General Says 'conspiracy' Among Top Commanders Left Her to Blame for Abu Ghraib by Jim Krane BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Army general who once ran detention operations in Iraq said a "conspiracy" among top U.S. commanders has left her to blame for the abuses of Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib prison.
Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who commanded the Army's 800th Military Police Brigade, said she fears more senior Army generals may escape punishment, even though they issued or approved guidelines on the interrogation of Iraqi prisoners.
Karpinski said in an e-mail interview with The Associated Press that she was unfairly cited by a report issued last month by an independent panel of nongovernment experts headed by former defense secretary James Schlesinger.
The Schlesinger report blamed Karpinski for leadership failures that "helped set the conditions at the prison which led to the abuses." She failed to ensure that Iraqi prisoners were protected by the Geneva Conventions and failed to deal with ineffective commanders below her. It recommended that she be relieved of command and given a letter of reprimand, which would essentially end her career.
The panel also said disciplinary action "may be forthcoming" against Col. Thomas M. Pappas, commander of the Army's 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, which was assigned to Abu Ghraib last year.
That recommendation may allow top generals in Iraq to sidestep punishment, Karpinski said.
Those she said might avoid sharing responsibility are Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the former land forces commander in Iraq; his deputy, Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski; Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, the former head of military intelligence here; and Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, deputy commander for detention operations in Iraq.
"It was a conspiracy all along," Karpinski said. "Sanchez and Miller and likely Fast had fallback plans and people to blame if anything came unglued."
Fast, Wojdakowski, Sanchez, as well as Karpinski are criticized in the Schlesinger report and a subsequent Army investigation led by Maj. Gen. George Fay.
Karpinski has denied knowing about any mistreatment prisoners until photographs were made public at the end of April showing hooded and naked prisoners being tormented by their U.S. captors.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has scheduled a hearing for Thursday to consider the Fay and Schlesinger reports and likely raising questions about which, if any, senior military officials should share blame for what happened at Abu Ghraib.
Fast and Miller declined to comment on the report or Karpinski's allegations. Sanchez, Wojdakowski and Pappas could not be reached.
Karpinski said she was snared in a Catch-22 situation. Allowing the tougher methods of prisoner interrogation to go ahead as recommended by Miller and approved by Sanchez landed her in trouble. But, she said, if she had disregarded those guidelines, she would also be in trouble.
"Can't win," she said.
Karpinski complained that Schlesinger's investigation gave her an only perfunctory opportunity - an interview of less than an hour - to rebut the allegations and defend her leadership.
Karpinski also scoffed at the Schlesinger report's finding that Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top Pentagon officials can be faulted for failed leadership and oversight, even though the report's conclusion finds that Rumsfeld bears no direct responsibility for the abuses.
The general said the report's focus on Rumsfeld was "clearly done as a show of unbiased investigation techniques" to bolster its credibility.
In fact, Karpinski may not be the only Army general whose career suffers - or ends - because of the Abu Ghraib abuses.
Observers have said they believe the probe could eventually reach the others. Investigators concluded that the other generals are partly responsible, but not legally culpable, for the abuse last fall.
Sanchez and Wojdakowski are cited in an Army investigation for failure to "ensure proper staff oversight of detention and interrogation operations" in Iraq.
Sanchez, who returned in June to his command of Army 5th Corps headquarters in Germany, has already been passed over for promotion to a four-star slot as chief of Southern Command because of Rumsfeld's expectation that Sanchez would face trouble in a Senate confirmation hearing.
Bring ‘em on: Two US soldiers killed, 16 wounded in mortar attack near Balad.
Bring ‘em on: Seven US Marines killed, eight wounded in convoy ambush near Fallujah.
Bring ‘em on: US launches retaliatory air strikes in Fallujah.
Bring ‘em on: US troops in heavy fighting near Mosul.
Bring ‘em on: US convoy ambushed near Mosul; one Iraqi killed, seven wounded.
Bring ‘em on: US troops fighting in Sadr City.
Bring ‘em on: Iraqi scientist assassinated near Mahmoudiyah.
Bring ‘em on: Four Jordanian truck drivers kidnapped by insurgents in Iraq.
Bring ‘em on: Norwegian woman killed in ambush near Kirkuk.
More fighting anticipated. “A U.S. assault on one or more of Iraq's three main ‘no-go’ areas — including Fallujah — is likely in the next four months as the Iraqi government prepares to extend control before elections slated for January, the U.S. land-forces commander said yesterday. Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, the No. 2 American military leader in Iraq, said the U.S. military will work to regain control of rebel strongholds and turn them over to Iraq's fledgling security forces so elections will be seen by Iraqis — and the world — as free and fair.”
