Amy Goodman: "Treat Them Like Dogs"

Thanks to my friend, Janet, for providing a heads-up. She writes "This is a very long interview by Amy Goodman with Col. Karpinski. As a matter of fact, it's two pages at AlterNet. However, it is definitely a "must read," and I would encourage you to take the time to do so.

The people of this country need to know what actually "went down" at Abu Ghraib and who the assholes are who are responsible for this atrocious behavior by the U.S. military. The orders to treat these prisoners in an inhumane manner had to have come from the top down, and there has to be a demand that the U.S. military not only take responsibility for this but discontinue it immediately - IF NOT SOONER..."

http://www.alternet.org/rights/27401

"Treat Them Like Dogs"
By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
Posted on October 26, 2005, Printed on October 28, 2005

http://www.alternet.org/story/27401/

In April 2004, a secret Pentagon report concluded that U.S. soldiers had committed "egregious acts and grave breaches of international law" at Abu Ghraib. Since the photos first appeared, no senior Bush administration officials have been reprimanded for what happened at Abu Ghraib. Seven soldiers have been convicted for their role in the detainee abuse. Last month Lynndie England was sentenced to three years in prison. In January, Specialist Charles Graner was sentenced to 10 years. The highest ranking military officer reprimanded was Brigadier General Janis Karpinski who was commanding officer at the prison. She was demoted to colonel in May. She oversaw all military police in Iraq and was the first female ever to command soldiers in a combat zone. This is an abridged transcript of her interview.

AMY GOODMAN: Col. Janis Karpinski has just published a book about her experience. It's called One Woman's Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story. How did you end up at Abu Ghraib?

COL. JANIS KARPINSKI: Abu Ghraib was one of 17 prison facilities that we were responsible for in Iraq. The units deployed from January throughout 2003 up 'til about April of 2003 to conduct a prisoner of war mission. The units are trained to do prisoner of war operations, and a prisoner of war camp was established in Iraq, very close to the Kuwait border. So, the units -- the unit members, the soldiers, all believed that they were going to come home after victory was declared on the First of May when the President arrived on the aircraft carrier. They allowed me to deploy to Iraq to join my units, to take command of the units, although I was told that the majority of the units, the soldiers, would be coming back home because the mission was complete.

When I arrived in Kuwait, I was told that the units were going to be staying for an additional two months, because we were assigned a new mission for prison restoration and training, assisting the prison's experts up at Ambassador Bremer's headquarters in Baghdad, with training Iraqi guards to conduct prison and detention operations. So we relocated. There was never any discussion about whether we were properly equipped or prepared to take on this mission. It was simply assigned to us, and very quickly the two-month extension became a four-month extension, and then it became 365 days, boots on the ground, for all of the units that were deployed.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

You get a lot more out of it by watching the interview.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/26/1423248

including interviews with J. Karpinski is Frontline's "The Torture Question".

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/torture/

As for the "treat them like dogs" tag line....
I do believe it is illegal to treat dogs in this manner in the US.

Withholding water in 90+ degree heat:



http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/torture/etc/script.html

Personally, I would NEVER treat my dogs that dispicably.

A plant, maybe. They were treating these people in a fashion I would treat house fauna. The only difference is they were doing it intentionally, I just forget to water the damn things --- which is why I prefer dogs - they won't let me forget.

and I agree that seeing is the best. But she does name names...Miller and Cambone and Sanchez. She was in charge of over 100 prisons!!!!That was just sort of dropped in the interview with no followup, but it is jaw dropping in my mind.