Generals at odds over abuse at prison

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An Army investigation and congressional hearings have spotlighted a series of conflicting statements about Iraqi prisoner abuse between the top brass and the general who once ran Abu Ghraib prison and who was stripped this week of her brigade command.

Some military advocates say Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski received light punishment because she is one of the Army's few female generals. Recommended for a reprimand, she instead received a minor letter of admonishment.

At first, she kept her command of the 800th Military Police Brigade. But as pressure mounted from Congress to punish higher-ups -- not just enlisted MPs at the prison -- the Army this week temporarily reassigned her to a reserve unit at Fort Jackson, S.C.

The differences pitting Gen. Karpinski against superiors go to the heart of why the infamous prison near Baghdad was dysfunctional and why it became the venue for continued physical and psychological abuse of Iraqi detainees by military police.

Gen. Karpinski, a reservist who lives in Hilton Head, S.C., and works as a business consultant, says the scandal stemmed from a lack of manpower at Abu Ghraib and no clear direction from the military command in Baghdad led by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez. She denies knowledge of any abusive behavior before the scandal broke.

But Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, who completed the first of several ongoing administrative investigations, lays some blame squarely at the feet of Gen. Karpinski. His report says she did not act on recommendations from a series of fault-finding inquiries before the ill treatment began in October.

"Had the findings and recommendations contained within their own investigations been analyzed and actually implemented by Brig. Gen. Karpinski, many of the subsequent escapes, accountability lapses and cases of abuse may have been prevented," Gen. Taguba wrote.

Some pro-military persons have seized on the Abu Ghraib scandal as an example of a "politically correct" military that does not want to punish a female general.

"I think they've been handling her with kid gloves," said Elaine Donnelly, who heads the Center for Military Readiness. "The fact that she is a woman general who portrayed herself as a victim may have had something to do with it."

On her suspension, Mrs. Donnelly said, "Frankly, I wonder why it has taken so long. She was there before, during and after the worst of the abuse. I'm not convinced at all by her argument she did not know."