuse by fellow soldiers of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, a move his wife says has angered people in their community in western Maryland. "People were mean, saying he was a walking dead man, he was walking around with a bull's eye on his head. It was scary," said Bernadette Darby from Corriganville, Maryland. Mrs. Darby said it was difficult living in protective custody, and she missed her privacy. She did not say who was providing the protection. "There's always someone with you," she told ABC's "Good Morning America" show. Despite the threats, Mrs. Darby she believed her husband made the right choice exposing the abuse. "Joe is the type of person to take what is going on around him and be like, 'How would I feel if that was my wife?' ... He just could not live with himself knowing that that was happening and he did not do anything about it," she said. Darby's sister-in-law, Maxine Carroll, said people had written graffiti on her fence but she also applauded what her brother-in-law did and said she was horrified by a series of graphic photographs Darby handed over to investigators. "That's not what we are there for (in Iraq). We are there to show them the right way. When Joe can talk, then that is what he will say," she said. In testimony this month at a hearing for one of the soldiers accused of abusing prisoners, Darby said he struggled with the decision to turn over the photos because he was friendly with one of the accused. What he saw on the CDs containing the photos, he said, "violated everything I personally believed in and everything I had been taught about the rules of war." |
Bring our troops home Now.
