Ex-commander of Iraq prison says she's a scapegoat

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Ex-commander of Iraq prison says she's a scapegoat

The Associated Press

NEWARK, N.J. (May 7, 10:06 am ADT) - The former commander of American prisons in Iraq acknowledged that several soldiers under her command were "clearly guilty" of abusing prisoners, but predicted she would be cleared of all wrongdoing.

Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who was suspended pending an investigation into the abuse, said in Friday's Star-Ledger that she has been unfairly blamed by the Army's investigation.

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

The photographs of U.S. captors smiling as prisoners assume humiliating positions have led to criminal charges against six soldiers, who face possible courts-martial, and reprimands of seven others.

In e-mails sent from Iraq to a Presbyterian pastor in the New Jersey town where she grew up, Karpinski called the abuse of prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison "deplorable."

"Several of my soldiers are clearly guilty and will be punished," she wrote to the Rev. Howard Bryant in a March 31 e-mail. "Some things are simply out of my control."

A message left at Karpinski's Hilton Head, S.C., home on Friday was not immediately returned. Her lawyer, Neal Puckett, said she was taking time with her family and was unavailable to speak to the media.

Karpinski, 51, who grew up in Rahway, was stationed in Baghdad, but not at Abu Ghraib. She told the newspaper that she knew nothing of the abuse until Jan. 19, soon after photos taken in November first came to the attention of Army officials.

The investigative report prepared by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba said that 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.

Karpinski told the newspaper that the report 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 United States.

Whoever released the report to the media did not include her responses to the charges, she said.

In interviews over the weekend, Karpinski said that she suspected military intelligence officials who were not under her command had condoned the abuse.

"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 later told the newspaper she had no problem with their disclosure.