Punishment Reaches The Top

The Abu Ghraib scandal rocked the world and nearly as quickly as the Libs forgot 9/11 it appeared to fall off the radar. First a couple of enlisted troops got hammered and apparently for most of America that was enough for the story to start to fizzle. In fact until recently when I heard of PFC England's attempt to plea her way out, I hadn't heard that much about it (keep in mind I am in Europe and I miss quite a bit of the news).

Well First England’s case was declared a mistrial after the judge refused to accept her plea, now a top General has felt the wrath.

According to Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - The Army has offered its last word on holding its generals accountable in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, but Congress is going to have the final say.

The Army announced that it demoted Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, whose Army Reserve unit was in charge of the prison compound during the period of abuse. Dropping her in rank to colonel required approval from President Bush, and officials said that he granted it on Thursday.

The Army also said it cleared three other, more senior generals of wrongdoing in the prisoner abuse cases, actions that had been previously reported but not publicly confirmed by the Army.

That means Karpinski is the only general to be disciplined thus far. The demotion means her career in the military, where officers must rise in rank or leave, is effectively over. Messages left at her home in Hilton Head, S.C., and with her attorney were not immediately returned.

Some in Congress have sharply criticized the Pentagon for failing to hold the more senior officers in Iraq accountable and instead pinning most of the blame on low-ranking soldiers like Pfc. Lynndie England. She pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of conspiracy to maltreat prisoners, four counts of maltreating prisoners and one count of committing an indecent act, many of which were captured in photographs that shocked the world when published a year ago. But the military judge rejected the plea agreement she had reached with prosecutors.

The Senate Armed Services Committee has said it intends to hold hearings soon to assess whether senior Defense Department civilian and military leaders were adequately held accountable for Abu Ghraib.

The Army described its investigations as exhaustive, requiring six months of work including sworn-statement interviews with 82 people, including L. Paul Bremer, who was the top civilian authority in Iraq at the time, and Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Among those cleared by the Army was Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who was the top Army general in Iraq at the time of the prisoner abuses. He has been faulted by some for leadership failures but has never been accused of ordering or sanctioning any abuse of prisoners.

The Army said it could not substantiate two allegations against Sanchez: dereliction in the performance of duties pertaining to detention and interrogation operations and improperly communicating interrogation policies.

Sanchez is currently the commander of 5th Corps, headquartered at Heidelberg, Germany.

In addition to being demoted, Karpinski received a written reprimand and was formally relieved of command of the 800th Military Police Brigade on April 8, the Army said in a statement.

The Army's inspector general investigated four allegations against Karpinski: dereliction of duty, making a "material misrepresentation" to investigators, failure to obey a lawful order and shoplifting. Only the shoplifting and dereliction of duty allegations were substantiated.

Neal A. Puckett, Karpinski's attorney, told The Washington Post that the Army is saying "she's the only senior leader that had any part in this, but they're saying she didn't have a direct part in it." The Army is severing the chain of command "right at her eyeball level, and not letting it go higher," Puckett told the newspaper.

The Army did not explain the specifics of the allegations, but a number of previous investigations of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses have accused Karpinski of failing to maintain order and prevent the abuses. She has said publicly that she was not given full authority over Abu Ghraib and that when photographs of the abuse became public she was made a scapegoat.

A U.S. government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Karpinski was accused of shoplifting a cosmetic item from a shop at a domestic Air Force base while she held the rank of colonel. Karpinski did not report her arrest for this misdemeanor on a later background check, the official said. In an interview with CBS News last year, Karpinski denied shoplifting.

The generals who were cleared, in addition to Sanchez, were Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, who was Sanchez's deputy in Iraq at the time, and Sanchez's intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast. Both were accused of dereliction of duty, but the allegations were not substantiated.

Without providing their names, the Army also said Thursday that one colonel and two lieutenant colonels linked to detainee abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan were given unspecified administrative punishment. Also, two other lieutenant colonels were given letters of reprimand.

More than a dozen other lower-ranking officers, whose names were not released, also received various punishments.

_ Three majors were given letters of reprimand and one of the three also was given an unspecified administrative punishment.

_ Three captains were court-martialed, one captain was given an other-than-honorable discharge from the Army, five captains received letters of reprimand, and one was given an unspecified administrative punishment.

_ Two first lieutenants were court-martialed, another got a letter of reprimand and one was given administrative punishment.

_ One second lieutenant was given an other-than-honorable discharge and another was given a letter of reprimand.

_ Two chief warrant officers were court-martialed.

The Army said other cases involving officers linked to detainee abuse are still open, but it did not say how many.

It is always unfortunate to hear that a career is ending, but either way this General should be held accountable. Either she didn't know what was going, which is dereliction of duty or she knew and was covering.

Abu Ghraib is without a doubt a blackeye, but like a true black eye it will heal and it will pass. As much as certain libs would like to believe it this is not representative of the fine young men and women that serve our nation!

lagleRock Out!

Posted by SlagleRock at May 6, 2005 01:48 AM