Abu Ghraib Report Faults Top Officials [RUMSFELD AND MEYERS]

The question of how high responsibility for the abuse goes continues to be one of the central unanswered questions in the scandal — and it is key to the ongoing criminal cases against several low-ranking military police soldiers charged with mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwn.

Karpinski: Rumsfeld OK’d Methods
Santa Clarita (CA) Signal ^ | July 2004 | By Leon Worden, City Editor

Posted on 07/07/2004 1:22:54 AM EDT by Military Chick
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1166627/posts

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 shown Saturday at 5 p.m. on SCVTV Channel 20, with a written transcript in Sunday’s Signal.

Early last week the Pentagon released documents showing Rumsfeld approved the use of military dogs, stripping and sensory deprivation to cull intelligence information from detainees at Guantanamo Bay, where the White House had determined the Geneva conventions didn’t strictly apply.

Karpinski said there are memos showing Rumsfeld approved similar tactics for Abu Ghraib, where the Geneva conventions were supposed to apply.

Signal: Are there documents showing Donald Rumsfeld also approved particular interrogation techniques for Abu Ghraib?

Karpinski: I did not see it personally (at the time), but since all of this has come out, I have not only seen, but I’ve been asked about some of those documents, that he signed and agreed to.

Signal: About Abu Ghraib?

Karpinski: Yes. About using the same techniques that were successful in Guantanamo Bay, at Abu Ghraib.

Signal: Those documents have not been released yet?

Karpinski: No.

A Pentagon spokesman said Rumsfeld was never asked by the chain of command in Iraq to approve coercive interrogation techniques.

“The secretary of defense was not involved in the process in Iraq or the Central Command theater,” the spokesman said on the condition that his name not be used. “He wasn’t asked to approve anything.”

At some undetermined date in the future, the Pentagon “will try to release the same kind of documents” for Abu Ghraib that it released for Guantanamo Bay. “The documentation may support who requested what kind of techniques,” the spokesman said.

Requests to use interrogation methods that aren’t by the book would be initiated by the local commander and sent up through the chain of command, ultimately reaching Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the head of U.S. forces in Iraq, and Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command in the Middle East.

Karpinski said Sanchez, who was replaced Thursday as the commander in Iraq, cut the orders last fall to implement the special “interrogation rules of engagement” that were used at Abu Ghraib. The special rules called for Sanchez’s personal approval whenever interrogators wanted to use dogs, strip prisoners, or deprive them of food or sleep.

Sanchez has consistently denied approving or even knowing about the special rules at the time.

Signal: What can you characterize about (documents authorizing special interrogation techniques)?

Karpinski: I know that (Military Intelligence commander) Col. (Thomas M.) Pappas, on three occasions, sent a request to Gen. Sanchez to escalate their interrogations, and that involved using and he lists them. And in one case he said they wanted to use dogs, and they wanted to increase the length of time that they could be isolated, food deprivation, that kind of sleep deprivation. And in at least two of those cases, there is a signature of approval from Gen. Sanchez.

Signal: And you’ve seen those documents?

Karpinski: Yes I have.

Asked to comment Thursday on Sanchez’s involvement, Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Pamela Hart said the Army is “waiting for the results of two investigations.”

Those investigations are an overall assessment by the Army Inspector General of detention operations at Abu Ghraib, and a formal Army inquiry into the military intelligence brigade that ran interrogations at the prison.

“We are waiting for the outcome of those two reports before making any assessment,” Hart said.

On Jan. 19, six days after photographs of prisoner abuse were brought to his attention, Sanchez asked Central Command to approve an investigation of Karpinski’s 800th Military Police Brigade. Central Command instructed Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan to launch the investigation, and McKiernan appointed Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba as the lead investigator.

Karpinski, a one-star general, said she believes Sanchez, a three-star general, wanted to pin the ultimate responsibility for the prisoner abuse on her. She said she believes Sanchez instructed the two-star investigator, Taguba, to support his claim that the abuse stemmed from Karpinski’s loss of control over her MPs.

She said Taguba “went to see Gen. Sanchez, who said to him, words to the effect, ‘I want Karpinski to be blamed, and I want you to go out and do an investigation to support that. She’s a terrible leader because she allowed all these things to happen; now go out and do an investigation to support that conclusion.’ That’s what I believe.”

