Abu Ghraib abuses, in pictures

According to Christopher Graveline, former Cpl. Charles Graner is a "truly an evil man."

Graveline - a former military lawyer - presented a photo of Graner "grinning over a dead corpse," illustrating the Abu Ghraib prison atrocities to a crowd of over 50 people yesterday afternoon in the Nursing Education Building.

Graveline, presented a number of other disturbing photos yesterday as he described his role in prosecuting all those responsible for the abuses that took place.

Graveline prosecuted all 11 soldiers in the 2004 Abu Ghraib prison incident.

Graveline emphasized that responsibility for the incidents extended up the ranks and did not just lie with the guards; he said intelligence officers would ask the guards to "rough up" prisoners.

In his investigation, Graveline found that one government official told the guards, "I don't care what the [expletive] you do, just don't kill" the prisoner.

Graveline showed pictures of and offered his own commentary about the convicted soldiers.

In addition to discussing dead-corpse photo, he showed another picture of Graner urinating onto the head of a dead goat.

Graveline said he believes Graner instigated most of the crimes.

"I can say with confidence, if he wasn't here, most of this wouldn't have happened," he said.

Another photo that was only described depicted Army Specialist Sabrina Harman, who was convicted for her involvement in the prison-abuse case, "kissing the severed head of a cat."

The failure of policymakers to specify which interrogation processes were acceptable has led to abuses, Graveline said.

For example, he said, the guards often used inappropriate ways of keeping a prisoner awake while employing sleep deprivation.

Graveline said the scandal put a "black eye" on the image of the United States.

After the scandal, "the Iraqi public turned against us more and more," he said.

College senior Amanda Berman agreed.

The scandal "diminishes the stature of the U.S. as a just superpower," Berman said. "It distracts from the purpose of being in Iraq."

And Penn Nursing professor Kathleen Brown, who specializes in victimology, thought it was "fabulous" that he talked about responsibility at the policymaking level.

"You have to be careful when you write a policy and expect an 18 year old to implement it," Brown said.

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