Abu Ghraib Whistle-Blower Speaks Out

Aug. 16, 2006 — -- The pictures of naked men cowering before guard dogs or arranged in a pig pile in front of two smiling American guards shocked the world.

It also made Abu Ghraib prison synonymous with American wrongdoing in Iraq.

If not for one American soldier, we may never have seen them.

"The first one that opened was the -- the pyramid of people. And it didn't strike me that it was Iraqis at first," former Army Reserve Spc. Joe Darby said.

"It was more like something you'd see a fraternity do at a college. It was amusing at first, and I laughed and then as I went further into the pictures, I realized exactly what, what these pictures were. After I'd looked at all the pictures. … I realized I had a decision to make."

In January 2004, Darby gave a CD loaded with incriminating photos to the Army Criminal Investigation Division.

The photos exposed abhorrent treatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. Army prison guards.

Soon, revelations of beatings, torture, and the sexual humiliation of prisoners at the hands of Army guards became public knowledge.

Darby spent three weeks agonizing over that decision, fearful that turning in the photos would enrage the soldier most responsible: Charles Graner.

From prior conversations, Darby knew he was a man with a very dark side.

"He was talking about his wife cheating on him. He remembered one time when he was sitting across from the house with a rifle and waiting for them to come out, and they just never came out," Darby said.

"That's what I feared for. I feared Graner for the simple fact because I knew that he had the capability to do something -- do harm."

For that reason, Darby asked Army investigators to protect his identity -- a task they nearly botched just hours after he came forward.

"The very night that I turned them in, I did a sworn statement and they preemptively went out and collected the people involved," he said.

"And they were actually in the room next to me when I had to leave, and that was the only way out of the room. They covered me with blankets to get me out of the room. … Covered, covered my entire body, head to toe, with blankets and -- and got me out of the room and out the back door."

Darby said Graner and others knew that the person who had turned them in was in their ranks but did not know who the person was.