Karpinski Busted Back For Abu Ghraib, Right? Wrong.

The Signal newspaper of Santa Clarita, Calif. 5/7/05

News organizations around the world, citing anonymous Army officials who refused to give their names, reported Thursday that President Bush approved the demotion of Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski to colonel because she failed to properly supervise guards who abused detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in the fall of 2003.

Two weeks earlier, quoting similarly anonymous Army sources, the same world-wide news organizations reported that the Army inspector general was holding only one top officer - Karpinski - accountable for the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib.

Around the world, particularly in the Arab world, the stories sent the message that finally, the United States was holding a commander responsible. Finally, someone in a position of authority would be punished. Finally there would be justice.

The trouble is, it wasn't true.

Oh, the Army inspector general singled out Karpinski for disciplinary action, all right. And yes, Bush demoted Karpinski on the basis of the Army IG's recommendation.

But it wasn't for Abu Ghraib. It was unrelated.

In fact, the Army inspector general - a summary of whose report was released Thursday - exonerated her of any wrongdoing at Abu Ghraib, right along with the rest of the generals in the chain of commend.

"Though Brig. Gen. Karpinski's performance of duty was found to be seriously lacking," the summary said, "the investigation team determined that no action or lack of action on her part contributed specifically to the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib."

http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/signal/iraq/sg050705-iraq.htm

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050506/pl_afp/usiraqprisoners_050506002124

President George W Bush ordered the demotion of Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, the former commander of the Abu Ghraib prison, after an army investigation found her guilty of dereliction of duty and shoplifting, the army said.

There was another female general involved in this situation, the difference was that Karpinski was a Reservist, the other female general was Regular Army.

Has anyone noticed that only Reservist are getting punished for Abu Ghraib. So far no Regular Army people have been charged, and don't count on it happening.

So now , not only do the Reservist have to pull the same duty as the active army, they are the only ones to be punished for infractions.

CYA in full force.

Let's hope that the reserves start seeing this disproportionate treatment, and behave accordingly. The trouble with punishing those that are doing the heavy lifting is that they have the best view of the real situation on the ground, and are the best poised to start singing to the media if they continue to be scapegoated.

I hope we hear a choir sometime soon.

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13736055

excerpt:

The army inspector general cleared Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the US commander in Iraq at the time, of responsibility for the scandal.

Major General Walter Wojdakowski, then deputy commander in Iraq, and Major General Barbara Fast, the top military intelligence officer in Iraq, and Colonel Marc Warren, the command's legal adviser also were cleared, the army said.

Investigations into Colonel Thomas Pappas, commander of the military intelligence brigade at the prison, and Lieutenant Colonel Steve Jordan, the military officer in charge of interrogations, are still open, an official said.

...more...

and FUBAR crap!

Why else would the demotion be announced the day after Lynndie England's plea bargain went south--fear of the investigation being re-opened? Karpinski and the other officers may have been cleared internally, but they haven't been cleared legally.

:headbang:
rocknation

anyone who enters the military knows it going it or learns the lesson quickly.

she could have made a issue about it, she turned her head and figured any rocking of the boat on her part would land the boat on her head, so she went along to get along. and she got fried.

a paradox, damned if she did, damned if she didn't.

i don't think i am as smart as ex-general karpinski, and i feel very sympathetic that she has been done wrong in this affair, but i think she could have done better at avoiding a situation where if the thunder didn't get her the lighning would.

but at least enjoying the ride?

Anyway... I am sure this is a deal to keep her retirement grade at BGen in spite of what happens later. If she pulled that off, then she did as well as possible.

In WWII many concomms retired at officer pay because they recieved battle field commissions.

as opposed to convince of the government, which you rightly recall.

:crazy:

!?!?!??!

who in fact was responsible for Abu Gahrib (sp), and took command of Gen Fast's Unit was promoted to Commander of Fort Huachuca and the entire Intelligence center. Also an Inteligence COL also involved in Abu Gahrib, is now Commander of the Intelligence School at Ft Huachuca, which trains military in obtaining information from prisoners.

Sounds like the same old same old story. Those that do get shafted and those that screw up get promoted and rewarded.

Now.....TWO women were the ringleaders of the torture tactics? No wonder the Army does not want women on the front lines...they are obviously vicious out of control animals on the front lines. :crazy:

It's all very clear now....I think :think:

Nor has the third woman involved.

hmmmm.

She may be, but first they have to go through the whole process again and decide what to charge her with, etc. (beginning w/article 32 hearing) So she has not been charged let alone punished.

torture camps were all cleared. Meanwhile, the US media continued to blather on the meaningless distraction du jour.

Thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1740900
Thread title: MASSIVE TORTURE/ABUSE COVERUP – 4 top Army officers CLEARED

And now we hear that even the designated fall person won't be held responsible. Clearly, they don't care any more if their lies are obvious. They believe their will never be a real investigation or any insistence on accountability of any kind. The criminals are in power and the chief legal architect of the policy is Attorney General.

