LMM Justice: Guilty until Proven Innocent...

[insein]

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/w...,3719684,print.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire

Prisons commander: Army report scapegoats me
May 7, 2004, 12:04 PM EDT

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) _ The former commander of American prisons in Iraq told a newspaper an Army report on the abuse of Iraqis by American GIs gives only one side of the story.

But in e-mails sent to a Presbyterian pastor from Iraq after the scandal broke, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski acknowledged that soldiers abused prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.

"Several of my soldiers are clearly guilty and will be punished," she wrote to the Rev. Howard Bryant, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Rahway, in a March 31 e-mail. "Their acts were deplorable."

Karpinski, 51, who grew up in Rahway, told the newspaper in an interview that she believes she is being unfairly blamed.

"I was sick to my stomach when I saw pictures of what those soldiers were doing in that prison," Karpinski told The Star-Ledger of Newark. "But I was also sick when I first saw that report. I thought: Why are they doing this to me?"

Neither Karpinski nor Bryant could be reached for comment Friday. A message left at Karpinski's Hilton Head, S.C., home was not immediately returned.

Her lawyer, Neal Puckett, said she was taking time with her family and was unavailable to speak to the media.

"I'm not supposed to tell you where she is," he said.

Bryant did not immediately return a telephone message left at his church.

She told the newspaper the investigative report prepared by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba was based on charges made by one colonel who was not in the 800th Military Police Brigade she commanded until last month, when she returned to the U.S.

The report said Karpinski failed to discipline or reassign two officers who had been the targets of complaints and that her command was marked by poor management and lax oversight.

Whoever released the report to the media didn't include her responses to the charges, said Karpinski, who was suspended from her duties overseeing U.S. detention centers in Iraq.

"He can have his opinion and finding, and I responded to it. My response was accepted and found to be valid. You can always tag leadership for the problem for whatever," she said.

Karpinski, who was stationed in Baghdad, not at Abu Ghraib, predicted she would be cleared of wrongdoing.

"When everything comes out, the public will see none of this holds up," she said of allegations against her. "I'm confident of that."

The e-mails were released by Bryant without Karpinski's knowledge, although she said she had no problem with their disclosure.

They suggest the 27-year Army veteran, who was awarded a Bronze Star during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, knew nothing of the abuse until after it had happened.

She told the newspaper she learned of it Jan. 19, soon after photos taken in November first came to the attention of Army officials.

"I am confident we did and have done everything possible in an earnest effort to do the right things," she wrote Bryant in the March 31 e-mail. "Some things are simply out of my control. We do not always have the advantage of knowing the real objective so we have to trust there are others who will do the right things."

In a Dec. 13 e-mail message, Karpinski seemed unaware of the abuse that had occurred on her watch: "Contrary to some media reports, we are doing the right thing here in Baghdad and throughout Iraq. My soldiers are working diligently to restore prisons and corrections facilities," she wrote.

___

Information from: The Star-Ledger


Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press

Which is why we have our justice system that includes due process. We do not have mob justice because mobs can be easily swayed to see a picture and assume guilt. More evidence of just how overblown this whole thing is.

 

[DKSuddeth]

with all due respect, as a former marine I know that the commander of the unit is ultimately responsible for what happens in his/her unit. this gen karpinski can cry all she wants to but she is just as guilty as her soldiers who comitted these abuses.

If she wants to mark herself as an incompetent commander then she can cry wolf over that as well, but it makes her look even more foolish.

 

[insein]

I agree military justice and life is different from civilian justice. However don't you think that this non-stop coverage has labeled her guilty before the investigation has ended and any courtmartial begun.

 

[DKSuddeth]

I am unaware of any courtmartial proceedings against her at this time. She's been relieved of duty pending the outcome of the investigation, although at this point it surely seems her career is over.....as it should be. She's been shown to be an incompetent commander by not maintaining discipline and order within the command.

 

[insein]

Originally posted by DKSuddeth
I am unaware of any courtmartial proceedings against her at this time. She's been relieved of duty pending the outcome of the investigation, although at this point it surely seems her career is over.....as it should be. She's been shown to be an incompetent commander by not maintaining discipline and order within the command.

agreed.

 

[Doc Holiday]

Originally posted by DKSuddeth
I am unaware of any courtmartial proceedings against her at this time. She's been relieved of duty pending the outcome of the investigation, although at this point it surely seems her career is over.....as it should be. She's been shown to be an incompetent commander by not maintaining discipline and order within the command.

She has shown herself to be whiny as well as incompetent by giving interviews to everyone and their brother about how she's being scapegoated. She was quoted in one interview as saying it was all the intelligence people's fault and all the abuse happened in an area that was off limits to her troops. I thought that it was funny that her troops all managed to get into the pictures though.

 

[pegwinn]

Originally posted by DKSuddeth
I am unaware of any court-martial proceedings against her at this time. She's been relieved of duty pending the outcome of the investigation, although at this point it surely seems her career is over.....as it should be. She's been shown to be an incompetent commander by not maintaining discipline and order within the command.

Originally posted by Doc Holiday
She has shown herself to be whiny as well as incompetent by giving interviews to everyone and their brother about how she's being scapegoated. She was quoted in one interview as saying it was all the intelligence people's fault and all the abuse happened in an area that was off limits to her troops. I thought that it was funny that her troops all managed to get into the pictures though.

A Leader is responsible for everything done or not done within the command. This applies to Enlisted Leaders (NCO's and SNCO's), Officers, and Specifically Commanding Officers/Generals.

But......... there is a fundamental rule about accountability. The closer to the action you are, the more accountable. Meaning the First Sergeant and Company Commander share the same responsibility as the Sergeant Major and Commanding General, but they are infinitely more accountable. Just as the Soldiers who actually committed the deeds are even more accountable.

Actual Soldiers who physically committed a crime should get a General Court Martial.

Leaders who knew of the offences and did nothing should get a Special Court Martial for dereliction of duty.

Leaders who didn't know, but should've, should be relieved "for cause" and reprimanded.

As to the General being "whiney", She is only following in her former Commander in Chiefs shoes. She also has the example of former Sergeant Major of the Army McKinney in that the media seriously hampered any viable defense by reporting his case as is his conviction were a foregone conclusion.

A key tenet of Military Leadership (as opposed to civilians and especially politicians of any party) is "special trust and confidence in the fidelities and abilities of.......". Assuming that the dog and pony shows occurred on every visit (after all she is a General Officer), and the reports came and went on time, she had every reason to believe that all was well.

She may've been lax, naive, and overly trusting. That equals stupidity/incompetent and is not chargeable under the UCMJ as a criminal offence. Item last, does anyone know how many levels of command between her and the individual? Wasn't she a brigade commander. Since I am not Army, isn't here at a minimum four levels from the individual to her. I'd be thinking a Platoon, then a Company, then a Battalion, then a Regiment at least. Wonder what's happening to the leaders at those levels.

My own 2 cents.