Charles A. Graner Jr. (born November 10, 1968) is an American war criminal, former soldier, and corrections officer who was court-martialed for prisoner abuse after the 2003–2004 Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Along with other soldiers of his Army Reserve unit, the 372nd Military Police Company, Graner was accused of allowing and inflicting sexual, physical, and psychological abuse on Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison, a notorious prison in Baghdad during the United States' occupation of Iraq.
On January 14, 2005, Graner was found guilty under the Uniform Code of Military Justice on charges of conspiracy to maltreat detainees, failing to protect detainees from abuse, cruelty, and maltreatment, as well as charges of assault, indecency, and dereliction of duty. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, demotion to private, dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of pay and allowances. Charges of adultery and obstruction of justice were dropped before trial.Abu Ghraib Court Martial: "Ring Leader" Spc. Charles A. Graner Jr. Sentenced to Ten Years , Center for Defense Information. Retrieved 2008-07-06. On August 6, 2011, Graner was released from the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after serving years of his ten-year sentence.Dishneau, David. Key figure in Abu Ghraib abuse freed from prison, Associated Press, August 6, 2011.
Early life Graner grew up in Baldwin, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. After graduating from high school in 1986, Graner attended the University of Pittsburgh for two years before dropping out to join the Marine Corps Reserve in April 1988. He had the Marine Corps emblem and the letters "USMC" tattooed on his upper right biceps.Fuoco, Michael A., et al. (2004-05-08)"Suspect in prisoner abuse has a history of troubles" Post-Gazette.com. Retrieved 2006-08-21.
In 1990, Graner married Staci M. Dean, a 19-year-old from Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania. The couple had two children. Trained as a military policeman, he served in the Persian Gulf War in 1991. He was in the Marines until May 1996, when he left with the rank of lance corporal.
Graner was deployed during the Gulf War, serving with the 2nd MP Co, originally of 4th FSSG, 4th Marine Division, a Marine Reserve unit based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On January 11, 1991, he arrived in Saudi Arabia, taking part in Operation Desert Storm. From there, he traveled to the largest prisoner-of-war camp near the Saudi-Kuwaiti border, where he worked for about six weeks.
Corrections officer After his marriage, he moved to Butler, Pennsylvania, a steel industry area in southwestern Pennsylvania. In 1994, he began working as a corrections officer at Fayette County Prison in a shift with a "no-nonsense reputation." Once, Graner was accused of putting mace in a new guard's coffee as a joke, causing him to be sick.Records Paint Dark Portrait Of Guard, The Washington Post, 2004-06-05. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
In May 1996, he moved to the State Correctional Institution, Greene, a maximum-security prison in Greene County, Pennsylvania. Almost 70% of the inmates were black, many from large cities, but it was located in a rural part of the state and more than 90% of the guards were white.Unveiling the Face of the Prison Scandal, Los Angeles Times, 2004-06-19. Retrieved 2009-03-03. Guards at the prison were accused of beating and sexually assaulting prisoners and conducting cavity searches in view of other prisoners. There were also reports of racism, including reports of guards writing "KKK" in the blood of a beaten prisoner. In 1998, two guards were fired and 20 others were suspended, demoted or reprimanded for prisoner abuse.MP investigated in Iraq was at Pa. prison during abuse scandal, but not implicated , The San Diego Union-Tribune, 2004-05-07. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
In 1998, a prisoner accused Graner and three other guards of planting a razor blade in his food, causing his mouth to bleed when he ate it. The prisoner accused the guards of first ignoring his cries for help and then punching and kicking him when they took him to the nurse. Graner was accused of telling him to "Shut up, nigger, before we kill you." The allegations were denied; although a federal magistrate judge ruled that the charges had "arguable merit in fact and law," the case was dismissed when the prisoner disappeared after his release. Graner and four other guards were accused of beating another prisoner who had deliberately flooded his cell, taunting anti-capital punishment protesters, using racial epithets and telling a Muslim inmate he had rubbed pork all over his tray of food.
A second lawsuit involving Graner was brought by a prisoner who claimed that guards made him stand on one foot while they handcuffed and tripped him. This allegation was ruled to have been made too late under the statute of limitations.Guard Left Troubled Life for Duty in Iraq, The New York Times, 2004-05-14. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
Domestic abuse In May 1997, Graner's wife and mother of their two children filed for divorce and sought a protection order, saying Graner had threatened to kill her. A six-month order was granted, unopposed by Graner. Shortly after the first one expired, Staci Dean was granted a second protection order, saying Graner had come to her house, thrown her against some furniture, thrown her on the bed, grabbed her arm and hit her face with her arm. Three years later, Dean called police after Graner came to her house and attacked her. Dean said Graner had "yanked me out of bed by my hair, dragging me and all the covers into the hall and tried to throw me down the steps." Afterwards, Graner called a friend of Dean's and allegedly said, "I have nothing if she's not my wife, she's dead." Graner admitted the attack and a third order of protection was granted.
