Brig. General Janis Karpinski to be on CNN "American Morning"

[thecrow]

WTF????
I just wrote a letter to CNN stating that I find this APALLING.
Why isn't this a military matter? Is the military up for public debate?

I do not think that she should be making the rounds to tell "her side of the story".
It's not a news agency, it's flippin' Jerry Springer revisited!

If you agree, please write to CNN and let them know!

[Jivenwail]

1. She's been all over the place

She was on MSNBC yesterday. I did not give her a listen, as I don't want to hear her try and defend herself or the others involved in this.

I simply don't buy the "we didn't know", "we weren't trained properly" and "it's not my fault" BS. Anyone with a brain should have COMMON SENSE to know right from wrong. And she's as responsible as anyone - - it happened on her watch.

[Junkdrawer]

2. Karpinski is being setup to take the fall. Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz...

are the men who gave the torture orders, IMHO. She says she wasn't in charge of cellblock 1A where the worst of the torture took place. So Who was? It seems 'private contractors' whe reported to Gen. Sanchez were. Who hired these guys? who set up the rules?

Too much information is in the public domain. Karpinski + 6 won't fly...

[Tinoire]

5. Not only was she not in charge of it- she wasn't even allowed in.

And the Brits today are in full cover-up mode trying to say that their photos are fakes, haha, as if British soldiers hadn't already come forward saying they were real.

WHOLE HOUSE OF CARDS COMING DOWN. HOW SWEET! :)

This would be grand comedy if there weren't so much human suffering involved... Finger-pointing all over the place...

General Myers, Chairman Of The Joint Chiefs Of Staff, is trying to pretend he never read either Sanchez or Taguba's report... Oh yeah right... No one knows what's going on here :eyes: Everybody's hands are clean... Everyone following orders but nobody giving any (Nazi style ;))

Oh yeah, this show is going to be good.

CIA conducting an invetigation of the agents they had over there but saying their agents did nothing wrong...

Senior NCOs and MI officers whisked off the scene...

Our allies in the Middle East conducting interrogations with us just vanish...

and we're supposed to tear apart Karpinski + 6, the sacrificial lambs of the affair.

Nope, ain't gonna fly.

[Junkdrawer]

6. Laura Ingraham was on Imus - Spouting "She looks like a truck driver"...

and the other talking points the RW are trotting out. Ya know, in a way, the RW does us a favor by walking in lock step - it makes it all sooo obvious.

[Junkdrawer]

3. "Is the military up for public debate?" - Last time I checked...

but maybe we've gone all the way to military dictatorship. It's so hard to keep in touch.

[Tinoire]

4. Why is it so appalling? Surely you want to hear more than the govt's side?

Tossing out a Brigadier General and a few enlisted people ain't gonna fly on this one.

OH NOOOOO! I want to hear all about MI's involvement, the CIA's involvement and about the involvement of certain allies we have in the Middle East who were interrogating prisoners.

This will not die with Karpinski + 6 as Junkdrawer stated.

This thing is big enough to bring the entire neo-con house come crashing down.

Let it crash. CRASH & effing burn baby!

[bigtree]

7. I was interested to hear her say that she bore some responsibility

but more intrigued to hear her say that certainly others bore blame for what happened. Sounded like she's not going down without naming names. I'd stay with her every word and measure them against what is uncovered.

[Tinoire]

10. Exactly! n/t

[KharmaTrain]

8. Scapegoats Needed

Can't you see the embarassment all over this regime. Some are trying to rationalize this senseless act (and war) through "a few bad apples" but to make it work they need someone to make the bogey man/woman, and here's your candidate.

I saw her with Debra Nowhereville last night (why??? boredom!) and heard her flail like a fish...even paperweight Debbie had this lady looking bad. The implication was this lady was totally unaware of what what going on...just following orders and if she had known...blah blah blah. Get ready to see her thrown to the wolves.

It doesn't hurt she's a woman and a reservist...this insulates the regular military and gives the wingnuts a diversion (women in the military) to try to spin their way out of this fiasco. Ain't gonna work here.

I hope Karpinski does a Condi Rice...every show that will have her (has she appeared on Faux yet? Will she?) She's a face to the story and as long as it goes on the worse it looks for this regime and the harder it is for the "moderates" to continue to justify what this regime is doing.

RoveCo's got a lot of fires going on right now. There's the torture pictures, along with the Mission Unaccomplished and the Wilson book and the crappy economy and the rising gas prices and so on. Having a nice scapegoat keeps the short attention spans and talking heads away from meaningful issues...and pray that the Jacko, Kobe and Peterson trials get rolling soon.

[Tinoire]

12. You got that one right!

It doesn't hurt she's a woman and a reservist...this insulates the regular military and gives the wingnuts a diversion (women in the military) to try to spin their way out of this fiasco.

Have you noticed the right-wing spin? Their not-so-subtle implication is that this is what comes of having women and :eyes: gays in the military.

[KharmaTrain]

13. How Else Do You Lie Your Way Out?

This and the release of that Mercenary are being spun to cover major ass...and pass the buck but only so far up the line.

I can't help think Jessica Lynch two ways here.


