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<p>MADRID (Reuters) - Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the prison's former U.S. Commander said in an interview on Saturday.</p> <p>Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski told Spain's El Pais newspaper she had seen a letter apparently signed by Rumsfeld which allowed civilian contractors to use techniques such as sleep deprivation during interrogation.</p>

Bad news for the Center for Constitutional Rights. Germany will not pursue their war crime charges. Germany's federal prosecutor will not pursue a criminal complaint accusing US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld of war crimes in Iraq. Even though a German law requires German prosecutors to investigate allegations of war crimes even if they are not committed by Germans or in Germans, German Federal Prosecutor Kay Nehm said US authorities bore the initial responsibility to do so. He added that his office could only act if US officials failed to do so, but said this was not the case. A...

(CBS) An American general caught up in the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal is now at the center of a new controversy involving allegations about her past, but she's calling it a smear campaign. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who claims she has been made a scapegoat for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, is the subject of an investigation by the Army Inspector General involving an alleged shoplifting incident in October of 2002, one year before the abuses began, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin. According to military sources, Karpinski was caught shoplifting a $22 bottle of perfume from a...

Just days after his resignation, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany’s top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba... ... Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that one of the witnesses...

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that one of the witnesses who will testify on their behalf is former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the one-time commander of all U.S. military prisons in Iraq. Karpinski ? who the lawyers say will be in Germany next week to publicly address her accusations in the case ? has issued a written statement to accompany the legal filing, which says, in part: "It was clear the knowledge and responsibility [for what happened at Abu Ghraib] goes all the way to the top of the chain of command to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ."

To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor Contact: Connie Julian, 917-449-9064, Janet Yip 212-941-8086 or commission@nion.us News Advisory: From: International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration WHEN: January 10, 2006 at 1:30 p.m. WHERE: The White House, Walk-in Gate, across from Lafayette Park WEBSITE: http://www.bushcommission.org An unprecedented series of indictments alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity, in five separate areas, on moral, political, and legal grounds, will be delivered by a citizens' tribunal to President Bush at the front gate of the White House this Tuesday, January 10th. Named in the indictments are: President of...

Death Before DishonorGreyhawkThe latest Iraq war urban legend: Several female service members have died of dehydration because they refused to drink liquids late in the day due to fear of being raped by male soldiers if they had to use the women's latrine after dark. This is absurd for countless reasons - the most obvious being that death by dehydration takes a little longer than a couple hours without fluids, even in the hottest conditions. But this fabrication has an interesting source: Col. Janis Karpinski, former commander of the unit responsible for torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib. And she's found...

LONDON, September 30, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The US military has done little to check abuses of detainees at US-run detention places in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, according to the former US commander of Abu Ghraib Friday, September 30. "We haven't dealt very effectively with those photographs or what they indicated," US Army Reserve Colonel Janis Karpinski told BBC's Today program radio, according to Agence France Presse (AFP). "I think it's largely proved now that it wasn't just seven out-of-control soldiers on a night shift at Abu Ghraib, where Iraqi prisoners were abused and sexually humiliated," stressed...

Forces entrenched at the Pentagon keep trying to push women onto the front lines of combat, despite the fact that U.S. law forbids it. The latest bid: A push to start assigning female soldiers to act as "forward support" personnel (such as mechanics), living alongside combat troops who are often in battle. Last week, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) moved to block that with an amendment to the 2006 Defense appropriations bill. The Pentagon and Democrats howled in protest. But why? Who wants more women to be shot? This is a small scene in the larger drama over the feminization of...

SANTA CLARITA – Former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who served as military police commander at Abu Ghraib, said she was never arrested or charged in an alleged shoplifting incident, and the Army only brought the allegation to demote her after the Iraq prison scandal broke, a newspaper reported in Friday's editions. Karpinski was demoted to colonel last week after the Army's inspector general investigated four allegations against her, including: dereliction of duty, making a "material misrepresentation" to investigators, failure to obey a lawful order and shoplifting. Only the shoplifting and dereliction of duty allegations were substantiated. Karpinski has repeatedly denied...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A one-star Army Reserve general became the first high-level military officer punished in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal on Thursday when President Bush demoted her to the rank of colonel. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski was disciplined after Army leaders deemed her job performance "seriously lacking" and accused her of concealing a past shoplifting arrest. The Army said in a statement Karpinski had been reduced in rank to colonel, although an investigation by the Army inspector general's office "determined that no action or lack of action on her part contributed specifically to the abuse of detainees at...

On Foxnews website but no story yet.

