WSJ: Inside Abu Ghraib: Missed Red Flags, Team Under Stress

Hard Time

Inside Abu Ghraib: Missed Red Flags, Team Under Stress

Some Who Were There Point To a Charismatic Corporal Involved in an Affair
The Night Shift on Tier 1A

By JONATHAN EIG
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 23, 2004; Page A1

Before there was Abu Ghraib, there was Virginia Beach.

In March 2003, shortly before the 372nd Military Police Company of Army reservists shipped out to Iraq, its members enjoyed a weekend of R&R. Three of the soldiers -- Lynndie England, Charles Graner and Steven Strother -- took off for Virginia Beach, Va., in a borrowed Ford Focus. They got drunk one night, and when Spc. Strother passed out, Spc. England took off her clothes and got in bed with him, according to Spc. Strother's testimony before a military court. He said Cpl. Graner took pictures, and then Spc. England snapped more photos while Cpl. Graner exposed himself next to Spc. Strother's head.

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Beyond these larger forces, some who were inside Abu Ghraib tell a relatively simple story. They describe how one soldier with a strong personality and red flags in his record apparently triggered a descent into horrific behavior while a distracted Army hierarchy failed to stop it. The Army Reserves' 372nd Military Police Company is based in Cresaptown, Md., population 6,000. Its civilian members are cops and restaurant managers and salesmen. They come from small towns in Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, places where coal mines once dominated local economies. Some joined the reserves because of anger over the Sept. 11 attacks, but most for the money. In peacetime, they might pick up an extra $250 a month, enough for a car payment, and have to serve just one weekend a month plus two weeks of annual summer camp. But with the regular armed services stretched thin by Afghanistan and Iraq, the government has called Army reservists and National Guard members to active duty in large numbers and pressed them into jobs normally done by full-time soldiers. In 2001, the 372nd was sent to Bosnia for the better part of a year. Not long after getting back, members learned they would leave again, for Iraq. Cracks in morale appeared, as most had never imagined having to spend so much time away from homes and jobs. In February 2003, when the company reported for duty at Fort Lee, Va., some reservists complained that they were too sick to serve. The Army filled the gap with individual soldiers from other reserve units. A few officers complained that the newcomers upset the company's chemistry. But when Cpl. Graner was brought in, he seemed like a welcome addition.

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And his marriage had broken up. Between 1997 and 2001, Cpl. Graner's then-wife obtained three orders of protection against him. She accused him in Fayette County court of threatening to kill her and of grabbing her by the hair and trying to throw her down the stairs. Cpl. Graner's lawyer says the allegations were part of a contentious divorce and were groundless. The former wife couldn't be reached for comment. Cpl. Graner's military file included the allegations, and put him in a class of soldiers not qualified for duty in Iraq, Gen. Karpinski says. But the 372nd was short-handed and trying to get to Iraq as fast as possible. Gen. Karpinski says she doesn't know who cleared him to go... Because Spc. England's divorce wasn't final, her relationship with Cpl. Graner violated military rules, the corporal's lawyer says. But no one acted firmly to break up the affair for months, Gen. Karpinski says, in part because the company's command was in flux.

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After several months in Hillah, the MPs were sent to Abu Ghraib.
When they got there, the guards told them that military intelligence officers called most of the shots. Military police weren't used to taking orders from intelligence officers. But there was nothing ordinary about Abu Ghraib. As MPs, the members of the 372nd had not been trained for prison work. Capt. Reese, whose civilian job is selling window blinds in New Stanton, Pa., had never seen the inside of a prison, he later told Pentagon investigators. Taking over after two weeks of instruction from a departing group of guards, the reservists learned as they went along.

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In 1973, a psychology professor at Stanford University conducted a famous academic exercise in which students played the role of either prison guard or inmate. The professor, Philip Zimbardo, says that once the "guards" grew acclimated to their work, those with the most aggressive personalities began behaving sadistically -- and then "guards" with more passive personalities followed. Soon, "guards" began abusing "prisoners," and even students who didn't condone the abuse made no effort to stop it. Sgt. Davis, asked by investigators why he didn't refuse to go along with the abusive conduct at Abu Ghraib and report it, answered with a comment that could have been lifted from the Stanford experiment: "I assumed that if they were doing things out of the ordinary or outside the guidelines, someone would have said something." Sgt. Davis faces a military trial next year. His lawyer plans to argue that his client was following orders from the highest levels of government.

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Write to Jonathan Eig at jonathan.eig@wsj.com

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