Wounded troops. “Lance Cpl. Ian Anderson of Spokane was a gung-ho Marine who was shot five times while serving his country in Iraq. Now he is an embittered 23-year-old coping with his wounds, angry at his medical care, and unsure what he will do with the rest of his life. One of more than 130 Washington residents who have been wounded so far in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Anderson personifies a hard truth about war: Enthusiastic patriotism often gives way to shattered lives.”
Shifting priorities. “The Bush administration is preparing to seek congressional approval to divert $3.3 billion earmarked to rebuild Iraq's shattered infrastructure into programs focused mainly to establish law and order. The move comes against a backdrop of steadily deteriorating public security in the country as it approaches a crucial first round of elections set for January. Those working on the changes said the proposed reallocation amounts to nearly one-fifth of the $18.4 billion Congress approved last November to rebuild Iraq. They said the shift would delay vital electricity, water and sewage projects -- all crucial to restoring Iraq's economy and building public support for the country's struggling interim government.”
Pipeline security. “Iraq's Oil Ministry has deployed a new 14,000-member security force, has begun paying tribal leaders to guard pipelines and plans to double its fleet of reconnaissance aircraft, Oil Ministry spokesman Assim Jihad said Sunday. ‘When these pipelines were laid decades ago, no one then thought that saboteurs will damage them,’ Jihad said in discussing the security challenge.” Don’t feel too bad, Mr. Jihad. Last year when the neo-cons were planning to occupy Iraq they didn’t think about that shit, either.
Retired West Virginia officer sounds off. “West Virginia’s top Army Reserve spokesman says the Iraq war was a mistake, and President Bush should be voted out of office. In a long interview with Gazette columnist Sandy Wells, Col. Lew G. Tyree of Charleston publicly revealed his feelings about the Iraq invasion, saying: ‘I feel we were not told the truth. I do not think we should be there. America is in more danger now because we are using up a tremendous amount of human resources, the soldiers. We tend to ignore that there are well over 1,000 dead and well over 7,000 injured. We use many of the soldiers time and time again. Where are the replacements going to come from? We’re getting re-enlistments, but not recruits. Where is the strength for defending this country in another arena?’”
Another Bush lie exposed. “United Nations' chief weapons inspector has concluded there is no evidence that Iraq ever developed unpiloted drones capable of discharging chemical and biological weapons agents on enemy targets. The Bush administration cited the threat that Iraqi drones could be used in such attacks on U.S. cities in making its case for invading Iraq, but U.S. weapons inspectors in Iraq challenged those claims after the U.S.-led invasion. The CIA's top weapons expert in Iraq, Charles Duelfer, revived the debate, telling Congress last April that the group overseeing the U.S.-led hunt for Iraqi weapons had found evidence of advances in the development of Iraqi drones that were not reported to the United Nations.”
Foreign fighters. “The elder al-Zahameel told The Associated Press he made several fruitless trips to Syria to search for his son. Then, in mid-July, Dhari, his friend and two other Kuwaitis - one also a teenager - were sent home from Syria. The Kuwait government said they had been accused of trying to enter Iraq illegally, the first official acknowledgment that citizens of this U.S. ally were taking up arms against American troops in Iraq.”
Commentary
Editorial: “But before that grim assessment is dismissed as more of the same from the nattering nabobs of negativism, check out the institute's best-case scenario: The Bush Doctrine, which virtually guaranteed the creation of a full-fledged democracy in Iraq friendly to the West, is hopelessly naive. The most the United States and its allies can hope for is a "muddle-through" scenario in which enormous amounts of money and military might are expended just to keep the country from disintegrating. The sobering report comes not from President Bush's political enemies, but from from the nation that is his most steadfast ally in Iraq. It was prepared by an independent group of foreign affairs experts whose scholars frequently advise the British government and the Foreign Office on international issues. This is not a Chicken Little outfit.”
Analysis: “These days, with a few exceptions, US military casualties in Iraq are being reported as parts of other stories — for example, the battle for Najaf — or buried deep inside the paper or not reported at all. And information about Iraqi casualties is even harder to find, since the Pentagon does not track this figure. Is this some vast journalistic or bureaucratic conspiracy to make President Bush look better? I don’t think so. I think what’s happening may be even worse. The US media — especially television — always finds it difficult to cover more than one big story at the same time. Added to this multitasking challenge is the sense that the American public is just plain tired of reading and hearing these awful numbers. And who can blame them?”
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