Brig. General Janis Karpinski sets an appalling example for no one to follow. She commanded Abu Gahraib prison in Iraq and awful things happened on her watch. This, in and of itself, didn't make her an absolute failure. It was how she responded, that made her an unrestricted loser. The time for Janis Karpinski to protect her career was before the abuses took place. She ran the prison, she should have controlled, observed and documented everything that General Fast and General Sanchez did inside the prison. Instead, she stood aside and was not even on site when many of the...

BG Karpinski, the EX-Commander of the 800th MP Bde cries "IT'S A CONSPIRACY!" snip------

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Army general who once ran detention operations in Iraq (news - web sites) said a "conspiracy" among top U.S. commanders has left her to blame for the abuses of Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib prison. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who commanded the Army's 800th Military Police Brigade, said she fears more senior Army generals may escape punishment, even though they issued or approved guidelines on the interrogation of Iraqi prisoners. Karpinski said in an e-mail interview with The Associated Press that she was unfairly cited by a report issued last month by an independent panel of...

Friday, 7 p.m. ET Chris Matthews is playing 'Hardball' in New York City, breaking down everything you need to know about the Republican National Convention. America's watching 'Hardball'!

BRIGADIER-GENERAL JANIS KARPINSKI says she will never forget the day she first set foot in Abu Ghraib, the infamous Iraqi prison which housed torture chambers under Saddam Hussein. “You could smell death. When I was taken to the hanging chamber, I said ‘I can’t stay here, I can hear the voices, I can hear the screams’. I could feel myself going pale. It was filthy: some of the ropes they used to hang these guys were still there.” I am driving with Karpinski through Rahway, New Jersey, where she grew up. It is a serene middle-class town of wide streets...

LONDON -- The general who headed the U.S. military prison at Abu Ghraib said in an interview broadcast Tuesday that there had been a conspiracy to prevent her knowing about prisoner abuse at the jail. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who was suspended by the Pentagon in May, has denied knowing about any mistreatment prisoners until photographs surfaced at the end of April. U.S. investigators have not implicated Karpinski directly in any of the abuses.

Santa Clarita (CA) Signal July 2, 2004 Karpinski: Rumsfeld OK’d Methods By Leon Worden, City Editor The former head of the U.S. prison system in Iraq told The Signal this week that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld personally authorized the same types of coercive interrogation methods for detainees at Abu Ghraib that he approved for use on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The Pentagon denied the assertion Thursday. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, head of detention operations during the period of Iraqi prisoner abuse, made the claim during an exclusive, two-hour “Newsmaker of the Week” interview that was conducted Tuesday. It will be...

LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. general who was in charge of Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison said on Saturday she had met an Israeli interrogator in Iraq, a claim Israel denied but which was likely to irritate many in the Arab world. Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski, who was responsible for military police guarding all Iraqi jails at the time prisoners were abused by U.S. troops there, told the BBC she met the Israeli at a Baghdad interrogation center. "He was clearly from the Middle East and he said: 'Well, I do some of the interrogation here and of course I speak...

Rumsfeld gave go-ahead for Abu Ghraib tactics, says general in charge By Julian Coman in Washington (Filed: 04/07/2004) The former head of the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad has for the first time accused the American Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, of directly authorising Guantanamo Bay-style interrogation tactics. Brig-Gen Janis Karpinski, who commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade, which is at the centre of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal, said that documents yet to be released by the Pentagon would show that Mr Rumsfeld personally approved the introduction of harsher conditions of detention in Iraq. In an interview with The...

U.S. General Says Met Israeli Interrogator in Iraq LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. general who was in charge of Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison said on Saturday she had met an Israeli interrogator in Iraq, a controversial allegation likely to irritate many in the Arab world. A U.S. military spokesman in Washington said he had no information and an Israeli official denied Israel was involved. Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski, who was responsible for military police guarding all Iraqi jails at the time prisoners were abused by U.S. troops there, told the BBC she met the Israeli at a Baghdad interrogation center....

LONDON (AP) - The American general formerly in charge of Abu Ghraib prison says there are signs Israelis were involved in interrogating Iraqi detainees at another facility. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who was suspended in May over allegations of prisoner abuse, said she met a man who told her he was Israeli during a visit to a Baghdad intelligence center with a senior coalition general. "I saw an individual there that I hadn't had the opportunity to meet before, and I asked him what did he do there, was he an interpreter - he was clearly from the Middle East,"...

