Abu Ghraib General Says She's Being Made a Scapegoat

[papau]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB0MFQ1IVD.html

Jun 15, 2004

Abu Ghraib General Says She's Being Made a Scapegoat
By Jill Lawless Associated Press Writer

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." <snip>

"Maj. Gen. Miller made no such comment to Brig. Gen. Karpinski or to anybody else," Johnson (a spokesman for detention operations in Iraq) 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." <snip>

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. <snip>

[name not needed]

1. Shit rolls downhill n/t

[molly]

2. She's correct

[jobycom]

3. She's missing the real point

She's not being punished as a scapegoat. She's being punished for letting the pictures be taken, for embarrassing the military.

[Cheswick2.0]

9. She was not in charge in that part of the prison

how could she allow anything?

[jobycom]

10. Does it matter?

They aren't trying to punish for justice's sake, they are trying to make an example to follow the code. Breaker Morant, A Few Good Men, etc. The pictures were taken on her watch.

[Sandpiper]

4. I disagree completely

Being a scapegoat implies innocence on the part of the one who is taking the blame. I don't think General Karpinski is innocent of anything.

[pocket]

6. correct

it happened on her watch. She is just flailing about trying to deflect blame.

[Comrade_Goldstein]

5. Will anybody take responsibility?

I'm so sick and tired of everybody involved in this scandal passing the blame to somebody else. Ultimitely Bush and Rumsfield are responsible for what happened, but everybody below them is passing the blame elsewhere.

Bush: I had no idea what was going on, Dick didn;t tell me

Rumsfield: I did all I could, as soon as I found out I hid the pictures and pretended not to know until January. Oh, and also, I reprimanded those involved, you know if they only used a digital camera and they did it secretely, then I would have gotten my pornography quitely and nobody would have known.

The generals: We had no idea. For some strange reason the reports went straight from the soldiers to the pentagon without us having any clue at all.

The soldiers: We were only following order. We had no idea at the time that what we were doing was torture or wrong. After all, what's the harm with isulting one's religion, sodomizing a dead body, having prisoners have sex with each other, and sending attack dogs on them? How could that be illegal?

[Darkamber]

7. thanks that was great...

your post was great. And yes...the real blame goes straight to the top, but I believe the regular military will try to pass it onto the reservist and private contractors.

[DinahMoeHum]

8. A comment from the Soldiers for the Truth website. . .

David Hackworth "Hanging Out The Troops"
Link:
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=70&rnd=311.91766491013044

Feedback:
Link:
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target%20Feedback%202004.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=14&rnd=152.37931641105862

(snip)
There's no doubt, IMO, that BG Karpinski is incompetent, but she's absolutely right when she says the Pentagon is trying to pin this on the Guard to protect the regular Army...
(snip)
...The real crime here, that has all the brass running for the hills while playing "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" is the order that placed the 320MP Bat. under the control of MI. Someone above Karpinski in the chain of command, issued that order, in direct violation of Army Regulations, as pointed out by MG Taguba. It may have been an MG directly above Karpinski, but I'm betting it was signed by LTG Sanchez, and unless he can pin it on some JAG on his staff who signed off on the orders, then his head needs to roll. No early retirement. Court Martial and Leavenworth...
(snip)

:evilfrown:

IMO, MG Miller's head needs to roll as well. I believe he made the fatal decision to transfer interrogation techniques used at Guantanamo Bay (for mostly stateless al Qaeda suspects) to Iraq (for Iraqi citizens, most of whom just got caught up in sweeps - big fat hairy difference from the al Qaeda types. Two different kettles of fish here)


:evilfrown:

[Gloria]

11. She was on the BBC WS this AM...

said that the during the trial of ?(didn't catch the name), more higher ups would come under fire

and she said: "I am not a scapegoat."