From prison to prison, a revealing story - Entertainment, Books - Navy Times

From prison to prison, a revealing story

Don’t be fooled by the tone of the main title, which reads like a headline on a tabloid.

“The Secrets of Abu Ghraib Revealed” is an engrossing and sensitive narrative that goes from jailhouse to courthouse as if Grisham and Turow had shared plot tips with authors Graveline and Clemens.

By now there are seemingly few Abu Ghraib secrets, and few who do not know how the story ends. But the details from logistics to legalities are fascinating. The authors know. They helped figure them out.

Then-Capt. Christopher Graveline was the prosecutor, and then-Master Sgt. Michael Clemens was the special investigator in the Army’s case against a handful of 372nd Military Police Company soldiers for their actions at the Baghdad Central Confinement Facility.

Questions linger, the authors write. “Why weren’t officers prosecuted? Who gave the orders to abuse Iraqi prisoners? Did [President] Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld know about or order the torture? Who cares if anyone tortured Iraqi terrorists? Is the U.S. government hiding something about what happened?”

The book’s goal is “to bring clarity to these questions,” and it does. “We believe that historians, policymakers, and informed readers are best armed with the truth,” Graveline and Clemens say.

One Army report indicates the MPs lacked resources and oversight and were in “squalid” surroundings. But Clemens finally concludes “there were simply no orders and no reason for these soldiers to do these things to the detainees other than for their own entertainment.”

Reluctantly, the ex-wife of Cpl. Charles Graner, the alleged ringleader, admits Clemens into her Pennsylvania home.

“Clemens was taken aback by the condition. [Staci] Morris must have seen the look on Clemens’ face because she immediately told him, ‘That is Charles’ handiwork.’

“Morris explained that when she and Graner were going through their divorce [in 1997], he had ripped plumbing and electrical wires out of some of the walls. ...

“During his [Desert Storm] deployment,” Morris says, “Graner and others were caught stealing Humvees in the desert.

“Caught stealing? This news piqued Clemens’ interest. Morris then began to list other things [Graner] had stolen ... helmets, camouflage clothing, a case of MREs, and ammunition. Several green cans of magazines filled with red- and yellow-tipped bullets. ...”

What Clemens, Graveline and others find is enough to convince the court, including a formidable judge, Col. James Pohl, and enough to convince a reader.

The legal cases are at issue here. They are closed, but “The Secrets” lingers.