[A-List] Wrist slap for abusers

["Stan Goff" <sherrynstan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[This serves to reinforce Seymour Hersh's story about abuse being
systemic (Duh).  The fact that these people received only reprimands -
no matter how "severe", they are a pro forma slap on the wrist -
indicates that the military does not want these troops to go public.
This is a plea bargain deal.  -SG]

Reprimands for US senior officers

Abu Ghraib prison was much feared in Saddam Hussein's era
Six senior US officers have been reprimanded for allowing the abuse of
Iraqi prisoners held at Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad.

The reprimands could lead to them being thrown out of the army. The
abuses, which occurred in late 2003, are said to have involved about 20
prisoners.

Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who headed the 800th Military Police
Brigade, is reportedly among the six.

Another six soldiers at the jail are already under criminal
investigation.

The six officers have received a General Office Memorandum Reprimand,
which prohibits any further promotion and paves the way for dismissal
from the army.

A seventh person has been given a "letter of admonishment", a lesser
form of reprimand.
All seven are now appealing against the rulings, which were issued last
month, but only made public on Monday.

'Blame-shifting'

The abuse at Abu Ghraib came to light on Thursday, when CBS TV showed
photos of Iraqi prisoners being subjected to humiliation and abuse.

In one picture, two Iraqis were forced to simulate oral sex, while
observed by laughing guards, while another inmate was connected to wires
and told he would be electrocuted if he fell off a box.

Suspected Saddam Hussein loyalists are held at the prison

In an interview on Sunday, Gen Karpinski - a reserve officer - said she
was "sickened" by the images from the Baghdad jail.

She told the New York Times that military intelligence officers had been
in and out of the high-security cells "24 hours a day".

She said she believed military commanders were trying to shift the blame
onto her and other reservists - and away from the intelligence officers
still at work in the prison.

"We're disposable," she said. "Why would they want the active-duty
people to take the blame?"

Internal report

Gen Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Sunday
that US Army intelligence was looking into allegations that intelligence
personnel may have encouraged, or pressurised, soldiers to abuse
prisoners as part of interrogations.

He spoke after the New Yorker magazine said it had obtained an internal
US Army report documenting "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal
abuses of Iraqi prisoners", including beatings and sodomy.

Gen Karpinski said she did not defend the actions of the reservists who
are alleged to have taken part in the abuses.

The general added that CIA employees often took part in the
interrogations at the prison complex.

US President George W Bush said on Friday he was deeply disgusted by the
alleged abuses, but that only a "few people" were to blame.

A British newspaper has also published pictures that it said showed
British soldiers apparently urinating on a shackled Iraqi prisoner.

But sources close to the regiment say aspects of the photographs do not
seem authentic.