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WASHINGTON — Some two months after the Red Cross warned U.S. commanders of widespread prisoner abuses, the commanding general at Abu Ghraib prison assured the Red Cross in a confidential letter that Iraqi detainees were being given the best treatment possible and that even more "improvements are continually being made.'' In an interview today, however, Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski insisted that she was "set up'' by Army officials who had her sign the letter when she had no idea of the depth of problems uncovered at the infamous prison outside Baghdad. In addition, Karpinski said she was notified in...

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An American general in charge of U.S.-run prisons in Iraq (news - web sites) when the abuse of prisoners took place has been suspended as commander of the military police brigade at the heart of the scandal and removed from active duty, the Army said on Monday. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who had commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade, was suspended from her duties, said Lt. Col Pamela Hart, an Army spokeswoman at the Pentagon (news - web sites). Karpinski previously was formally admonished on Jan. 17 by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top...

We know conclusively that the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal is as phony as a Bill Clinton sex denial because there are no calls for the resignation or indictment of the one individual most responsible for the abuses. That would be the officer in charge of Abu Ghraib and all U.S. military prisons in Iraq, the commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski. And why have there been no calls for her resignation? Let’s be honest. It is because she is a woman. Thus the frightening lesson of the abuse scandal: Political correctness trumps national security...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A lawyer for a soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib abuse case said a captain at the Iraqi prison has charged that Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez was present during some unspecified "interrogations and/or allegations of the prisoner abuse," The Washington Post reported on Sunday. Citing a recording of a military hearing obtained by the newspaper, The Post said the military lawyer, Capt. Robert Shuck, was told that Sanchez, the highest-ranking U.S. military officer in Iraq, and other senior officials were aware of what was taking place at Abu Ghraib. Shuck is assigned to defend Staff Sgt....

wonder knowing what we know now of Mohamed Atta (search) whether we would have minded seeing him stripped in a prison or forced to wear a hood or humiliated in any other way? I wonder if we secretly would have found ourselves hoping for far worse treatment. I wonder if anyone would blame us. And not just Atta. What if we saw any of the other 18 Sept. 11 hijackers (search) similarly treated? Knowing what we do now, would we care now? Probably not. We'll never know. But this much I do know. I know what Atta and his gang...

In World War II, a passer-by, lost in London's main official thoroughfare of Whitehall, stopped a military officer and asked him which side the Defense Department was on. The officer thought for a moment and then said: "Well, it's hard to be sure, but our side, I hope." In the last week the coverage of Iraq by the U.S. media has exhibited at least four separate failings: 1. Selective Agonizing. Ever since the Abu Ghraib photographs emerged, the media has shown them on every possible occasion, accompanied by reports and editorials on America's shame and the world's revulsion. That is...

May 18, 2004 — Dozens of soldiers — other than the seven military police reservists who have been charged — were involved in the abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, and there is an effort under way in the Army to hide it, a key witness in the investigation told ABCNEWS. "There's definitely a cover-up," the witness, Sgt. Samuel Provance, said. "People are either telling themselves or being told to be quiet." Provance, 30, was part of the 302nd Military Intelligence Battalion stationed at Abu Ghraib last September. He spoke to ABCNEWS despite orders from his commanders not to. "What...

"There's definitely a cover-up," the witness, Sgt. Samuel Provance, said. "People are either telling themselves or being told to be quiet." Provance, 30, was part of the 302nd Military Intelligence Battalion stationed at Abu Ghraib last September. He spoke to ABCNEWS despite orders from his commanders not to. "What I was surprised at was the silence," said Provance. "The collective silence by so many people that had to be involved, that had to have seen something or heard something."

The prisoner abuse in Iraq is a public-relations and foreign-policy disaster. It undermines, you see, our efforts to win over the hearts and minds of Muslims by introducing them to liberal democracy, which brings freedom, prosperity, and individual dignity to all people. Well, tragically, radical Islamists can now point to these photos as examples of what they have always charged: that is, that the West really brings decadence and moral decay. If I were recruiting terrorists, I’d show those lewd photos to everyone I met as proof of the West’s decadence and the need for a jihad. As I’ve tried...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces beat three Iraqis working for Reuters and subjected them to sexual and religious taunts and humiliation during their detention last January in a military camp near Falluja, the three said Tuesday. The three first told Reuters of the ordeal after their release but only decided to make it public when the U.S. military said there was no evidence they had been abused, and following the exposure of similar mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. Two of the three said they had been forced to insert a finger into their anus and then...

