GI who exposed Abu Ghraib, describes incident when Rummy dropped his name

[sabra]

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/15243778.htm

GI who exposed Abu Ghraib feared revenge

<snip>

His worst moment, he said, came on May 7, 2004, during lunch with 10 fellow MPs in a mess hall filled with 400 troops.

"It was like something out of a movie," he recalled. Rumsfeld appeared on television, dropped 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."

Only later did he learn he had been named in a New Yorker magazine article a few days earlier, he told AP in the telephone interview.

In response to queries from AP, Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said he recalled no effort to protect Darby's identity. It was known "very early and quickly became common knowledge," and people were "talking about his courage in coming forward," he said.

...

He said he has returned home only twice, for a wedding and his mother's funeral.

"I'm not welcome there. People there don't look at the fact that I knew right from wrong," he said. "They look at the fact that I put an Iraqi before an American."

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. The military brass wanted to make sure

he was set has an example. They certainly didn't want a sudden rash of other people coming forward.

[leveymg]

5. No, he was protected by the Army brass. Rummy and the political appointes

wanted to get him. Darby and his wife were given pretective custody after receiving death threats, and he was exonerated by the board of inquiry. If the brass wanted to get him, they could have.

That also tells me that someone considerably higher up the chain of command from Darby actually leaked the photos to CBS. Perhaps, very high within the uniformed services. No one was ever disciplined for the leak.

For a short chronology of what happened, see: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_05/003853.php

We know that the problems at Abu Ghraib were first discovered late last year (2003) and that the Army's internal investigation was completed in late February. Donald Rumsfeld and (presumably) Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had been briefed on the investigation in January and apparently decided that the military justice system and the CENTCOM chief could handle it. In fairness to them, it probably wasn't unreasonable to believe that it didn't demand presidential level attention at that time.

But here's where that changes: CBS said in its original story (April 11, 2004) that Myers had asked them "two weeks ago" to delay airing the story because the situation in Iraq at the time was so explosive. That means that by mid-April, when CBS was originally planning to run the story, Myers knew the photos had been leaked.

Now, Myers reports directly to both the president and the Secretary of Defense. And once CBS had gotten hold of the photos he had to know that (a) they were sure to become public fairly soon and (b) they were incredibly explosive. Unless Myers is a monumental political dullard — unlikely in his position — he had to to have known that.

So: did Myers keep this looming PR disaster to himself? Did he tell Rumsfeld that the pictures were about to become public? Did either of them tell Bush? Did he/they keep it to themselves because they thought it wasn't that important? Or because they were afraid to tell the president?

And whatever the case, what does all this say about the Bush management style?

—Kevin Drum

This longer piece by Evan Thomas is also good: http://www.bintjbeil.com/articles/2004/en/0510_thomas.html

[DistressedAmerican]

2. "They look at the fact that I put an Iraqi before an American."

Just like all other American fascists!

Poor guy! He's welcome to come stay with me anytime!

[phillinweird247]

3. If you ever need a couch.....

True american heros are welcome at my house anytime!!

[NewYorkerfromMass]

4. and like Kerry before him, he put honor and dignity

truth and justice before cowardice.