Soon after, an order of protection was granted against Graner to protect his estranged wife. This resulted from Graner's comment to Dean that "she could keep his guns, because he did not need them for what he was going to do to the plaintiff."Abuse scandal meets disbelief in hometowns. USA Today, 2004-05-06. Retrieved 2009-03-03.
Abu Ghraib
In November 2003, Graner was awarded a commendation from the Army for serving as an MP in Iraq. Graner held the rank of specialist in the company during his tour of duty in Iraq.
Allegations
Thirteen prisoners were interviewed by military investigators after the abuse allegations emerged. Eight of them named Graner as one of the abusers, and the other five described a person fitting his description.New Details of Prison Abuse Emerge, The Washington Post, 2004-05-21. Retrieved 2008-07-07. The investigation report named Graner as a ringleader of the abuse.
One of the prisoners, Kasim Mehaddi Hilas, said that one day he asked Graner for the time so that he could pray. Graner handcuffed him to the bars of a cell window and left him there, feet dangling off the floor, for nearly five hours. On another occasion, Graner and other soldiers tied a prisoner to a bed and sodomized him with a phosphoric light while another soldier took photographs.
Another prisoner, Abdou Hussain Saad Faleh, said Graner forced him to stand on a food box, naked except for a blanket. Another soldier then put a bag over his head and electrodes on his fingers, toes and penis. The picture of this incident was one of the first pictures whose publication prompted the investigation. A third prisoner, Mohanded Juma Juma, said Graner often threw food into the toilets and told the prisoners to eat it.
Jeremy Sivits, a soldier who pleaded guilty to charges relating to the Abu Ghraib investigation, alleged that Graner once punched a prisoner in the head so hard that he lost consciousness.3 to Be Arraigned in Prison Abuse, The Washington Post, 2004-05-19. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
Timeline
2002: Graner joins the Army Reserve. May 5, 2003: Graner called to active duty in Iraq. 2003–2004 Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse: Specialist Sabrina Harman testified as to Graner's assignment, "It is Graner and Frederick's job [...] to get these people to talk" for military intelligence officers and for 'OGA,' short for 'Other Government Agency,' a nickname for the CIA." Graner appears in several pictures with his fellow guards Lynndie England and Sabrina Harman, giving the thumbs up in front of nude prisoners. In one photo, Graner poses over the dead body of Manadel al-Jamadi, an Iraqi prisoner; a small patch of blood can be seen on al-Jamadi's right temple and his eyes are sealed closed with tape. According to Spc. Jason Kenner's testimony, al-Jamadi was brought to the prison by Navy SEALs in good health; Kenner says he saw that al-Jamadi looked extensively bruised when he was brought out of the showers, dead. According to Kenner a "battle" took place among CIA and military interrogators over who should dispose of the body. Capt. Donald Reese, company commander of 372nd Military Police Company, gave testimony about al-Jamadi's death, saying he saw the dead prisoner. Reese testified, "I was told that when he was brought in, he was combative, that they took him up to the room and during the interrogation he passed." Reese stated the corpse was locked in a shower room overnight, which is where he first saw him. Reese says he was first told the man had died of a heart attack, but when he saw him he "was bleeding from the head, nose, mouth". The body was then autopsied, concluding that the cause of death was a blood clot from trauma. Prisoner Kasim Mehaddi Hilas testifies regarding his experiences at Abu Ghraib, telling investigators that Graner had cuffed him to the bars of a cell window, after Hilas had asked Graner what time it was because he wanted to pray. Graner left him, feet dangling above the floor, for almost five hours. Hilas also detailed events he had witnessed of Graner and some of his fellow soldiers sodomizing and otherwise abusing other detainees. These events were also detailed by other prisoners including some of the victims themselves. According to Hilas, Graner also "repeatedly threw the detainees' meals into the toilets and said, 'Eat it. Spec. Joseph M. Darby, who reported what was happening in the prison, stated that he had asked Graner, when he was the MP in charge of the tier's night shift, "if he had any photographs of the cell where the shooting took place."Punishment and Amusement, The Washington Post, 2004-05-21. Retrieved 2009-03-03. Darby received two CDs of photographs from Graner. Darby told investigators, "I thought the discs just had pictures of Iraq, the cell where the shooting occurred." However, the discs contained "hundreds of photographs showing naked detainees being abused by U.S. soldiers." Feeling that what he had seen was "just wrong", Darby was compelled to do something about it. Upon being confronted by Darby, Graner responded, "The Christian in me says it's wrong, but the corrections officer in me says, 'I love to make a grown man piss himself." Julie Scelfo and Rod Nordland of Newsweek reported, "One military investigator wrote in his notes on Graner: 'the biggest S.O.B. on earth,' a comment he underlined twice."Beneath the Hoods , Newsweek. Retrieved 2009-03-03.
May 14, 2004: U.S. Army files seven criminal charges against Graner under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, with punishments ranging up to 24½ years in prison, forfeiture of pay, reduction in rank and a dishonorable discharge:
Conspiracy to maltreat detainees; Dereliction of duty for willfully failing to protect detainees from abuse, cruelty and maltreatment; Assaulting detainees; Committing indecent acts; Adultery; Obstruction of justice; Maltreatment of detainees.