In his investigation report, Taguba wrote, “I totally concur with (Lt. Gen.) Sanchez’ opinion regarding the performance of (Brig. Gen.) Karpinski and the 800th MP Brigade.”

Taguba reported that Sanchez “found that the performance of the 800th MP Brigade had not met the standards set by the Army” and that the prisoner abuse was “the most recent example of a poor leadership climate that ‘permeates the brigade.’”

It had been less than a year since the Army recommended, and the Senate approved, Karpinski’s elevation to general.

“I know how to lead,” Karpinski said Tuesday.

Per Taguba’s recommendation, Karpinski was stripped of command of her 3,400-person brigade. She was replaced as the top jailer in Iraq by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who previously headed detention operations at Guantanamo Bay.

Karpinski said she was placed on temporary suspension. She has not been charged with a crime. An Army reservist, she is a business consultant living in South Carolina.

Sanchez, who until recently was said to be up for a fourth star, is expected to be questioned in the military intelligence investigation.

Asked Wednesday by NBC’s Tom Brokaw whether he thinks he may be held responsible for the abuses shown in several widely published photographs, Sanchez said, “I’m very, very comfortable with the decisions that I made and the directives that were issued, and the judgment that I applied to the situations. And there was absolutely no command directive that would even give anybody the idea that that was acceptable in this command.”

Here's Reuters version:

A high-level panel investigating U.S. military detention operations has concluded that top Pentagon officials and the
military command in Iraq ( - ) contributed to an environment in which
detainees were abused at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, a defense official said
on Tuesday.

The independent Pentagon panel headed by former Defense Secretary James
Schlesinger found that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Joint
Chiefs of Staff failed to exercise proper oversight over confusing
detention policies at U.S. prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Cuba, the
official said..

But the official, who asked not to be identified, stressed that the
four-member group, scheduled to release its report later on Tuesday, did
not conclude that Rumsfeld or military leaders directly ordered abuse such
as stripping prisoners naked and sexually humiliating them in a scandal
that has drawn international condemnation.
The official confirmed a report in the New York Times on the Schlesinger
panel's findings that also said it concluded that the military's Joint
Staff at the Pentagon - which is responsible for allocating forces - did
not recognize that Abu Ghraib guards were overwhelmed by an influx of
detainees during violence in Iraq.

The Times said the report also criticizes the top general in Iraq at the
time, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, for not paying close enough attention
to the problems at Abu Ghraib.

NOT FAR ENOUGH, SAYS RIGHTS GROUP

Reed Brody, a spokesman for Human Rights Watch, said the report did not go
far enough. "They are talking about management failures when they should be
talking about who in the Pentagon and the military command ordered,
approved or tolerated the torture of detainees."

"The report does not seem to examine the relationship between Secretary
Rumsfeld's approval of interrogation techniques designed to inflict pain
and humiliation and the widespread abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan
and Guantanamo," Brody said.

Seven U.S. Army reservists from the 372nd Military Police Company have
already been accused of humiliating and in some cases beating and
photographing Iraqi detainees at the infamous prison near Baghdad, once
used as a torture chamber by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ( - ).

Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick, the highest-ranking of the seven, reached a deal
with Army prosecutors after agreeing to plead guilty to some of the charges
at a pretrial hearing in Mannheim, Germany, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

In Mannheim, a U.S. military judge also ruled that Rumsfeld could not be
forced to testify in the court martial of another sergeant charged in the
abuse.

Meanwhile, another Army investigation report to be released on Wednesday
will recommend that 20 or more military intelligence troops and others at
Abu Ghraib face administrative or perhaps criminal punishment in the
scandal that has infuriated the Arab world.

The Schlesinger panel, named by Rumsfeld to look into the abuse and how
effectively the Pentagon is addressing the problem with a number of
investigations, also includes former Defense Secretary Harold Brown, former
Florida Republican Rep. Tillie Fowler and retired Air Force Gen. Charles
Horner, who led the allied air campaign in the 1991 Gulf War ( - ).

The New York Times reported that the panel interviewed Rumsfeld, Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman
of the Pentagon's military Joint Chiefs of Staff, during its investigation.

The newspaper said that the Schlesinger panel criticized the leadership of
Army Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police
Brigade at Abu Ghraib. She was also criticized in an earlier abuse
investigation headed by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba.

Karpinski has received a letter of reprimand and been suspended from her
post. She is protesting that suspension.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.