December 20, 2006 Joseph Darby
Joe Darby was an Army Reserve MP stationed at Abu Ghraib when he accidentally came across the infamous photos of sadistic abuse and torture. The Iraqis in the photos were not the victims of Saddam Hussein; they were brutalized by U.S. interrogation team members. "I've always had a moral sense of right and wrong." Darby said, "And I knew that..., friends or not, it had to stop." Darby set in motion a chain of events that held the immediate perpetrators responsible for the abuse, although the higher-ups got off scot-free. For his decency and responsibility, Darby was rewarded with fearing for his life. According to "60 Minutes," he slept in his bunk with a pistol under his pillow, expecting to be smothered or strangled during the night. And when Darby came back to the States, the military told him that he could not return to his boyhood Appalachian home of Cumberland, Maryland. There were too many families of Guard unit members seeking revenge on Darby and his family for revealing the truth. Darby
upheld a higher ethical benchmark than Rumsfeld, Cheney or Bush. "We're
Americans, we're not Saddam," Darby said. "We hold
ourselves to a higher standard." * * * Nominated by: Karen Porter (past "Wings of Justice" honoree), The Chester County Peace Movement of West Chester, PA
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