Posted on 06/15/2004 7:03:00 AM PDT by .cnI redruM
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 dog then you've lost control of them."
Miller was in charge of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and now oversees U.S. prisons in Iraq.
Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for detention operations in Iraq, said Karpinski's allegations were "categorically false."
"Maj. Gen. Miller made no such comment to Brig. Gen. Karpinski or to anybody else," Johnson said. "This allegation flies in the face of the philosophy of humane treatment for all detainees, under all circumstances, that Maj. Gen. Miller adopted first at Guantanamo, and now at his position in Iraq. Brig. Gen. Karpinski's statement to the media is categorically false."
Karpinski was suspended last month from command of the 800th Military Police Brigade after she and other officers 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 for violating standard procedures.
Several soldiers are facing courts-martial over abuse allegations at the jail, which flared when pictures of troops abusing and humiliating naked Iraqi detainees were published in April.
In her defense, Karpinski has said that interrogations at the prison were not under her command but were run by a military intelligence unit that was "under increasing pressure to get more, as they call it, actionable intelligence."
Karpinski said that during a visit to Iraq in September, Miller - still the commander at the Guantanamo Bay prison - spoke of wanting to "Gitmoize" Abu Ghraib by applying the Cuban facility's regimented detention and interrogation techniques.
"He talked about Gitmoizing in terms of what the (military police) were going to do; he was going to select the MPs, they were going to receive special training," she said.
"That training was going to come from the military intelligence command," Karpinski added, noting that the troops under her command had no training in such interrogation techniques.
Karpinski said she was being made "a convenient scapegoat" in the abuse scandal.
"The interrogation operation was directed; it was under a separate command and there was no reason for me to go out to look at Abu Ghraib at cell block 1a or 1b or visit the interrogation facilities," she said.
Karpinski said was unaware until November that the International Committee of the Red Cross had visited the jail and expressed concerns about detainees' treatment to U.S. officials. She said she did not see the abuse photos - believed to have been taken late last year - until late January.
"I didn't know in September, I didn't know in October, I didn't know ever" about any abuse, she said.
"Those pictures which I saw on the 23rd of January were more shocking to me than probably the rest of the world ... I was absolutely sickened by those images and I couldn't even fathom a guess as to what happened to these people to make them go in such an opposite direction of how they were trained."
Very true. My organization gets a new commander every four years. Their first step is always a top down review of existing policy and procedures. Before too long the new commander has placed their stamp on the organization. Quite often it doesn't look exactly like the previous command.
She is a disgrace to the uniform and should never have gone as far as she did. We need to take back our Armed Forces!
When you have an incompetent person who is supposed to be in charge...that creates a situation with no discipline and low morale.
Its not just in the military either. If in XYZ corporation they put in some ninny who is an ass and can't perform, how is that going to effect everyone else? At least if they are likeable (not an ass) people will be more prone to listen even if they are not the strongest of leader. Then though you end up with a power struggle...
If the ninny is a co-worker thats one thing. If they are the boss, its nothing but trouble.
She is a disgrace to the uniform!
"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." "
The implication of 'scapegoat' is that she did nothing wrong. She supposed to be able to think for herself to some degree. She was wrong and has to accept the responsibility. I would not be surprised if there were others that should be court-marshaled who just happened to be better at covering their own backsides. The 'like dogs' remark could very easily be taken out of context and who cares what he said anyway? He wasn't the one on duty.
She's the weakest link! What an utter disgrace.
She sure wasn't one.
Please read Maj. General investigation of the 800th Brigade.
http://www.bible-researcher.com/women/women-in-combat.html
Her higher ups asked if she needed any assistance in training her MP's. She refused the offer.
Scroll down to the bottom. "Regarding Part three of investigation, I make the following specific findings of fact." #4. The Brig. General was aware of the problems but decided not to use resources available for her to train her troops properly or something like that.
She screwed up. She is trying to find a scapegoat to blame it on.
"She sure put the knife in her successor. She should show up in the enemy forces sub paragraph of one of our Opords."
Her United States military career may be over, however, she does fit the requirements for a position on Hillry's Armed Services Committee staff.
Karpinski is unqualified to run a lemonade stand.
Yeah, but these personnel know that they're going to be found guilty -- it's a lot tougher to fool the people involved in a court martial as opposed to a jury. Anyhow, they figure they'll try to take down Bush with them.
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