Drip, drip, drip...The stench of Abu Ghraib is on the
Bush White House, and the stench of the Bush White
House is on Abu Ghraib...Note, of course, that Brig.
Gen. Karpinski was given a forum by the BBC, not by
SeeNotNews, or AnythingButSee, or NotBeSeen, or even
by SeeBS (yet)...
BBC: Brig Gen Janis Karpinski told the BBC she was
being made a "convenient scapegoat" for abuse ordered
by others.
Top US commander for Iraq, Gen Ricardo Sanchez, should
be asked what he knew about the abuse, she told BBC
Radio 4's On The Ropes programme...
Gen Karpinski said more damaging information was
likely to emerge at those trials...
Karpinski fears she has been made a scapegoat
A US general who has investigated the abuse has blamed
the soldiers - and found no evidence "of a policy or a
direct order given to these soldiers to conduct what
they did".
But Gen Karpinski believes the soldiers had not taken
the pictures of their own accord.
"I know that the MP [military police] unit that these
soldiers belonged to hadn't been in Abu Ghraib long
enough to be so confident that one night or early
morning they were going to take detainees out of their
cells, pile them up and photograph themselves in
various positions with these detainees."
"How it happened or why those photographs came to the
Criminal Investigation Division's attention in January
I think will probably come out very clearly at each
individual's court martial."
Support Our Troops, Show Up for Democracy in 2004:
Defeat Bush (again!)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3806713.stm
Last Updated: Tuesday, 15 June, 2004, 11:10 GMT 12:10
UK
E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Iraq abuse 'ordered from the top'
Images of the abuse have shocked the world
The US commander at the centre of the Iraqi prisoner
scandal says she was told to treat detainees like
dogs.
Brig Gen Janis Karpinski told the BBC she was being
made a "convenient scapegoat" for abuse ordered by
others.
Top US commander for Iraq, Gen Ricardo Sanchez, should
be asked what he knew about the abuse, she told BBC
Radio 4's On The Ropes programme.
One soldier has been sentenced and six others are
awaiting courts martial for abuses committed at Abu
Ghraib jail.
Gen Karpinski said more damaging information was
likely to emerge at those trials.
Gen Karpinski was in charge of the military police
unit that ran Abu Ghraib and other prisons when the
abuses were committed. She has been suspended but not
charged.
More details awaited
Photographs showing naked Iraqi detainees being
humiliated and maltreated first started to surface in
April, sparking shock and anger across the world.
Gen Karpinski said military intelligence took over
part of the Abu Ghraib jail to "Gitmoize" their
interrogations - make them more like what was
happening in the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, which is nicknamed "Gitmo".
He said they 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
General Karpinski
In pictures: Prisoner abuse
She said current Iraqi prisons chief Maj Gen Geoffrey
Miller - who was in charge at Guantanamo Bay - visited
her in Baghdad and said: "At Guantanamo Bay we learned
that the prisoners have to earn every single thing
that they have."
"He said they 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."
Gen Karpinski repeated that she knew nothing of the
humiliation and torture of Iraq prisoners that was
going on inside Abu Ghraib - she was made a scapegoat.
Top commander Ricardo Sanchez must be asked serious
questions about what he knew about the abuse and when,
she said.
Gen Sanchez said in May that he took a personal
responsibility for the abuse by soldiers at Abu Ghraib
jail. But he denied authorising interrogation
techniques such as sleep deprivation, stress positions
or sensory deprivation.
Last week, he asked to be excused from any role in
reviewing the results of an investigation into the
abuses. He requested that a higher-ranking general
take on that task, Pentagon officials said.
Karpinski fears she has been made a scapegoat
A US general who has investigated the abuse has blamed
the soldiers - and found no evidence "of a policy or a
direct order given to these soldiers to conduct what
they did".
But Gen Karpinski believes the soldiers had not taken
the pictures of their own accord.
"I know that the MP [military police] unit that these
soldiers belonged to hadn't been in Abu Ghraib long
enough to be so confident that one night or early
morning they were going to take detainees out of their
cells, pile them up and photograph themselves in
various positions with these detainees."
"How it happened or why those photographs came to the
Criminal Investigation Division's attention in January
I think will probably come out very clearly at each
individual's court martial."
On The Ropes can be heard on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 15
June at 0900 and 2100 BST.
Posted by richard at June 15, 2004 08:51 AM