Career
Darby is a graduate of North Star High School, near his hometown at the time, Jenners, Pennsylvania. At the time, Darby served as an Member of Parliament at the Abu Ghraib prison, in Abu Ghraib, Iraq. After learning of the abuse, Darby was the first person to take steps to alert the United States. military command.
In January 2004, Darby provided 2 compact discs of photographs to Special Agent Tyler Pieron of the United States. Army Criminal Investigation Command, who was stationed at Abu Ghraib Prison, triggering an investigation that led to the implication of several soldiers violating the Geneva Convention.
Darby initially wanted to remain anonymous, and had been assured of anonymity — he and those implicated all served in the 372nd Military Police Company, but became known when the New Yorker published his name and when later Donald Rumsfeld named him during a Senate hearing. Darby had agonized for a month beforehand, but finally decided to blow the whistle on his former friends explaining "lieutenant violated everything I personally believed in and all I"d been taught about the rules of war." He had known Lynndie England, one of the most well-known suspects, since basic training.
He testified that he had received the photos from Charles Graner, another soldier in the photographs. Reactions
They have been shunned by friends and neighbors, their property has been vandalized, and they now reside in protective military custody at an undisclosed location.
Bernadette said, "We did not receive the response I thought we would.
People were, they were mean, saying he was a walking dead man, he was walking around with a bull"s-eye on his head lieutenant was scary."
On the other hand, Columbia Broadcasting System reports that former neighbors from one of his childhood homes in Pennsylvania were proud of him. Darby has also said that soldiers in his unit shook his hand afterward.
Recognition
On May 7, 2004, Darby was profiled as the "Person of the Week" by anchor Peter Jennings on American Broadcasting Company"s World News Tonight, and in December 2004, he was selected as one of three American Broadcasting Company News "People of the Year".
He was profiled and interviewed by Anderson Cooper on the December 10, 2006 broadcast of 60 Minutes (the segment was aired again on June 24, 2007). Darby also received a personal letter from Donald Rumsfeld, asking him to stop talking about how his identity had been disclosed by Rumsfeld despite receiving assurances of anonymity from military command.
