General denies visiting jail during abuse

[CShine]

The top US general in Iraq rejected a recommendation in January that the military make a public, Arabic-language radio or television address to the Iraqi people to tackle allegations of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, the former head of military police at the prison has claimed. Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez also visited a military intelligence unit at Abu Ghraib at least three times in October last year, when the first of the worst abuses were taking place, Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski said.

And while General Sanchez has said he did not learn of the abuses until January 14, General Karpinski said his top deputy, Major-General Walter Wojdakowski, was present at a meeting in late November at which there was extensive discussion of a Red Cross report that cited specific cases of abuse.

General Karpinski, who was suspended from duties in late January, was the commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade and in overall charge of the US-run prison system in Iraq. The US military has recommended disciplinary action against seven US officers who helped run the Abu Ghraib prison, including General Karpinski.

The Washington Post on Sunday cited a statement from a military lawyer that a captain at the prison had placed General Sanchez at the scene of some "interrogations and/or allegations of the prisoner abuse". But a spokesman for General Sanchez, Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt, described that report on Sunday as "false", and said the general "stands by his testimony before Congressional committees" that he did not learn of the abuses until January 14. General Karpinski said she volunteered during a meeting with General Sanchez on or about January 23 to make an address to the Iraqi people about the prison abuse. A report by an Air Force psychiatrist who studied the Abu Ghraib prison abuse episode for the Army said physical abuses by US military police of Iraqi prison detainees stemmed from a mixture of soldiers' anger and frustration over poor working conditions, their racism and the absence of any meaningful supervision.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/24/1085389332279.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Karpinsky has been suspended

Sanches will be recalled

The plot thickens and this is FINALLY going up the chain of command

[dusty64]

2. Well that puts

an end to that, he said it so it must be so. Move along now.