Sunday, May 09, 2004

The couple most likely to torture

Lynndie England and Chuck Graner.



The lovers who are parents-to-be, were together at Abu Ghraib torturing Iraqi prisoners. We've seen and heard a lot about her, but here's some information about him.

John Burner, who has known the family for 30 years, was visibly taken aback and dismayed yesterday.

"I feel so bad," he said. "He was a real good guy. I have nothing but good things to say about Chuck. Never once did Chuck give anyone a problem. It was always 'Yes, sir' or 'No, sir.' He wouldn't even call my wife and me by our first names. It was always 'Mr.' and "Mrs.' "

But public records indicate that Graner had troubles at work as a correctional officer in the state prison system in Greene County -- a history of disciplinary actions [for tardiness or improperly scheduling leave] that culminated in his firing in 2000. He was later reinstated by an arbitrator.

Graner's marriage dissolved in 1997 and his wife obtained three protection-from-abuse orders against him in the ensuing four years. In her first petition, she accused him of threatening to kill her. She made other allegations of abuse in subsequent petitions.

...She also testified that Graner offered to move out of their former home so that she could return with the children, then installed a secret video camera and showed her tapes of herself.

...The Graners' divorce was final in 2000. She sought yet another protection-from-abuse order in March 2001, filing a five-page handwritten statement detailing an encounter in which she said Graner told her she was still his wife and tried to get her to go to bed with him.

She said he dragged her around the house by the hair, banged her head off the floor and tried to throw her down the stairs in front of their weeping, frightened children.

That horrible abuse at Abu Ghraib. That's not who we are as Americans. Oh no.

And, oh by the way...

KDKA-TV reporter Ross Guidotti served with Graner in a military police company when both were members of the Marine Corps Reserve. For about six weeks in early 1991, both were guards at a prison camp for Iraqis captured during the Gulf War.

...He said he was shocked to hear that Graner has been accused of mistreating prisoners, in part because of the training they and other guards received years ago. "It was drilled into our minds well before we left the continental U.S. what we were allowed to do, and not allowed to do, relative to the treatment of prisoners."

Really? I thought they hadn't even been told about the Geneva Conventions.

In the driveway behind the home was Graner's Ford truck. A front license plate has "Jesus" and a cross on it.

Jesus, indeed.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated. There may be some delay before your comment is published. It all depends on how much time M has in the day. But please comment!