Abu Ghraib Prison Abuse: A Who's Who 

source > www.msnbc.msn.com May 11, 2004


PFC. LYNNDIE ENGLAND | 372d MILITARY POLICE COMPANY
She is the grinning, pixieish face of the current scandal, the anti-Jessica Lynch who, by coincidence, grew up in another small town in a different part of the same state. And until last week, Ft. Ashby, W.Va., was equally proud of England, who had bagged groceries and worked in a chicken plant before joining the Reserves to earn money for college. (Her dream, reportedly, was to become a storm-chasing meteorologist.) Her parents fled the onslaught of reporters, but at a press conference her best friend, Destiny Goin, described England as "a caring person" who adopted a stray cat in Iraq. She was also, at 21, divorced after a two-year marriage to a high-school boyfriend, and four months pregnant by another soldier who has been charged in the case, Cpl. Charles Graner Jr. (below). England's lawyer acknowledged a "relationship" with Graner but, under questioning, refused to call it a romance--and reminded reporters that Graner was her supervisor. England's sister, Jessica Klinestiver, insists that in her guard work she "was following orders, and that's what people in the military are supposed to do."

CBSNews NEW YORK, May 12, 2004
Female GI In Abuse Photos Talks


CPL. CHARLES GRANER JR. | 372d MILITARY POLICE COMPANY
Abu Ghraib Prison was an unlikely setting for a love affair, but Graner, 35, managed to conduct a "relationship" with England; the two posed arm in arm, grinning, behind a heap of naked Iraqi prisoners, for one of the more notorious photos to emerge from the scandal. In civilian life, Graner, of Uniontown, Pa., is a guard at one of the state's toughest prisons, in Waynesburg; he and his wife, with whom he had two children, 11 and 13, separated in 1997 and later divorced. Graner's lawyer, Guy Womack, told reporters last week that his client's "spirits are high," and asserted that Graner was "following orders" from military and civilian interrogators. Said Womack: "He knows he didn't do anything wrong."

Washington Post Saturday, June 5, 2004
Records Paint Dark Portrait Of Guard - Before Abu Ghraib, Graner Left a Trail Of Alleged Violence


SPC. SABRINA HARMAN | 372d MILITARY POLICE COMPANY
Determined to follow her father and brother into the police force, Harman, 26, of Lorton, Va., sought training in the Army Reserves. As soon as she graduated from boot camp, though, she was shipped off to Iraq and the former pizzeria manager became a prison guard--and now, her mother, Robin, fears, a scapegoat. Investigators say Harman took several of the photographs of naked prisoners as they were abused and humiliated, and she has been charged with attaching electrodes to the fingers, toes and penis of a hooded prisoner, who was warned he would be electrocuted if he fell asleep. She told The Washington Post in an e-mail last week that her job was to "make it hell so they would talk."

Richard Woodward, "Picture This", The American Prospect Online, May 11, 2004., arts critic, New York City, writes a thoughtful essay in which he says:

"Sabrina D. Harman, a 26-year-old Army reservist from Alexandria, Virginia, is accused of directing many of the shots that have been released.

She allegedly both created and photographed the pyramid of naked prisoners, ordering them to strip and masturbate in front of others. She also supposedly photographed a corpse and then posed with the body while someone else took their portrait. Finally, she is charged with writing "rapeist" on a prisoner's leg and with staging the most haunting photograph so far published: the cloaked prisoner who stands on a box with arms outstretched and wires attached to his hands."


SGT. JAVAL DAVIS | 372d MILITARY POLICE COMPANY
He's 26, married to a woman in the Navy and the father of a 4-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter. The New Jersey-born Davis was a star on his high-school track team and later competed at Morgan State University in Baltimore. "I witnessed prisoners in the [military intelligence] hold section being made to do various things that I would question morally," he told investigators. "We were told that [military intelligence] had different rules." His family insists he's innocent, noting that he doesn't appear in any of the photographs published last week.

