{"id":513,"date":"2005-01-15T22:46:19","date_gmt":"2005-01-16T04:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=513"},"modified":"2005-01-15T22:48:33","modified_gmt":"2005-01-16T04:48:33","slug":"soldier-gets-10-years-in-iraq-prison-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=513","title":{"rendered":"Soldier Gets 10 Years in Iraq Prison Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Abu Ghraib continues to take its toll. This time, however, the cost is finally being borne by one actually responsible<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr., who grinned in photos of Iraqi prisoners being sexually humiliated but told jurors, “I didn’t enjoy what I did there,” was sentenced Saturday to 10 years behind bars in the first court-martial stemming from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.<\/p>\n

Graner, labeled the leader of a band of rogue guards at the Baghdad prison in late 2003, could have received 15 years.<\/p>\n

Asked if he felt remorse after the sentence was handed down, Graner said, “There’s a war on. Bad things happen.”<\/p>\n

Graner will be dishonorably discharged when his sentence is completed. He also was demoted to private and ordered to forfeit all pay and benefits.<\/p>\n

A day after convicting him, the jury of four Army officers and six senior enlisted men deliberated about two hours to determine Graner’s sentence. He could have received 15 years.<\/p>\n

Graner, who had been free prior to trial, was taken into custody after the sentence was read. He gave his mother, Irma, a big hug and his father, Charles Sr., a firm handshake before the jury foreman read the sentence.<\/p>\n

“He’s scared to death,” Irma Graner said later.<\/p>\n

Graner was accused of stacking naked prisoners in a human pyramid and later ordering them to masturbate while other soldiers took photographs. He also allegedly punched one man in the head hard enough to knock him out, and struck an injured prisoner with a collapsible metal stick.<\/p>\n

Defense lawyer Guy Womack said his client and the six other Abu Ghraib guards charged with abuses were being scapegoated, but added that he thought the jury did its job well.<\/p>\n

“I firmly believe there should have been reasonable doubt, but we respect their decision,” he said outside the courthouse. He added that he had feared Graner could have received a harsher sentence than the 10-year term.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors Maj. Michael Holley and Capt. Chris Graveline would not speak to reporters, but they said in a joint statement, “We think it is important that the world was able to observe this court-martial.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The exact scope of the abuse scandal has been hyped to hyperbole by those thirsting for ratings or with an axe to grind or on a political headhunt. Screams for heads to roll, no matter how distant and uninvolved those heads were, echoed loudly but luckily to no avail.<\/p>\n

What happened at the prison was a crime, actually a fairly minor one in relation to the harm it was allowed to wreak on U.S. efforts, and now the criminals are beginning to find justice. That is as it should be; however, when all the dust settles, will those who contributed to the international circus ever look back and realize the damage they willfully perpetrated against the U.S. and the harm done to fighting Islamist terror?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abu Ghraib continues to take its toll. This time, however, the cost is finally being borne by one actually responsible. Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr., who grinned in photos of Iraqi prisoners being sexually humiliated but told jurors, “I didn’t enjoy what I did there,” was sentenced Saturday to 10 years behind bars in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-middle-east","category-military","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}