Prisoner-abuse whistleblower likes to help others, relative says

CUMBERLAND, Md. (AP) -- A soldier who reportedly tipped off Army investigators to Iraqi war prisoner abuse joined the military to help others, a relative said Tuesday.
Spc. Joseph M. Darby, 24, of Corriganville, was credited by a member of the Army's Criminal Investigation Division with slipping an anonymous note under a division officer's door after receiving a compact disc from another soldier that contained pictures of naked detainees, according an article this week in The New Yorker magazine.
Darby later gave investigators a sworn statement saying "he felt very bad" about the prisoners' treatment "and thought it was very wrong," according to an abridged transcript the magazine obtained of another soldier's Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding.
Darby hasn't discussed the case with his family, but they're proud of what they've heard and read about him, said his sister-in-law, Maxine Carroll.
"He joined the military to take care of people and, honestly, that's what he's doing," she said.
Darby's wife, Bernadette, 24, declined to comment. Carroll, her sister, said the military has discouraged Mrs. Darby from making public statements even though she hasn't discussed the case with her husband.
Carroll said her sister and Darby married shortly after they graduated from high school in Somerset County, Pa., then moved to Falls Church, Va., where Darby worked as an auto mechanic.
Darby then joined the Army Reserve's 372nd Military Police Company about three years ago, based near Cumberland, Carroll said.
"He wanted to serve his country and he wanted to give something back," she said.
The unit was mobilized in February 2003 for deployment in Iraq.