[A-List] The brass knew (and we knew they knew)

["Stan Goff" <sherrynstan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

General: Brass knew of prison techniques

By Stephen J. Hedges
Washington Bureau
Published August 20, 2004

WASHINGTON -- An Army investigation into allegations of prisoner
mistreatment by U.S. soldiers in Iraq ignores the role top commanders in
Iraq may have played in approving and monitoring prisoner interrogations
there, according to an Army Reserve general who was once in charge of
the prison.

Pentagon officials said the Army report into abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib
prison, which will be released early next week, will implicate about two
dozen people but found no wrongdoing among officers above the rank of
colonel.

But Janis Karpinski, the Army Reserve brigadier general in command of
detention facilities in Iraq when the abuses occurred, said top officers
in Iraq were aware of the interrogations and had knowledge of the
techniques that were used.

Specifically, she said Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the commander of the
detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, visited Abu Ghraib in
September 2003 and, shortly afterward, began to receive daily reports on
interrogations at Abu Ghraib.

Those reports, she said, came from Col. Thomas Pappas of the 205th
Military Intelligence Brigade, which directed interrogations at Abu
Ghraib. Pappas is expected to come in for heavy criticism in the Army
report. But Karpinski insists that blame should go higher.

`Tremendous pressure' claimed

"Col. Pappas did not act on his own," Karpinski said in an interview. "I
do know he was under tremendous pressure all along. . . . The pressure
was intensified immediately following Gen. Miller's visit, and it never
got any better."

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to discuss the report's
details but said of Karpinski's claim: "She's wrong."

"This report does address chain-of-command issues above the 205th MI
brigade," Whitman said. "This is a very thorough, comprehensive
investigation; it will be illuminating on many fronts."

In testimony before Congress, Miller has denied that he approved the use
of abusive interrogation tactics. Pappas, in an earlier statement to
investigators, reportedly said Miller approved the use of dogs to
intimidate prisoners.

Karpinski also said Gen. Barbara Fast, Pappas' immediate commander and
the head of Army intelligence in Iraq, knew of the interrogation
techniques used at Abu Ghraib and frequently visited the prison.

"Gen. Miller was giving Gen. Fast instructions," Karpinski said.
"There's no doubt in my mind about Gen. Miller's involvement in this."

An Army official said neither Miller nor Fast would be available for
comment Thursday.

A Defense Department official with knowledge of the report declined to
comment on Karpinski's claims. The official said the report thoroughly
examined abuses at the prison, and who carried them out. A handful of
outside contractors hired by the military to conduct interrogations, the
official said, will also be implicated.

A report last month by Army Lt. Gen. Paul Mikolashek, the Army's
inspector general, found that only a limited number of people at the
prison were involved in the abuses.

"These abuses should be viewed as what they are--unauthorized actions
taken by a few individuals and, in some cases, coupled with the failure
of a few leaders to provide adequate supervision and leadership,"
Mikolashek wrote.

A soldier in January reported evidence of prisoner abuse in Iraq. Gen.
Ricardo Sanchez, then the U.S. commander in Iraq, ordered an
investigation, and military officials announced that claims of abuse had
been made.

Sanchez assigned Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba to examine the accusations;
his report offered disturbing details about the treatment of prisoners
by U.S. captors and military police officers assigned to guard them.

But it was not until pictures of soldiers abusing prisoners were made
public in April that the abuse allegations became a full-fledged crisis.

Top investigator replaced

Maj. Gen. George Fay, a reserve officer serving as second in charge of
Army intelligence, was assigned to investigate further. In June, the
Army replaced Fay with Lt. Gen. Anthony Jones, deputy commander of the
Army Training and Doctrine Command, explaining that Fay's rank did not
allow him to question officers serving above him.

So far, seven enlisted soldiers from a military police company have been
charged with abuses.

Karpinski said that when Miller came to Iraq a year ago, he told her
that he had been sent by the secretary of defense. Karpinski has said
that Miller told her that he wanted to "Gitmoize" Abu Ghraib. Karpinski
said that she took that phrase to mean bringing Guantanamo interrogation
tactics to Iraq.

Miller, in congressional testimony in May, said he instructed guards to
observe prisoners, not mistreat them.
Copyright C 2004, Chicago Tribune