Posted on 05/25/2004 10:18:35 AM PDT by chambley1
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 at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
Last week, Spc. Jeremy Sivits received the maximum penalty of a year in prison and a bad-conduct discharge in the first court-martial stemming from the abuse of Iraqis at the prison. He was among seven members of the 372nd Military Police Company that have been charged.
Karpinski, who has returned to the United States, has not been charged with an offense. Being suspended from her command does not mean she has been relieved of command, so technically she could be reinstated, although the intensity of the international furor over the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse makes that highly unlikely, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In an interview on MSNBC Monday night, Karpinski said she has been told of her suspension by "several sources, but I have nothing in writing." The paperwork will cite the reason for her suspension, she said.
Karpinski has said she was being treated unfairly for the acts of others over which she had no control. "And actions like this renew my thought process of being a scapegoat and using the 800th MP Brigade as the organization responsible for this," she said.
In his widely cited investigation report on the Abu Ghraib abuse allegations, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba found heavy fault with Karpinski's performance and recommended that she be relieved of command and given a formal reprimand. Instead she was given a less-severe "memorandum of admonishment" on Jan. 17 by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.
Taguba reported that despite the documented abuse of prisoners, he saw no evidence that Karpinski ever attempted to remind the military police in her command of the requirements of the Geneva Conventions, which protect prisoners of war and civilian detainees in times of armed conflict.
"What I found particularly disturbing in her testimony was her complete unwillingness to either understand or accept that many of the problems inherent in the 800th MP Brigade were caused or exacerbated by poor leadership and the refusal of her command to both establish and enforce standards and principles among its soldiers," Taguba wrote.
In her defense, Karpinski has said in numerous interviews with news organizations that her military superiors and civilian leaders ignored her requests for more troops to watch prisoners. She also has said that control of the prison was taken away from her in November 2003 when a military intelligence unit was put in charge.
You are mistaken. She was/is a reserve officer. Their promotion boards are run by the reserve component, not active duty officers. Promotion boards do not consist of peers of the grade of the officers being considered. She was considered as a full colonel, thus the board would have been comprised of brigadier generals and chaired by a major general or lieutenant general.
regards,
The media (who have been having an orgy with the prison abuse scandal) are now in a very, very uncomfortable position.
The person who allowed this happen, on their command, is a woman and was the highest ranking female General in the theater.
This is not the aspect of the story they wish to focus on. They beat the story to death, day after day and night after night, for one reason only. They wanted to embarrass President Bush and help John Kerry.
Now that the story has become an international "Super Story", they are loathe to report on its present (but logical) condition, to wit:
- It was the US military itself that first discovered and investigated the abuse
- The individuals who committed the abuse are being brought to swift justice (contrast that with the never-ending Kobe Bryant case)
- The officer in charge is being held accountable
The media has overlooked another very important aspect during all this: The media have a terrible reputation anyway with millions of Americans. Their childish and reprehensible behavior has been akin to hitting a angry bear with a stick. People are outraged, and they are growing more so.
This woman is incompetent. She was interviewed some months ago on Sixty Minutes or a similar show about the prisoners in her jail who had been there for months but had not had their paper work processed. In most cases, paperwork didn't even exist for these prisoners. She wasn't even able to tell the interviewer whether or not a particular person was in the prison. (Some were prominent professionals who had previously been victims of Saddam's brutality.) Apparently innocent Iraqis had just been picked up off the streets with no specific charges against them and were held for months. Family members trying to find out what happened to them were callously turned away. She appeared not to care or to even to pretend she was on top of her job. I can understand refusing to reveal details when people are major prisoners and terrorists, but this woman was clueless about even the basics of how prisoners were being detained and processed. She should be given a dishonorable discharge and court martialed for gross incompetence.
Excellent points, my friend, about the scum-sucking media. Bump.
Karpinski has said she was being treated unfairly for the acts of others over which she had no control. "
******
Karpinsski is clearly a democrat - or raised by democrats.
Since when does a General not have control Moron-ette? I am waiting for court martial and resulting fines and prison time - this is one whining idiot that should not get a "pass".
Good, now maybe she'll stay off the talkshow circit.
She should receive the same punishment as the lowest grunt on the pole.
General Officers are recommended for promotion by a board of peers and superiors in the Pentagon. They are confirmed by the U.S. Senate. 3 years into the Bush administration, wearing her first star, I doubt that she was recommended by a Clinton-era board.
You're absolutely right. I spoke too soon.
Karpinski was a Bush blunder:
United States Department of Defense
News Release
March 12, 2003
BRIGADIER GENERAL
Army Reserve Col. Janis L. Karpinski has been nominated for appointment to the rank of brigadier general. Karpinski is currently serving as the chief of staff, 81st Regional Support Command, Birmingham, Ala.
10 Buck says that MSNBC hires her
I often wonder how these people got into the high ranks of our military.
Maybe I've been exposed to a biased sample of military personnel, but I love to work with guys who were in the military.
I The former military guys who have been my bosses taught me great lessons about personal responsibility and business efficiency.
Karpinski is a walking billboard for everything wrong with Bill Clinton's affirmative action promotion policy for the US military. She is now making the talk show rounds, complaining about being fired. What a LOSER.
Right...and I want to see the life span of a Company Commander or Platoon Sargent who tries to use this excuse.
"And actions like this renew my thought process of being a scapegoat and using the 800th MP Brigade as the organization responsible for this," she said."
Sorry Lady...look at your hat. That star means YOU are responsible.
In all fairness, can you imagine the uproar Bush would have heard had he closely examined ALL those females who had already gained such a foothold in the military for the past eight years?
Sheesh.. and you thought the libs and their press accomplices made a stink about Abu Grhaib? Bush would have been hamstrung from day one about that.
It is apparent now that the policies of the DoD relating to competetency and female asignments really DEMAND a t top to bottom review.
Bush's next SecDef (in the next term) will have his mandate and doesn't need to 'pussyfoot' (ala Geo Wallace), around about it.
She's the one couldn't even get the soldiers in her command to salute her.
That was the Army's first clue, and it should have been all they needed to know.
I fault her immediate supervisor for not taking immediate action when he learned things were completely out of control in her command.
Cool play on words!
(Didja do it on purpose? LOL!)
And whats this about the MI unit commander superceding her authority? He is a full bird colonel (Col. Pappas). She is a Brig Gen. Her star trumps his bird any and every day of the week.
By the by, anyone hear of the 2nd Lt's in this mess? Where were they? They are the Platoon Leaders (since we already know the PSG (Frederick) was a POS, they should have snatched him up by the short curlies). Where there no butterbars assigned to this unit?
Except, of course, if the MI guy was a Double-Secret Lieutenant General in the Halliburton Corporation (c8
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