<p>LONDON (AP) -- The American general who was in charge of Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison said she was being made a scapegoat for the abuse of detainees, and that her successor once told her that prisoners should be treated "like dogs."</p>

LONDON (AP) -- The American general who was in charge of Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison claimed she was being made a scapegoat for the abuse of detainees, and said her successor once told her that prisoners should be treated "like dogs." A spokesman for Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, accused of making the "like dogs" remark, categorically denied the charge. In an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio broadcast Tuesday, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski said Miller told her last autumn that prisoners "are like dogs, and if you allow them to believe at any point that they are more than a...

Shoplifting Charge Dogs Iraq General Military Sources: Gen. Karpinski Caught Stealing Perfume In 2002 Jun 3, 2004 5:45 am US/Central NEW YORK (CBS) An American general caught up in the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal is now at the center of a new controversy involving allegations about her past, but she's calling it a smear campaign. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who claims she has been made a scapegoat for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, is the subject of an investigation by the Army Inspector General involving an alleged shoplifting incident in October of 2002, one year before the abuses began, reports...

Even as John Kerry lapses into pacifist rhetoric -- describing the military under President Bush as a "back-door draft" is a scare tactic from his anti-war days -- Kerry casts himself as strong on national defense. To appear sufficiently militaristic in the eyes of the moderates he needs to win, Kerry cobbled together a board of military advisers this week. Kerry is turning for advice to, among others, Claudia Kennedy, the first female three-star general -- a feminist famous during the Clinton years for charging a fellow general (whose advancement she hoped to stop) with "inappropriate touching." Kerry's selection of...

I hate to be the first to say it, but add to the sins of the libs and the lib media another aggregious double-standard. I'm talking about Brig. General Janice Karpinski, and I'm saying, "just take a look at her."The entire picture, her 'look', the prison-matron job, the out-of-control sexual/sadist element of the story ---- it's all of a piece with a 1950's "prison sex" movie, and Ge. Karpinski is right out of central casting for her part.I'm talking about "ugly" here, both pysically, spiritually, and sexually.Now here's the double standard. It's called "the lib treatment of Linda Tripp".We all...

Nashville talk radio host, Steve Gill just completed an interview with Lt. Col. Glen Stringham(sp?) (ret.) who was Karpinski's supervsor while she was a captain at Ft. McPherson near Atlanta, GA. During the interview, Lt. Col. Stringham indicated that part of his job was to observe and evaluate Karpinski directly during her service at Ft. McPherson. His personal observations of her were less than glowing as he told of a scandal involving Karpinski where 1000 rounds of ammunition under her direct control went missing and was never found and that some sort of discipline was given to Karpinski for the...

WASHINGTON - The Army general who was in charge of the U.S. prison guards accused of abusing Iraqis has been suspended from command of the 800th Military Police Brigade, officials said Monday. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski and other officers in her brigade were faulted by Army investigators for paying too little attention to the prison's day-to-day operations and not acting strongly enough to discipline soldiers under her command for violating standard procedures. Karpinski's suspension, which has not been announced by the Army, was the latest in a series of actions against officers and enlisted soldiers implicated in the abuse scandal...

WASHINGTON — Some two months after the Red Cross warned U.S. commanders of widespread prisoner abuses, the commanding general at Abu Ghraib prison assured the Red Cross in a confidential letter that Iraqi detainees were being given the best treatment possible and that even more "improvements are continually being made.'' In an interview today, however, Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski insisted that she was "set up'' by Army officials who had her sign the letter when she had no idea of the depth of problems uncovered at the infamous prison outside Baghdad. In addition, Karpinski said she was notified in...

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An American general in charge of U.S.-run prisons in Iraq (news - web sites) when the abuse of prisoners took place has been suspended as commander of the military police brigade at the heart of the scandal and removed from active duty, the Army said on Monday. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who had commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade, was suspended from her duties, said Lt. Col Pamela Hart, an Army spokeswoman at the Pentagon (news - web sites). Karpinski previously was formally admonished on Jan. 17 by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Army general who was in charge of the U.S. prison guards accused of abusing Iraqis has been suspended from command of the 800th Military Police Brigade, officials said Monday. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski and other officers in her brigade were faulted by Army investigators for paying too little attention to the prison's day-to-day operations and not acting strongly enough to discipline soldiers under her command for violating standard procedures.Karpinski's suspension, which has not been announced by the Army, was the latest in a series of actions against officers and enlisted soldiers implicated in the abuse scandal...

