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Whistleblower 'did his part'
10/05/2004 08:58 - (SA)
Philadelphia - The military policeman who blew the whistle on fellow soldiers who were photographed abusing Iraqi detainees has an independent streak and knew "right from wrong", say people who know him.
Joe Darby was commended in a military report for promptly alerting superiors after discovering photographs of fellow 372nd Military Police Company personnel taking part in abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Darby, 24, who is still on duty overseas, "didn't worry about what people thought", said former teacher Robert Ewing. "He wasn't one who went along with his peers."
Darby's tip led to an investigation of prisoner abuse that has outraged the world and changed the tenor of America's war effort in Iraq.
The military said on Sunday that Jeremy Sivits, 24, will be the first soldier to face a court martial in connection with the abuse. He faces trial on May 19 in Baghdad.
Darby "didn't realise that he had done anything that was super special", said sister-in-law Maxine Carroll. "The way he looks at it, he was just doing his job."
Carroll said the family is concerned some people will view Darby's decision to turn in fellow soldiers as traitorous, rather than heroic.
"It scares you a little," she said.
Friends and former neighbours in Pennsylvania said they are proud of Darby.
"There is just so much violence in the world, and someone has to stop it," said Gilbert Reffner, 50, who lived across the street from Darby when Darby was growing up. "Joe, he did his part."
Carroll said her brother-in-law does not realise that he probably changed the course of history when he alerted a superior to the photographs of Iraqis being abused.
"We told him we were on our way to New York to do the 'Today' show. He didn't believe it," she said. "I think he kind of thinks we were just putting him on."
- SAPA
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