Posted on 07/03/2004 5:20:11 PM PDT by blam
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 Signal newspaper of Santa Clarita, California, which was also broadcast on a local television channel yesterday, Gen Karpinski was asked if she knew of documents showing that Mr Rumsfeld approved "particular interrogation techniques" for Abu Ghraib.
Gen Karpinski was interviewed for four hours by Maj- Gen Antonio Taguba, who was ordered to investigate abuse at Abu Ghraib and produced a damning report, which heavily criticised Gen Karpinski for a lack of leadership at the prison.
During inquiries into the scandal, she has repeatedly maintained that the treatment of Iraqi detainees was taken out of her hands by higher-ranking officials, acting on orders from Washington.
"Since all this came out," she replied, "I've not only seen, but I've been asked about some of those documents, that he [Mr Rumsfeld] signed and agreed to."
Asked whether the documents have been made public, Gen Karpinski replied "No" and went on to describe the methods approved in them as involving "dogs, food deprivation and sleep deprivation".
The Pentagon has consistently denied that Mr Rumsfeld authorised the transfer of harsher techniques of interrogation and detention from Guantanamo Bay to Abu Ghraib, where all prisoners are supposed to be protected by the Geneva Conventions.
Replying to Gen Karpinski's allegations, a spokesman for the Pentagon told The Telegraph: "Mr Rumsfeld did not approve any interrogation procedures in Iraq. The Secretary of Defence was not in the approval chain for interrogation procedures, which would have remained within the purview of Central Command, headed by Gen John Abizaid."
The Bush administration has been dogged by suspicions that harsh interrogation methods employed at Guantanamo were transferred to Abu Ghraib, as Iraqi insurgents began to score significant hits against coalition forces last year. In May, before the Senate armed services committee, Stephen Cambone, the under-secretary of defence for intelligence, publicly denied charges that Mr Rumsfeld had approved Guantanamo-style interrogations in Iraq.
Last month, the White House took the unusual step of releasing hundreds of internal documents and debates concerning interrogation procedures at Guantanamo. Extreme interrogation techniques at the camp, it was revealed, now require the explicit approval of Mr Rumsfeld. The Bush administration insists, however, that the notorious abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was an aberration on the part of a handful of rogue soldiers. A Pentagon spokesman said that all relevant documents on interrogation techniques in Iraq would be made public but could not say when.
Gen Karpinski has been suspended from duty pending ongoing investigations into abuse of prisoners at the Baghdad prison. In a recent interview with the BBC, she complained of being turned into a scapegoat for the scandal, arguing that the running of the prison was taken out of her hands.
In a separate embarrassment for the Department of Defence last week, six recent studies, leaked to the Los Angeles Times, heavily criticised the military for failing to screen adequately potential recruits with violent and even criminal backgrounds.
The reports were written by a senior Pentagon consultant. One was delivered in September 2003, weeks before the worst abuses of Iraqi prisoners took place. The title of the report was Reducing the Threat of Destructive Behaviour by Military Personnel.
In it the author, Eli Flyer, a former senior analyst at the Department of Defence, stated: "There are military personnel with pre-service and in-service records that clearly establish a pattern of sub-standard behaviour. These individuals constitute a high-risk group for destructive behaviour and need to be identified."
According to a 1998 report by Mr Flyer, one third of military recruits had arrest records. A 1995 report found that a quarter of serving army personnel had committed one or more criminal offences while on active duty. In his 2003 study, Mr Flyer said that military personnel officers had been reluctant to toughen up screening procedures, fearing that the result would be a failure to meet recruitment goals.
Curtis Gilroy, who oversees military recruiting policy for the Pentagon, told the Los Angeles Times: "It's hard to pick out all the bad apples, but we are striving to improve the system and are doing so."
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Stay Safe LC !
Isn't this the same General who claimed she didn't have a clue as to what was going on?
This bitch really disgusts me. From my experience in the Army, she's very typical of field grade and above female officers.
She is a reserve General. This is very different. You get to be a reserve flag officer by "working" your way up through the reserves and then when you are 05 you start kissing up by spending six months a year for free - spending extra time hanging around the reserve center (which other than drill weekends mostly processes paperwork). In other words you get promoted by working for free for 6 months a year doing things that contribute little to the combat readiness of U.S. forces. With that kind of decision making you can imagine that you get what you get.
Karpinski needs to spend some time in jail. Not only for her lack of leadership, but because she's becoming down right seditious.
i recently read a bio of gen. patton. apparently, quite a few american soldiers who fought in WWII were not too thrilled by some of his antics.
americans don't like to fight dirty wars. it only takes a few real atrocities, and americans stop supporting a war.
(by real atrocities, i don't mean the stuff that has come out in the pics, i mean prisoners being killed during interrogations, etc., which may have already happened in afghanistan.)
when we fail to win a war, it is because the american public stops supporting it.
I think the darts would drop before getting there.
General Janis? .....Oh boy...
Does she think she is in some way improving her chances for light punishment?....She simply makes it worse in my opinion...
I read that review of her in the report...She dropped the ball completely and just did not take command responsibility...
Who is paying her legal expenses?
What administration promoted her?
I think we will all soon find out that the answer to both questions is the same. She is being coached to provide maximum damage in exchange for her defense. These comments will help her claim later that her punishment is revenge for speaking out against the Bush administration. Idiots on the left will buy it completely.
So, let me get this straight. Karpinski has stated she had no idea what was going on in the prison, but she knows that Rumsfeld authorized it.
She needs to be taken down a notch.
I don't think I believe anything this woman says. She's been whining and trying to pass blame from the beginning.
Women have no place in such a position, and the fact that nothing is being done about it is a disgrace that the CIC is directly responsible for.
Karpinski is a Lying Lesbian.
My experience in the Marine Corps is somewhat different, but I understand what you're saying. I knew some very fine female lieutenant colonels, colonels, and brigadier generals. The junior officers, though, was where I found alot of vindictive, back-stabbing, vicious little weasels.
I can say that, I was a female Marine officer.
She is a rat.
She's scrambling like a quarterback... who's just noticed that Brian Urlacher is coming and there is NOBODY to block him...
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