Fallout: Who Gets Punished?

Standing behind a pyramid of naked inmates at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison, Specialist Charles Graner became the poster boy for detainee abuse. Now Graner could spend more than 17 years in his own cell for his alleged leading role in the abuses. Three other members of Maryland’s 372nd Military Police Company have pleaded guilty; three more, including Graner’s girlfriend, Private First Class Lynndie England, face charges. Specialist Joseph Darby, the unit member who first reported the abuses, is in hiding after multiple threats.

Graner’s attorney has said his client and the other MPs are “scapegoats.” But the presiding judge has refused defense attempts to subpoena higher-ups like Donald Rumsfeld. The Pentagon, the FBI and the CIA are still investigating prisoner mistreatment in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guant??namo Bay, but no high-ranking official has faced charges so far. Some have even been promoted. –By Mitch Frank