THE NATION
Unveiling the Face of the Prison Scandal
Chuck Graner, accused of leading the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, was a polite boy. Only in adulthood did troubling signs appear.
By Paul Lieberman and Dan Morain, Times Staff Writers
....(Chuck)Graner is among the seven U.S. soldiers ordered before courts-martial, accused of humiliating and torturing Iraqis in the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, Saddam Hussein's own former house of torture. Four will face hearings beginning Monday, including Graner and his pregnant girlfriend, Pfc. Lynndie England, who downplayed their actions as "basically us fooling around."
But since the release of photographs and videotapes of what went on along Tier 1A at Abu Ghraib — showing England with a stack of naked Iraqis, for starters — the repercussions have been never-ending, including the mass release of prisoners and scrutiny of Bush administration legal memos on what's permissible in wartime interrogations. Over the last two months, the scandal at Abu Ghraib may have eroded America's moral authority not only in Iraq but on other fronts of the war on terror.
While the larger questions are yet to be answered — how widespread was such abuse? was torture authorized? — other guards have identified the ringleader on Tier 1A as 35-year-old Charles A. Graner Jr., the thumbs-up Army specialist who appeared to be enjoying himself while battering one detainee with his fist and posing with others shown naked, bloodied or dead....
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....Chuck Graner began his life in suburbia, in a two-story brick home with yellow siding, on a hilltop south of Pittsburgh. He was a kid with promise before he became the man the world saw, the tattooed former prison guard who had pleaded guilty to harassing his ex-wife. He was also a veteran who had kept his cool guarding Iraqi prisoners in the Persian Gulf War — before he became a defiant man who was hard to figure, one who would display Bible verses outside his home, but pick passages from an angry prophet....
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-na-graner19jun19,1,6103248.story?coll=la-home-headlines