1.) Lynch The Mythical Hero: With the Mercenary (sorry, name slipped mind at this early hour)...the "brave escape from captity"...a hero and so on.

2.) Lynch the Scapegoat: A woman, weak, wasn't really supposed to be there, not capable of handling the situation, others really were the ones who made her heroics possible.

It's shameful how these assholes don't care who or what they shit on.

[Tinoire]

14. I know! Jane Harman to Rumsfeld & Karpinski today

<snip>

The ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jane Harman of California, wrote a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld demanding a briefing on the role military intelligence officials may have played in the alleged abuse.

<snip>

The former commander of military police at U.S. prisons in Iraq, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, said MPs were being given instructions by military intelligence.

"I don't know how they allowed these activities to get so far out of control, but I do know with absolute confidence that they didn't just wake up one day and decide to do this," she told CNN.

Karpinski, an Army reserve officer who has since rotated out of Iraq, was admonished before the investigation got under way, her attorney said.

"I certainly take responsibility for some of this, because those soldiers were assigned to a company under my command," Karpinski said. "I don't think the blame rests with me. In fact, it's unfair because we had 3,400 soldiers, and this was the only facility where interrogations were taking place, and this was the only facility with infractions."

But Kimmitt said that military intelligence was not responsible for "individual acts of criminal behavior" by MPs, which he termed "absolutely horrible, absolutely inexcusable."

"They made the choice to do that, and now they seem to be concerned about being caught," he said. "Those soldiers you see in the pictures let us down."

<snip>

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/04/iraq.abuse/

Kimmet is lying through his effing teeth!

"THOSE soldiers"

Kind of like "I did not have sex with that woman". At least that's what it reminded me of... Kimmet's denial is a little overdone.

[KharmaTrain]

16. Bingo! Let's Not Overplay It, This Is Their Tar Baby

I saw Rep. Harmon the other night and always like what she has to say. Yes, someone in Congress has to go on record (since we know a real investigation in DeLayland isn't thinkable) to show some conscious. I'm sure Sen. Kerry will be pressed to speak out, and I hope he's tempered in his first remarks...since if anyone knows about how polarizing this issue is, it's him...he lived it.

We just need to keep pumping on all the hypocricies this situation presents. Where's the "Christian" values when the picture shows more and more of American oppression and perversion...the same damn things these monkeys were fed after the WMD lie to justify the invasion we're now doing.

Last night I had an interesting "discussion" with a wingnut "associate"...a year ago he was so Pro-* it was nauseating...we just kept our distance, now he's really having a tough time dealing with one mess after another...especially this one.

I caught him on two things...first, by turning over Fallujah to the Baathist General, didn't we just give guns and power back to the people we said we needed to eliminate to make THIS country safe from terrorists (start the Ralph Kramden hamina, hamina here)...and that our troops running the prisons like Saddam did, and the populace knows it, makes things even worse...(still maintaining composure, but ringing collar).

Next, we talked about Mercenaries and how these people were the cause of the insurection. He, of course called them contractors...then we went into the description of what these contractors are. He even added to my ammo by mentioning someone he knows who is currently in Kuwait at 100k a year working for a contractor. I purposely asked him (walked him through very, very slowly) if he took this job purely for the money. The answer was: he gets the 100k Tax free (Ralph...with the Alice look)...again...was this job purely for the money? Yes, I guess it was. (Chef Of The Future look takes over).

Next, I take Ralphie through how it's our tax dollars that's paying for this guy...the extra appropriation Bunnypants had to tack on to the last "emergency appropriation" bill...the fat Kerry voted against and Bunnypants is now trying to slam him on. All Kerry wanted was money for the troops and what type of protection are those guys getting? Ralph now had the look when he was on the quiz show...had crammed up on all those songs except for Swanee River.

This was too much fun.

Cheers!

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. Instead of making the rounds of news shows

shouldn't this Karpinski be in jail, awaiting court martial?

And shouldn't Myers, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz be lawyering up and writing their resignations?

Oh, that's right I forgot, this isn't Kansas anymore.


edit: should, should be, shouldn't

[Junkdrawer]

11. It's Karpinski "making the rounds of news shows" that will lead to...

Myers, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz in the dock. I'm glad they put the screws to her - like getting small fish to take down Mafia bosses.

[Tinoire]

15. thecrow- I can't thank you enough!

Without your thread, I would have missed this.

Thank you :)

[thecrow]

18. You're welcome!

Did you all write a letter to CNN?
Mine was one of outrage... shouldn't this woman be in a windowless brig somewhere?
But I think if you feel that she should be doing the talk show rounds then you should also write a letter to CNN.
The thing is, don't let up on this issue...
DON'T LET THEM BURY IT!!!

[Solly Mack]

17. She's behaving in a manner not considered "officer-like"

by promoting her side of the story. I'm surprised the military is allowing her to do so..seriously, it's not something they encourage.
But then, not behaving "officer-like" got her into the mess to begin with...

However, all that aside...

If her promoting her story helps to expose the situation..then good.
Yes, EPW abuse by the military is up for public debate. Afterall, those soldiers went over there in OUR name.