Person of the Week: Spc. Joseph Darby

May 7, 2004 -- Army Spc. Joseph Darby, 24, is the man who sounded the first alarm about the abuse of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison — by people in his own 372nd Military Police Company.

The New Yorker magazine was the first to report that after seeing the pictures we are all so familiar with now, Darby put an anonymous note under the door of his commander. He described the incidents and the photographs he had seen.

Darby is quoted by a criminal investigator as feeling very bad about something he thought was very wrong.

"It was really hard on him," said Margaret Blank, Darby's mother. "He didn't want to go against ... his troops. It cut him in half, but he said he could not stand the atrocities that he had stumbled upon. He said he kept thinking, 'What if that was my mom, my grandmother, my brother or my wife?' "

Darby later came forward and identified himself as the person who had sent the note.

"I told him, 'Your picture is in the paper,' " Blank said. "I said, 'Honey, I'm so proud of you because … you did a good thing and good always triumphs over evil. And the truth will always set you free.' And he said, 'You're right, mom.' "

The photographs have had enormous consequences, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cited Darby's actions during testimony before Congress today.

"There are many who did their duty professionally," Rumsfeld said. "Spc. Joseph Darby … alerted the authorities that abuse was occurring."

Human rights workers say that such horror can only be exposed if someone has the courage to come forward.

"Torture flourishes in the dark," said Carroll Bogert of the group Human Rights Watch, "and what Darby has done is to shine a light on what was happening in a place that was dark."

Stood Up for His Beliefs

Darby grew up in western Pennsylvania. His family moved around a lot, but when Darby was a teenager they lived in the mining town of Jenners.