Home > Karpinski: RUMSFELD KNEW, Gen. Miller INSTRUCTED troops to use Leashes (...)

Karpinski: RUMSFELD KNEW, Gen. Miller INSTRUCTED troops to use Leashes & Human Pyramids

by Open-Publishing - Friday 13 May 2005
8 comments

Wars and conflicts International Prison USA

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The former commander of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq blamed a ranking officer for introducing the use of human pyramids and dog leashes in the abuse of detainees and said in an interview on Thursday that abuse may be continuing there.

Col. Janis Karpinski, a former one-star Army Reserve general who was punished in the scandal, said she had no idea what was going on at the prison and blamed Gen. Geoffrey Miller for the methods that were used to humiliate detainees.

Miller headed the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and was sent to Iraq to recommend improvements in intelligence gathering and detention operations there.

"I believe that Gen. Miller gave them the ideas, gave them the instruction on what techniques to use," she said in excerpts from an interview on the ABC News "Nightline" program.

Asked if she was referring to the positioning of prisoners in human pyramids and putting dog leashes on detainees, Karpinski said, "I can tell you with certainty that the MPs (military police) certainly did not design those techniques, they certainly did not come to Abu Ghraib or to Iraq with dog collars and dog leashes."

Karpinski, who has made similar allegations in the past, was the first high-level military officer to be punished in the abuse scandal. She was demoted from brigadier general to colonel on May 5. The demotion was announced 13 days after Army officials disclosed that the Army had exonerated Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the former top U.S. commander in Iraq, as well as three other senior officers.

Army Col. Thomas Pappas, the former U.S. military intelligence chief at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, was reprimanded and removed from his command as part of a punishment over the physical abuse and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners, the Army said on Wednesday.

The publication a year ago of photographs depicting U.S. forces abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib triggered international criticism of the United States. Numerous additional cases of detainee abuse have since surfaced.

In the ABC interview, Karpinski suggested that abuse might still be occurring at the prison. "For several months after I first became aware of the pictures, I said, ’well at least the photographs will stop this.’ I’m not convinced," she said.

Karpinski had commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade at the heart of the Abu Ghraib abuse. Previous investigations found Karpinski feuded with Pappas, contributing to an atmosphere of chaos.

Karpinski told ABC she believes officials up the chain of command knew or should have known what was going on at Abu Ghraib. Asked if that included Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, she said; "Well absolutely. And I would say that it is consistent with his direction for the military."

Karpinski said her superiors bore responsibility but reiterated her contention that it was "convenient" for the military to blame her because of her status as a reservist.

"All the way up to the top of the Pentagon, they have a long-standing mind-set about reservists and National Guard soldiers," she said. "And we are considered disposable."

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle....

Forum posts

  • RUMSFELD KNEW!!!!! OMG.

    Run Forest Run. This just cracks me up. Come On, please this is why the majority of the people do not listen to this, its tinfoil hat stuff. You guys hate Rummy, hate Bush, you try so hard to find something that is going to get the "Majority pissed off" and all you do is make us laugh.

    • This is a high level official claiming that the her superiors knew, that she’s just a scapegoat and what’s worse, this abuse could still be happening today.

      And your repsponse is: Karpinski is lying. There is no need to investigate because Bush is always right, and he would never lie.

      Are you really that stupid, or are you really paid to pump dubya? btw- is your name Gannon?

    • (sheesh could ya stop the name calling already...)

      add this to the many reasons the entire Bush Administration should be sent to the Hague ASAP.

      Will the next whistleblower please step foward.

  • this site is not to get you pissed off ... it is to inform ourselves about what your ilk are up to ... you federal operative, you ! you fool no one ... not even yourself ! nothing to do but hassel real information circulating on the web ... not !

  • Rumsfeld is only one of the galionsfigures of American war crime.

    It is not about hate! The fact tell us America/Britain are comitting unbelievable war crimes.

    Mr. Bush should close Guantanamo Bay - the world last remaining Nazi like concentration camp.

    The American army should stop raiding homes of innocent Iraqi civilians without a search warrant.
    Torture of so called insurgents (kids and women) should be stopped.

    The sick mindset of the people on this board who think America is doing right makes me puke!

  • As one of the best Presidents in our history said (Ronald Reagan, of course), : "There you go again!"

    I mean, don’t you commie sympathizers have jobs to go to, or bills to pay? It’s amazing that so many people in this country have the luxury of time to peruse the internet for conspiracy theories.

    Abu Ghraib was nothing more than a college level prank, executed by bored troops. Period. OK?? No one died, or got killed. I mean, I"ve seen college kids get themselves dead during a college prank.

    And why are you feeling sorry for these "victims" anyway? It was a PRISON, remember?? Bad ass people in prison, not the Boy Scouts!

    Get over it, and move on. It’s over.
    Gardis
    USA

    • Gardis don’t you have a life other than as a troll?

    • This may blow your mind, but I’m sure a substantial amount of the people who read this site, not only work, but may be well educated, shock horror!!! It would be advisable if you ever find yourself wanting to throw muck at people, to check your facts before commenting; People did die in Abu Ghraib, and it was completely full of ’Bad’ People. The Red Cross said 9/10 ppl in Abu were inocent - Dismiss that will you? how about the army then? 6/10 were innocent... I am guessing both are fucking with the numbers because everyone has an agenda and it is either 7 or 8. Either way, it is completely fucked. Especially for a war whose intelligence was ’fixed around the policy’, though I should expect no less. How many hours you work a week buddy? honestly lemme know so I know at which point my brain may become atrophied.

      As for Commie - I would expect you never saw that interview with John Pilger talking to John Bolton about the human cost of the War, etc. After the typical vacant speak one would expect from a beareaucrat and the interview concludes, Bolton asks with a snigger and a smirk "Are you a member of the Labour Party?" to which Pilger replied "The Labour party in England is a right wing Party" then Bolton quickly shoots back with a sense of self-satisfied glee "Or the Communist Party?" now, John Bolton has made the cognitive distortion of linking humanitarian concern with Communism as has yourself, despite it being well-known to anyone who was awake for the 1st 2 mins of any class on 20th Century history that Communism like your wonderful government, didn’t even tabulate the cost to the ppl in terms of pain, misery, and all those other words us so-called bleeding hearts use to talk about what the fuck is going on.

      Who’d miss you?