Abu Ghraib - What! ...Again?

Never one to pass up an opportunity to make the U.S. military look bad, CBS 60 Minutes has dredged up the controversy of the Abu Ghraib incident. Remember, it was CBS that "broke" the story in the first place - months after the Army had already begun its investigation. I have commented previously on this story here.

In tonight's 60 Minutes episode, Joe Darby, the Army sergeant who first reported the misconduct of his fellow MP's is presented as an altruistic upholder of what is right. Perhaps he is, I don't know. But if I were his company commander, he would have received a letter of reprimand for his actions at the very least.

Was Darby correct in reporting the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib? Absolutely! Should he have reported it to the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) instead of his First Sergeant? Absolutely not!

Granted, I don't have all the details of the situation, but from what has been released to the public, I can say for sure that Darby should have reported the abuse through his chain of command. His company commander should then have questioned every soldier involved and conducted a 100% "Health and Welfare Inspection" in order to confiscate all evidence (pictures) of misconduct. It would then be up to the company commander to decide if a criminal investigation was necessary after consulting with the Judge Advocate General's office (JAG).

Violations of Army regulations, not including criminal conduct, could have been handled through Article 15's and letters of reprimand, of which at least a few would be warranted.

What no one seems to care about - and this is what bothers me the most about the whole story - is who it was that leaked the pictures to CBS! That individual deserves the harshest punishment of all. A firing squad comes to mind.

SGT Darby can be excused for not being able to foresee the damage that disclosure of this incident could cause to U.S. efforts in Iraq, but whoever leaked the pictures to CBS certainly could and, therefore, is no less than a traitor to his country. And CBS? They should be required to divulge their source for the pictures and shamed for publicizing the incident. News organizations are not immune to the laws that apply to everyone else, nor are they to be congratulated for undermining our country's military in the middle of a war.

One thing most of us learned in Vietnam: Don't talk to the press. They will sensationalize anything, even if it's only a rumor, if they think they can turn it into a "news" story.