WASHINGTON, May 18 (UPI) -- Efforts at the top level of the Bush administration and the civilian echelon of the Department of Defense to contain the Iraq prison torture scandal and limit the blame to a handful of enlisted soldiers and immediate senior officers have already failed: The scandal continues to metastasize by the day. Over the past weekend and into this week, devastating new allegations have emerged putting Stephen Cambone, the first Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, firmly in the crosshairs and bringing a new wave of allegations cascading down on the head of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, when...

Army, CIA want torture truths exposed By Martin Sieff UPI Senior News Analyst Published 5/18/2004 7:16 AM WASHINGTON, May 18 (UPI) -- Efforts at the top level of the Bush administration and the civilian echelon of the Department of Defense to contain the Iraq prison torture scandal and limit the blame to a handful of enlisted soldiers and immediate senior officers have already failed: The scandal continues to metastasize by the day. Over the past weekend and into this week, devastating new allegations have emerged putting Stephen Cambone, the first Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, firmly in the crosshairs and...

Interrogators from military intelligence and other government agencies told guards at the Abu Ghraib prison to deprive detainees of sleep and food, and would strip detainees and make them sleep naked in their cells, but their orders stopped well short of the abuse at the center of the prison scandal, guards and investigators have testified at a preliminary hearing for one of the soldiers accused of abuse. According to a transcript of the hearing for the soldier, Sgt. Javal S. Davis, witnesses said that there were written "sleep management plans" and eating plans and that military intelligence members would regularly...

For three weeks, the media has bombarded us with a pornographic orgy of lurid photos and stories of Iraqi prisoner abuse and humiliation. It has been almost impossible to avoid seeing the same disgusting images of a few rogue US soldiers mistreating naked Iraqi detainees as these images have been splashed daily across our TV screens, newspapers and magazine covers. Even the shocking videotape of the barbaric beheading last week in Iraq of American Nick Berg, by Islamic uber-terrorist Abu Musaf al Zarqawi (in his own words, responding to our photographic barrage of self-incrimination), apparently was not enough to sideline...

WASHINGTON — When CIA officers brought the Iraqi detainee to Abu Ghraib prison, his head was covered with an empty sandbag and Army guards were ordered to take him directly to a shower room that served as a makeshift interrogation center at the overcrowded, shell-damaged facility outside Baghdad. An hour later, in the midst of intensive questioning by military intelligence officials, the prisoner collapsed and died. Only then did interrogators remove the hood to reveal severe head wounds that had never been treated....< SNIP> Separately, a key defendant in the scandal said in a sworn statement to Army investigators that...

In a sworn statement to investigators, Pfc. Lynndie England explained the mystery of why soldiers at Abu Ghraib took pictures of detainees masturbating and piled naked with plastic sandbags over their heads by saying, "We thought it looked funny so pictures were taken." [snip] "Picture 000015 was basically us fooling around," she said, pointing to a photograph of detainees stacked naked in different positions in 1A, the area of the prison where the soldiers now charged with abuse worked. "She wanted a picture because she wrote `I'm a rapist' on one of the detainees," Private England explained, pointing to two...

EDITOR'S NOTE: The man behind many of the most provocative Abu Ghraib stories — Seymour M. Hersh of The New Yorker — is one of the best-known reporters in the business. But that doesn't mean he always gets his facts right. "If the standard for being fired was being wrong on a story, I would have been fired long ago," he once said. Hersh has admitted to lying to his sources and one former editor accused him of blackmailing them. Can he be trusted today? John J. Miller profiled Hersh in the December 3, 2001 issue of National Review. “At...

blivious of the consequences, the impetuous black sheep of a ruling family starts a war triggered by a personal grudge. The father, a respected veteran of his own wars, suppresses his unease and graciously supports his son, even though it will end up destroying his legacy and the world order he envisioned. The ferocious battle in the far-off sands spirals out of control, with many brave soldiers killed, with symbols of divinity damaged, with graphic scenes showing physical abuse of the conquered, and with devastatingly surreptitious guerrilla tactics. Aside from dishing up a gilded Brad Pitt with a leather miniskirt...

A political psychologist explains the roles denial, emotion and childhood punishment play in politics May 13 - As details of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib became known, not everyone was shocked. A caller on Rush Limbaugh’s show likened the torture of prisoners to “a college fraternity prank.” The host picked up on the cue and started riffing. “Exactly my point! This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really...

CHICAGO - For 20-somethings, this is their war now -- the first they've experienced as adults, the one in which they are major players. Graphic images from Iraq are being circulated on their medium, the Internet, riveting a generation sometimes criticized for being disengaged. And many of those images involve people their age, among them 26-year-old Nick Berg, whose horrific death was captured on video -- as well as young American soldiers mugging for the camera alongside naked, hooded Iraqi prisoners. "It's the first time we can't just point a finger at a leader and say 'You did this wrong'...