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Iraq

Abu Ghraib general criticizes demotion

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the highest-ranking officer punished in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, fired back Tuesday against the Army inspector general who demoted her last week, saying the Army relied on an old shoplifting charge to prosecute her.

The Army revealed no evidence that she was responsible for the abuses of Iraqi prisoners, said Karpinski, whose Army Reserve unit was in charge of the prison during the abuse of Iraqi inmates.

"The punishment may look like it's in response to Abu Ghraib, but it is not," Karpinski said in an e-mail interview with the Associated Press. "They had nothing to use against me, so they exploited this so-called charge of shoplifting and made mention of it in conjunction with the final report, making it appear this demotion was about Abu Ghraib."

Karpinski noted that the last line of the report states, "Actions General Karpinski took or failed to take in no way contributed to the abuses at Abu Ghraib."

The Army's inspector general investigated four allegations against Karpinski: dereliction of duty, making a "material misrepresentation" to investigators, failure to obey a lawful order and shoplifting. Only the shoplifting and dereliction of duty allegations were substantiated.

The AP, quoting a U.S. government official who spoke last week on condition of anonymity, reported that Karpinski was accused of shoplifting a cosmetic item from a shop at a domestic Air Force base while she was a colonel. Karpinski didn't report her arrest for this misdemeanor on a later background check, the official said.

Karpinski called it the "so-called" charge in her e-mail to AP, but didn't address it further. In an interview with CBS News last year, she denied shoplifting.

An Army spokesman defended proceedings against Karpinski, saying, "The inspector general's investigation into senior leader accountability was the most extensive and thorough look to date into allegations involving senior officials."

"The (inspector general) was able to garner information from 11 separate investigations and used more than two dozen sworn interviews with officials, from L. Paul Bremer to chief warrant officers familiar with detainee operations, which provided them with more than sufficient information to reach their conclusions," Col. Joseph Curtin said Tuesday.

On May 3, the Army announced it had demoted her back to colonel, after getting required approval from President Bush. The demotion means her career in the military, where officers must rise in rank or leave, is effectively over.

Karpinski also received a written reprimand and was formally relieved of command of the 800th Military Police Brigade.

Three more senior generals were cleared of wrongdoing: Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top Army general in Iraq at the time; Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, Sanchez's deputy; and the military's intelligence chief in Iraq at the time, Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast.

The Army did not explain the specifics of its allegations, but previous investigations have accused Karpinski of failing to maintain order and prevent the abuses.

[Last modified May 11, 2005, 00:47:09]