"It violated everything I personally believed in and all I'd been taught about the rules of war." -- Sergeant Joseph Darby
In January 2004, Sergeant Joseph Darby, found himself in a conundrum that none of us can really understand without having experienced. Darby, then a 24-year-old Army Reservist serving at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, had uncovered information and let his conscience be his guide.
Darby was a member of the 372nd Military Police Company, the unit in charge of guarding prisoners at Abu Ghraib. When Darby learned of the abuse taking place against Iraqi prisoners, he was torn between loyalty to his fellow soldiers and horror that they seemed capable of torture.
The soldier who triggered the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal by sending incriminating photos to military investigators says he feared deadly retribution by other soldiers, and was shocked when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld mentioned his name in a Senate hearing.
"I had the choice between what I knew was morally right, and my loyalty to other soldiers. I couldn't have it both ways," Darby says in the September [2004] issue of GQ magazine.
Within days, Army Spec. Darby was secreted out of Iraq at his own request. 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 Maryland.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Darby said that if presented with the same circumstances today, he would react the same way.
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 policies and practices in Iraq.
At least 18 U.S. soldiers have been convicted of charges stemming from prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.
Darby said he discovered the abuse photos inadvertently in January 2004 while flipping through other pictures on a CD that Spec. Charles A. Graner, Jr. had given to him. At first, Darby was 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.
The other thing was, there were other government agencies who would come into the prison and handle prisoners. I can't say which agencies, but you can probably guess. Sometimes we didn't know exactly who they were. We'd get a call at like three in the morning from the battalion commander, saying, "You have a bird coming in. You need to take prisoner such and such from cell whatever to the landing zone in fifteen minutes." So I'd put my gear on, cuff the prisoner, bag him, go to the LZ, wait for the helicopter to land, and then hand the prisoner off to the guys inside.
I didn't know who they were. Didn't ask. When they tell you not to ask any questions, you don't ask questions. They might bring the prisoner back in a few hours, or the next morning, or two days later. You didn't ask. Other times, they would bring a new prisoner into the compound. You didn't know who they were, or who the prisoner was, or what he had done, or what they were going to do to him. You just handed over the cellblock.
On the night of November 4, 2003, a prisoner whose name and image as The Iceman was delivered to Abu Ghraib.
One night, this Black Hawk landed at about 4 a.m., and a couple guys came in with a prisoner and took him to tier 1, put sheets up so that nobody could see, and spent the rest of the night in there. They told us to stay away, so we did. Then a couple hours later, they came back out. They were like, "The prisoner is dead." They asked for ice to pack him, and then they said, "You guys clean this up. We weren't here. Have a good day." Got back on the bird and took off, left the dead body right there. Those guys can come in and kill a guy, and there's nothing you can do. There's no record of them. They were never there. They don't exist.
You've probably seen pictures of that prisoner with Graner and Harman crouching next to his dead body, giving the thumbs-up. Well, that's the guy. Everybody takes that picture at face value, but the truth is, Graner and Harman didn't kill him. And when something like that happens, it stretches the limits. Maybe Graner and Harman came away thinking, Okay, let's take it further.
Darby's worst moment, he says, came on May 7, 2004, at lunch with 10 fellow MPs in a mess hall filled with 400 troops: "It was like something out of a movie." Rumsfeld appears on TV, drops 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."
But it catches up to you later, when you get home. Like, I slept fine while I was there, but now I have nightmares. And a few days before my unit left Abu Ghraib, all of a sudden people started worrying about mortar attacks for the first time. It was weird. They'd be huddling against the wall together. I found myself crouched in a corner, praying. The numbness was wearing off. That's one of the things you have to keep in mind when you look at the pictures. We all got numb in different ways.
Realizing he "needed to get home," Darby asked for emergency leave. Given two hours to get ready, he was flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where he was met by his wife - and an officer who told him, "You can't go home. You can probably never go home."
"He was right," says Darby.
You can leave a message for Joseph Darby at Thank You, Joe Darby. This letter is Mr. Darby's response to messages on the same website.
Posted Thu, 2006-08-24 08:26
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and everyone who has posted on this web page, for your support and words of kindness.
On a day when your words were needed most, I was shown this page by a member of this page who I served with in Iraq.
It has been more than 2 years since I first acted on the pictures I had seen, and as you all know I have been both supported and condemned by the public.
I have moved from my home and settled with my family and started a new life in a new town. After everything that has happened, since that night, if put in the same situation I would do the same thing.
The posts I have read on this web page only go as proof that the morals and deeds of the many can not be judged by the actions of a few.
I thank you and my family thanks you for the support you have shown for us by posting here.
Many Thanks
Sgt Joseph Darby
When Joseph Comes Marching Home. (AP, 5/17/04)
ABC Persons of the Year. (ABC, December 2004)
Prisoner of Conscience. (GQ)
Abu Ghraib Whistleblower Speaks Out. (NPR, August 2006)
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