Iraq prison abuse stains entire brigade

BAGHDAD (AP) — The prisoner-abuse scandal has so tarnished the Army’s 800th Military Police Brigade that soldiers slated to receive a Bronze Star medal have been dropped from the list, the brigade’s commander, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, said yesterday.

“The vast majority of fine, outstanding soldiers in the brigade are paying dearly,” Gen. Karpinski told the Associated Press in an e-mail.

After the Army started its investigation into abuse of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison, “many, many” of the soldiers’ recommendations for the Army medal were downgraded, Gen. Karpinski said. Her 2,800-member brigade operated 12 U.S. prisons and detention camps across Iraq, including the sprawling Abu Ghraib facility west of the capital, Baghdad.

The Bronze Star denotes heroism, outstanding achievement or meritorious service.

An Army report on the abuses at the prison faulted Gen. Karpinski and other commanders in the brigade and its subordinate battalions, saying leaders paid too little attention to the prison’s day-to-day operations.

Previous abuses of prisoners or lapses at the prison went unpunished or unheeded, said the report, written by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba.

Gen. Karpinski’s subordinates at Abu Ghraib at times disregarded her commands and didn’t enforce codes on wearing uniforms and saluting superiors, which added to the lax standards that prevailed at the prison, said one member of the brigade.

The soldier, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, also said that commanders in the field routinely ignored Gen. Karpinski’s orders, saying they didn’t have to listen to her because she was a woman.

Now, that soldier said, his own Bronze Star commendation was quashed after the investigation started.

“I was supposed to get one and so were others. [The recommendations] were downgraded and subsequently kicked out,” he said. “There’s a stigma of belonging to the 800th. You don’t deserve any medals. Everybody thinks it’s the 800th that’s guilty of these crimes, when it’s a subordinate unit.”

Some of those turned down for the medals won’t get even the simple Army Commendation Medal, the soldier said.

The seven soldiers facing criminal charges in the abuse case, including those posing with naked prisoners, are members of the Army’s 372nd Military Police Company, based near Cumberland, Md.

The 372nd is one of more than a dozen companies within the 800th MP Brigade. All are Army reservists, most of whom returned to civilian life in January in the United States.

The vast majority of the soldiers in the brigade and its subordinate units served without incident in Iraq.

Gen. Taguba’s report reserves special commendations for two battalions within the 800th that operated well, “with little or no guidance from the 800th MP Brigade”: the 744th MP Battalion and the 530th MP Battalion

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