Army Spc. Charles Graner got ten years for his role in the prison abuse at Abu Ghraib.

* Army Spc. Charles Graner got ten years for his role in the prison abuse at Abu Ghraib. His defense rested on the argument that he was acting under orders when he sexually humiliated and beat Iraqi prisoners. He tried to produce witnesses to this effect, but almost all of them ultimately testified that Graner was just amusing himself. E-mails from Graner produced at the trial showed his reveling in, and bragging about, the pain he inflicted on the Iraqis. It is still possible that intelligence officers will be implicated in the abuse (in which case they too should be punished), and the loose command environment at the prison that permitted the abuse and other violations of basic military discipline is itself scandalous. But the Graner verdict shows that at the very center of the Abu Ghraib case were cruel men and women who had no compunction about mistreating the prisoners under their control, and disgracing their country.