Edited to add: Recommended

This story got legs fast.

...But the Army's inspector gen'l recommended the sanctions based on a broad charge of dereliction of duty, as well as on a charge of shoplifting, essentially clearing her of responsibility for the abuse at Abu Ghrab prison.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/05/AR2005050501754.html

Of course, we know that it went all the way to the top: Gonzales, Rumsfeld and the blivet**. Probably Cheney too, since he runs the place.



So even top generals didn't buy the argument for exoneration.

As far as the elite members of the Kennebunkport Cowboy's chosen few are concerned, such things are best assigned to the help.

Enough's enough on that bride (wow! someone gets it!)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11578028.htm

(free registration or try www.bugmenot.com )

excerpt:

Since a Georgia woman went AWOL days before her wedding, we've been bludgeoned with hours upon hours and words upon words about the bride who claimed she had been abducted and the jilted groom who vowed he will wait for her at the altar forever and ever, or as long as it takes her to walk down the aisle. Now we know more about this couple than we do about our own neighbors.

Enough, please!

It's not like there's a dearth of news to cover. Plenty of important issues deserve our attention. Social Security, for one. That how-to-fix-it debate is still around, but admittedly hard to sell to a finicky audience when there are enticing pictures of a pretty woman -- albeit a bug-eyed one -- leaning next to a man who would soon learn he was clueless about her deepest feelings.

There are terrorists bombing the heck out of Iraq, too, and the specter of inflation nibbling away at our buying power. But really, who wants to talk about such boring, frightening topics when we have a live soap opera to hype? And so we in the media have bombarded the world with a story that deserved, at most, a fraction of the space and time outlets have devoted to it. The drivel that has passed off as analysis is an embarrassment to the annals of journalism.

...more...

I think, judging from her tone in the interview I heard, that even tho the Army thinks it's done now and every last embarrassing blot is wrapped up with a tidy little bow, Brig. Gen. Karpinski might just have more to say.

When Congress gets around to conducting their promised investigation, which supposedly will be to determine what role Defense Department hacks played at Abu Ghraib, I'm hoping the shamed and demoted Ms. (Col.) Karpinski will get her say in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee and somebody in Congress will prove that all the carping they've been doing about the Pentagon wasn't just hot air!


MP commander: 'No Knowledge' of alleged abuse

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Northeast/05/04/karpinski/

~snips~

KARPINSKI: The accusations were without foundation that this was not a military police leadership issue, specifically. This was a much broader responsibility, and that particular cellblock was under the control of the military intelligence command at the time and, in fact, from November on Abu Ghraib Prison was under the control of the military intelligence command.

O'BRIEN: Let's bring your attorney in. What's her status right now -- what happens?

PUCKETT: The results of the investigation recommended that she be relieved of command and reprimanded. However, the direction given to the investigating officer was go out and find out what's wrong with the 800th MP Brigade. The direction was not "something terrible has happened, go find out what went wrong and come back and tell us what went wrong and then we'll deal with it."

O'BRIEN: Are you saying that it's done because they're trying to move the attention away from the military interrogation team?

PUCKETT: Well, we don't know. Because the MPs are all reservists and the military intelligence people are all active duty people and what's clear in all of this and what's apparently yet to be investigated is that the military intelligence personnel were the folks had complete, exclusive control over what went on in the interrogation rooms.



Edited to add Karpinski's new rank.


Edited again to add another link to a story published in our local paper yesterday, 'cept we only got a highly edited version of this one!

Army demotes general in Abu Ghraib scandal

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/24hour/politics/story/2372429p-10621566c.html


Maybe this link will work (same story)!

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=734534

Most Amerikans no longer care about this issue. A few bad apples. The guilty have almost all been punished. Sabrina is next and then it will be done. Move on. It's the way Amerikan business is done now.

This woman might be an able manager, but she is no leader. I also have my doubts about her management abilities as well. I retired from the service 10 years ago, and once had the misfortune to be in a unit as screwed up as what I have read this one was. It took a tremendous amount of effort to maintain our abilities due to the interference from higher HQ.

This woman should be a grease spot from the heat engendered by her actions. She should not have been allowed to retire. She is getting off much too easily. Her primary staff should be made to resign, and her subordinate commanders should be thrown out as well.

The purpose of the commander is to accomplish assigned tasks and take care of the troops. Karpinski failed miserably on all counts. Read BG Taguba's report. Read the other reports that are available. Granted, you need to have had experience within the military to truly comprehend just how poorly she performed, but reading the reports will provide you the information.

I don't care about her gender, the male commanders under her command are just as liable as her. They are all without merit, and the military would be infinitely better off without their presence.

and his crime cabal. We had no business in Iraq in the first place, it was all based on lies, wasn't it?


George W. Bush should be a grease spot from the heat engendered by his actions.

IM(Very)HO about him.