SPC. JEREMY SIVITS | 372d MILITARY POLICE COMPANY
He was trained, according to his father, to fix trucks, and his civilian work experience was mostly at McDonald's, but the 24-year-old Sivits found himself inside Abu Ghraib Prison, and was allegedly present when some of the notorious pictures were taken. His father, Daniel, a career military man, told The Baltimore Sun that he had counseled his son never to snitch on a fellow soldier--advice that Jeremy seems to have followed, although according to his mother, Freda, he knew that something was wrong. "Jeremy said, 'Mom, if I would have said something, what would have happened to me?' He was damned if he did and damned if he didn't."

S/SGT. VAN FREDERICK II | 372d MILITARY POLICE COMPANY
The senior enlisted man among those charged, Frederick, 37, is a prison guard in Virginia, as is his wife, Martha. He wrote his family about a prisoner "stressed" by interrogators until he died; the body, he said, was packed in ice and given a fake IV to simulate a medical emergency. When he brought up his concerns about conditions at Abu Ghraib to a senior officer, the response, he said, was not to worry about it: military intelligence was pleased with the results.

SPC. MEGAN AMBUHL | 372d MILITARY POLICE COMPANY
Little is known about Ambuhl, 29, who lives in Centreville, Va.

A MAN OF CONSCIENCE:

SPC. JOSEPH DARBY | 372d MILITARY POLICE COMPANY
He was an unlikely, even a reluctant, hero--an auto mechanic from rural Pennsylvania, a background that hardly set him apart from the other soldiers of the 372d. When he was identified as the whistle-blower, his friend Doug Ashbrook's first thought was "That doesn't sound like Joe." But when Darby first saw the now infamous pictures of Iraqi prisoners being punished after a brawl, he was troubled enough to slip an anonymous letter to Army investigators. He later provided evidence in a sworn statement. Now his family worries about the label of "whistle-blower." As his sister-in-law explains: "There are bad people who might think this brings the U.S. bad publicity."

CACI 

California Analysis Center, Inc. In 1967 the company was renamed Consolidated Analysis Centers, Inc. The company name was officially changed to CACI, Inc. in 1973. In recognition of our growing International business we became CACI International Inc in 1986.

NBC News 11, 2004
Climate at Abu Ghraib distressed former interrogator

Torin Nelson arrived at Abu Ghraib prison last November and found what he calls one of the worst detention facilities he’s seen in 12 years as an interrogator.

While in the Army, Nelson interrogated prisoners at Bosnia and Guantanamo Bay. But this time, he was one of 27 civilian interrogators hired by a private company, CACI — known as “KHAKI” — to work in Iraq.

Nelson, who quit in February, was listed as a key witness in the Pentagon investigation and won’t discuss whether he saw any abuses.

But he says military commanders did not provide nearly enough oversight nor indicate what line not to cross to sometimes inexperienced interrogators.

“There were a number of people, not just on the CACI side, but on the military side, that I felt needed more experience if they were actually going to be working as interrogators,” said Nelson.

He says the quality of interrogators was so uneven it hurt collection and analysis of information and claims the hiring process was extremely lax. Nelson said he was hired by CACI after only a 35-minute telephone interview — far less scrutiny than usual.

He also challenged statements by the company and Pentagon that civilian contractors were always supervised. “Sometimes there were interrogations where I was completely alone if I wanted to be,” he said.

On Monday, CACI’s Web site lists some interrogator jobs in Baghdad involving “minimal supervision.”

The Pentagon investigation blames one CACI interrogator, Steve Stefanowicz, for some of the horrors at Abu Ghraib, stating “he clearly knew his instructions equated to physical abuse.”

CACI did not respond to repeated calls but has said none of its employees has been charged with wrongdoing. The company also says all potential interrogators are carefully screened and qualified.

Lisa Myers is NBC News’ senior investigative correspondent.


  ¶ Wednesday, May 12, 2004