The image of Army Specialist Charles A. Graner, smiling, standing behind a pile of Iraqi detainees, has been seared into minds throughout the world.  When the photo of naked inmates stacked into a pyramid spread through the international media like wildfire, Graner became the poster-boy for the abuses committed by American troops at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

Earlier this year, a military panel convicted Graner on a variety of charges, including assault and committing indecent acts, and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.  While the Army feels as though justice has been served, one American corrections expert believes Graner is paying too high a price for doing the best he could given the circumstances he faced as a Military Police Officer assigned to Abu Ghraib.

"It's definitely not what we do in our corrections [system] in our country by any means," said Tom Archambault, founder and president of the Florida-based TJA Use of Force Training, Inc.  "[But] this was a war time situation, not the usual corrections environment"

Archambault was hired by Graner's defense to investigate the incidents he was allegedly involved in at Abu Ghraib and to testify for the defense during Graner's court-martial about his use of force against Iraqi prisoners.

According to Archambault, his testimony was stifled by the military court judge, who would not allow him to testify to the circumstances Graner faced when he made the decision to stack the prisoners in a pile, claiming it had no relevance to the case.  Archambault said he spent five and a half weeks preparing for court, going through hundreds of pages of reports and dozens of photos from Abu Ghraib, but he was only allowed to take the stand for about 10 minutes when the time came.

James Whittmeyer, Public Affairs Officer at the U.S Army, Fort Hood, where the court-martial took place, said that the Army could not comment on the case because of ongoing legal matters involving some of the witnesses and defendants who were involved.

Archambault, however, is eager to talk from his perspective about his investigation into the incident--information the court was not willing to hear.
 
"It was really just such a one-sided trial and the media jumped on the bandwagon," said Archambault.  "[Graner and the other soldiers who were convicted] were political scapegoats."

At Abu Ghraib, Graner and his fellow soldiers were faced with horrific conditions and an inmate population with a "downright hatred towards the American people," Archambault said.

Nothing in the United States corrections system could ever compare to Abu Ghraib, he added.

"You don't have the glaring hatred that you have and the extremely unsanitary conditions that these guys are working in over there," Archambault said about American correctional facilities.

Archambault noted one incident, which earned Graner part of his prison sentence - when he hit a detainee.  He explained that Graner was lashing out at an inmate who had taken a Styrofoam cup full of feces and urine and thrown it at Graner when he went to bring him food.  The feces landed all over his face and in Graner's mouth, said Archambault.

"In U.S. corrections, feces and urine are thrown at officers, as well," Archambault said.  "But U.S. corrections [officers] have the proper equipment to confront inmates who act out in this manner."

Although Archambault admits that he believes Graner's response was wrong, he said he understands how he could have that reaction, given the circumstances.

"Probably most people would have done the same thing," Archambault said.  "In most jurisdictions in the U.S., the prisoner could be charged with attempted murder or at least aggravated assault due to infectious disease potential."

While he said that as a corrections officer, Graner, who worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections prior to Iraq, was not taught violence or tactics, like stacking prisoners in pyramids, Archambault said in his expert opinion, given the situation, Graner did not use excessive force.

According to Archambault, the seven Iraqi inmates in the pyramid photo, who had previously rioted and injured American soldiers, were violent and in restraints when they arrived in Graner's custody.  Archambault said that when Graner was ordered by a higher-ranking officer to remove all the restraints at the same time, he decided that stacking the prisoners in a pyramid prior to moving them individually into isolation cells would be the best option to preserve the safety of the others soldiers.

"He was a corrections officer concerned for the safety of the people around him," Archambault said.  "He took a leadership role."

But, according to some human rights organizations, Graner's actions did not reflect sound correctional practice.

"I think anyone who has looked at the pictures knows that what was going on at Abu Ghraib had nothing to do with professional corrections," said Elizabeth Alexander, Director of the ACLU's National Prison Project.

Nevertheless, Archambault believes that Graner, who he said has no blemishes on his record as a CO in the U.S., was forced to take the role he did because he was one of only two Military Police Officers involved in that incident who had any formal corrections training.  This points to the larger issue - the lack of training and necessary corrections equipment provided to the soldiers who were assigned to Abu Ghraib, Archambault said.   

"The guys that have the training are in U.S. Army correctional facilities here.  [The military has] got to better prepare themselves for the handling of prisoners and detainees in a war zone," Archambault said.  "You've got to start training these MPs how to be corrections officers as well as establish a clear use of force policy for corrections in a war zone.  Soldiers had only standard Military Rules of Engagement to follow, [which are] not applicable in a corrections setting whatsoever."

Because his fellow soldiers were not trained to deal with prisoners, Graner made the decision to pile the prisoners on top of each other so that if one moved, they would all tumble, providing the soldiers with enough time to retreat to safety in case of an attack by one of the detainees. 

"If proper training was given [to his fellow soldiers], Graner stated that he would have never placed the inmates in a human pyramid," Archambault said.  "He was a concerned corrections guy who knows the system who tried to do what he could to keep his people safe."

While Archambault admits that Graner made a serious error in judgment by taking the photo standing behind the prisoners for his own personal scrapbook, he also pointed out that there were a variety of other photos that were going to be used during Archambault's testimony, which were not focused on by the media, nor allowed in the trial depicting the incident, showing how and why Graner and the other soldiers chose the course of action they did.

"[Taking the picture] was wrong and he knows it was wrong," Archambault said.  "[But] the bottom line is that not one of these people were physically harmed."

Because Graner had been a corrections officer in Pennsylvania, Archambault said the entire American corrections system took an unfair hit because of what happened at Abu Ghraib.

"It was really a slam on corrections," Archambault said.  "Corrections took a real rap on this as well as the U.S. Army."

And so did Graner, he said.

 "I have been in this field a long time and I have always strived for professionalism.  The fact is they had nothing else [in Iraq].  There were serious safety issues and training issues.  He was truly a concerned corrections officer," Archambault said. 

While human rights groups may debate that point, they also acknowledge that Graner was a soldier, with superiors who also played a role.

"I am concerned that the investigation stopped at such a low level when it seems to be quite apparent from the studies that the Pentagon has done that the responsibility for creating the conditions in which abuse became inevitable goes far higher up," said Alexander.  "That is my concern about what happened to Mr. Graner."

Archambault's concern is different; he is more focused on the outcome of the trial. 

"To receive 10 years for trying to keep his own people safe in that type of horrid environment - I had real problems with that," he said.

Archambault hopes that, through appeals, Graner will be released from prison sooner.  And he expects that once other military personnel who were involved in the Abu Ghraib scandal begin to retire and relive the memories, a more accurate version of what really happened there will be revealed.

"He's not the monster and the torturer the media portrayed him to be," Archambault said.  "He'll be vindicated down the road.  There's no question in my mind."

Resources:

Archambault
tjatac2@msn.com

ACLU Prison Project
202-393-4930