Former Iraq prisons chief denies responsibility for Abu Ghraib

[sabra]

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1166939.php

Former Iraq prisons chief
denies responsibility for Abu Ghraib

Associated Press


HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — The former commanding general of prisons in Iraq says she was not in charge of the Abu Ghraib detention facility at the time of the detainee abuse scandal there.
“How could (the military) hold me accountable when I had no direct access?” Col. Janis Karpinski told The (Hilton Head) Island Packet. “How come they didn’t hold (Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld accountable? How is that possible?”

Karpinski was relieved of command and demoted from brigadier general to colonel after allegations that dereliction of duty led to prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib.

Karpinski said she was the commanding general of the reserve unit responsible for overseeing Iraq’s prisons, but that she was not in charge of Abu Ghraib. Instead, Gen. Geoffrey Miller, commander of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, was in charge. She said that change in command was ordered by Rumsfeld to facilitate interrogation of “security detainees” there.

...

“Look how they’ve tormented me, what they’ve taken away from me,” Karpinski said.

[me b zola]

1. If/when we ever get a real government

Gen. Karpinski's testimony would not bode well for the bush* administration.