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To: Anti-Bubba182

The chance of LTG Sanchez going to the prison and seeing anything remotely like those photographs is infinitely small.


6 posted on 05/23/2004 2:18:32 AM PDT by claudiustg (Go Sharon! Go Bush!)
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To: claudiustg; All
I agree, I think his involvement in the prison had more to do his cleaning up after General Karpinski than any coverup or involvement in the abuse.

I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but the worst abuses look to have happened on Nov. 8, BEFORE the formal takeover of authority by MI. If Karpinski was running her command with any sufficient degree of competence this would not have happened. She said herself the visit were "unusual" and that Sanchez had not visited any other prison under his command.

Prison visits by general reported in hearing

...Sanchez visited the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade's operation, which encompassed Tier 1A at Abu Ghraib, at least three times in October, according to Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski, who was in charge of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq as commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade. That month, the serious abuses documented in published photographs -- naked detainees shackled together, a guard posing with a prisoner on a dog leash -- began....."

In an interview yesterday, Karpinski said the number of visits by a commanding general struck her as "unusual," especially because Sanchez had not visited several of the 15 other U.S. detention facilities in Iraq.

Karpinski has said that she is being used as a scapegoat for the command failures at Abu Ghraib.

The general, a reservist from South Carolina, said she was not present during Sanchez's visits because her brigade had surrendered authority over that part of the prison to intelligence officers. She said she was alerted as a courtesy while the three-star general was planning to travel to the prison. Karpinski added that Sanchez might have visited without her knowledge after the intelligence officers were given formal authority over the entire prison on Nov. 19.

*************

Prison abuse peaked on single day

"..WASHINGTON - Many of the worst abuses that have come to light from the Abu Ghraib prison happened on a single November day amid a flare of insurgent violence in Iraq, the deaths of many U.S. soldiers and a breakdown of the American guards' command structure.

Nov. 8 was the day U.S. guards took most of the infamous photographs: soldiers mugging in front of a pile of naked, hooded Iraqis, prisoners forced to perform or simulate sex acts, a hooded prisoner in a scarecrowlike pose with wires attached to him..."

************

US officer says prison guards tried to cover up abuse of Iraqi prisoners

"..In an interview with the Washington Post, the general sought to distance herself from the prison scandal.

"The prison, and that particular cell block where the events took place, were under the control of the MI [military intelligence] command," she said.

She conceded that she "probably should have been more aggressive" about visiting the cell block, particularly after military intelligence officers went "to great lengths to try to exclude the ICRC (International Committee for the Red Cross) from access to that interrogation wing". .."

***********

An Exercise in Hypocrisy

"..Gen. Taguba had harsh words for Brig. Gen. Janet Karpinski, who was supposed to be running the prison. He scornfully recounts a four-hour interview with Karpinski where, he notes in what should be headed "the interview with the weeping general," the lady became very "emotional." Here were his allegations against Karpinski:

# Failing to ensure that MP soldiers at theater-level detention facilities throughout Iraq had appropriate SOPs for dealing with detainees and that commanders and soldiers had read, understood and would adhere to these SOPs.

# Failing to ensure that MP soldiers in the 800th MP Brigade knew, understood and adhered to the protections afforded to detainees in the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

# Making material misrepresentations to the Investigation Team as to the frequency of her visits to her subordinate commands.

# Failing to obey an order from the CFLCC commander, LTG McKiernan, regarding the withholding of disciplinary authority for Officer and Senior Noncommissioned Officer misconduct.

# Failing to take appropriate action regarding the ineffectiveness of a subordinate commander, LTC (P) Jerry Phillabaum.

# Failing to take appropriate action regarding the ineffectiveness of numerous members of her Brigade staff, including her XO, S-1, S-3 and S-4.

# Failing to properly ensure that the results and recommendations of the AARs and numerous 15-6 Investigation reports on escapes and shootings (over a period of several months) were properly disseminated to, and understood by, subordinate commanders.

# Failing to ensure and enforce basic soldier standards throughout her command.

# Failing to establish a Brigade METL.

# Failing to establish basic proficiency in assigned tasks for soldiers throughout the 800th MP Brigade.

# Failing to ensure that numerous and reported accountability lapses at detention facilities throughout Iraq were corrected.

Gen. Taguba concluded that there isn't a shred of evidence that any officer or Pentagon official above Karpinski had any responsibility for the prisoner abuse. .."

9 posted on 05/23/2004 3:04:04 AM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
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To: claudiustg
The chance of LTG Sanchez going to the prison and seeing anything remotely like those photographs is infinitely small.

Though the actual quote claims merely that he was at the prison...somewhere.

25 posted on 05/23/2004 4:35:12 AM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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