The Mastermind

The following letter of mine appeared in the Florida Today on 01-25-05:

Graner unpersuasive as abuse mastermind

As a retired U. S. Navy master chief petty officer, I can only imagine that those people who believe Army Specialist Charles A Graner Jr. was the ringleader in hte Abu Ghraib abuse scandal will also believe this;

That CBS newscaster Dan Rather was taken in by his underlings in the now discredited story of President Bush's National Guard Service.

I am not saying Graner was not involved. But his grade as a specialist is very low on the military food chain.

Some questions that might spring from this situation are:

Where was his leadership? What was his chain of command? Whether his chain of command knew or not, they should have been held responsible for his behavior.

Ringleader my eye.

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Now almost a year later, I still wonder about that chain of command. What type punishments were handed out to the senior non-commissioned officers as well as the junior and senior grade officers above Spec4 Graner.

I did see recently that LtGen Sanchez (3 star) who was in total charge during this incident has decided to retire rather than be promoted to General ($ star) and go through Senate hearings on his leadership during the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Perhaps if he had actually been leading and properly investigated the situation and handed out appropriate discipline to those involved he could have enjoyed the rank he most surely earned for his service.