We know conclusively that the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal is as phony as a Bill Clinton sex denial because there are no calls for the resignation or indictment of the one individual most responsible for the abuses. That would be the officer in charge of Abu Ghraib and all U.S. military prisons in Iraq, the commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski. And why have there been no calls for her resignation? Let’s be honest. It is because she is a woman. Thus the frightening lesson of the abuse scandal: Political correctness trumps national security...

We know conclusively that the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal is as phony as a Bill Clinton sex denial because there are no calls for the resignation or indictment of the one individual most responsible for the abuses. That would be the officer in charge of Abu Ghraib and all U.S. military prisons in Iraq, the commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski. And why have there been no calls for her resignation? Let’s be honest. It is because she is a woman. Thus the frightening lesson of the abuse scandal: Political correctness trumps national security...

Members of Congress are demanding answers to their questions about scandalous behavior photographed at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. “How could this happen?” they ask. But this is not the first time that they have been warned about personal indiscipline and inferior training in the military. Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba observed in his scathing report that military police soldiers at Abu Ghraib were weak in basic military occupational skills. How could this happen? Consider the effect of co-ed basic training, imposed on the Army in 1994. Two years later, sex scandals erupted at Aberdeen Proving Ground and basic training facilities....

The US general who commanded 16 Iraqi prisons charged her military police (MP) reserve brigade was being made a scapegoat for the prisoner abuse scandal because army brass considered them expendable part-time soldiers. Brigadier General Janis Karpinski was reprimanded for the abuse and transferred back to the United States along with her 800th MP Brigade in January. The army's report on abuse at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, images of which sparked worldwide outrage, "focused completely on the 800th MP Brigade and the entire brigade is Reserve and National Guard," Karpinski said in an interview on washingtonpost.com. "I believe that...

Brig. Gen. Karpinski is online now discussing the Abu Ghraib situation.

BAGHDAD - The prisoner abuse scandal has so tarnished the Army's 800th Military Police Brigade that soldiers slated to receive an Army Bronze Star medal have been dropped from the list, the brigade's commander, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, said Sunday. "The vast majority of fine, outstanding soldiers in the brigade are paying dearly," Karpinski told The Associated Press in an e-mail. After the Army started its investigation into abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib penitentiary, ...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The head of U.S. detention centers in Iraq said Saturday the military has no plans to close the Abu Ghraib prison and blamed the abuse of detainees there on poor leadership and disregard for the rules. Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller said the United States does intend to cut the number of prisoners to help improve conditions but added that ``we will continue to conduct interrogation missions at the Abu Ghraib facility.''Miller was named head of prisons in April after Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the commander of Abu Ghraib, was suspended amid allegations of abuse by U.S....

-snip- Enlisted men do not undertake systematic complicated degradation and torture of prisoners without the knowledge and approval of their officers. The officers knew. Officers to what level? Officers are college graduates and understand the political implications of such things. A lieutenant is too junior to risk it and in any event couldn’t hide it from the captain. Prisons—I’ve been in a bunch of them—are intimate places. People know what goes on. Karpinski, covering her behind (as well she might: this is war-crimes stuff and she could take the fall) says why she had no idea and who would have...

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) _ The former commander of American prisons in Iraq told a newspaper an Army report on the abuse of Iraqis by American GIs gives only one side of the story....

BAGHDAD - A few weeks ago, Janis Karpinski was in the middle of a briefing when a man suddenly reached out and grabbed her. Crass? No, just a nervous soldier trying to protect the commanding officer as an Iraqi mortar exploded a few dozen yards away. "A mortar will get your attention real fast," Karpinski says, "and it can be an indication of other things to come." Such are the daily distractions for Karpinski, a brigadier general and the only female U.S. commander in Iraq. Since June, the 50-year-old Karpinski has been in charge of the country's prison system, including...

Trailer park girl turns into torturer By Patrick Sawer, Evening Standard 6 May 2004 Lynndie England's face is displayed on the Wal-Mart supermarket's wall of honour in her home town, a place where people are proud of their soldiers serving in Iraq. At the Mineral County Courthouse in Keyser the same face appears alongside those of other local servicemen and women, under a banner declaring: "We're hometown proud." But since that same face has been beamed across the world - this time grinning at the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners - there has been incomprehension in the small towns and trailer...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Seven more U.S. soldiers have been reprimanded in the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners, and the U.S. officer who oversaw Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison suggested Monday that more may be involved. On the orders of Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, six of the soldiers — all officers and noncommissioned officers — have received the most severe level of administrative reprimand in the U.S. military, a military official said on condition of anonymity. A seventh officer was given a more lenient admonishment. The official said he believed investigations of the officers were...