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Monday, May 3, 2004

On the orders of Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, six of the soldiers, all officers and noncommissioned officers, have received the most severe level of administrative reprimand in the U.S. military, a military official said on condition of anonymity. A seventh officer was given a more lenient admonishment.

The official said he believed investigations of the officers were complete and they would not face further action or court martial. However, the reprimands could spell the end of their careers.

An additional six U.S. military police already are facing criminal charges.

Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who oversaw the prison, said on ABC's "Good Morning America" that she did not know about the abuse of prisoners while it was happening.

"They were despicable acts," Karpinski said Monday. "Had I known anything about it, I certainly would have reacted very quickly."

Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, said that in one photograph from the prison, there appeared to be more Americans involved in the alleged abuse than the six MPs who have already been charged.

"Absolutely. One photograph showed - it didn't show faces completely, but the photograph showed 32 boots," Karpinski told ABC. "I'm saying other people than the military police."

It was not clear if that would include the seven soldiers reported reprimanded Monday.

Last week, CBS' "60 Minutes II" broadcast images allegedly showing Iraqis stripped naked, hooded and being tormented by their U.S. captors.

An internal U.S. Army report found that Iraqi detainees were subjected to "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses," according to The New Yorker magazine.

'Disposable'

Karpinski, who oversaw the Army-run detention facilities in Iraq, told The New York Times that she believed military commanders were trying to shift the blame for the abuses from military intelligence officers in Iraq to the reservists.

"We're disposable," she said of the military's attitude toward reservists. "Why would they want the active-duty people to take the blame? They want to put this on the M.P.s and hope that this thing goes away. Well, it's not going to go away."

Karpinski told ABC the cell blocks at Abu Ghraib where some of the alleged abuse occurred were "under the military intelligence control."

"It was part of Abu Ghraib prison operation, but those cell blocks ... and the prison was actually under the control of the military intelligence command at the time."

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said on ABC that he wasn't sure Army military intelligence "had anything to do with the individual acts of criminal behavior."

"Those were clearly the acts of individuals," Kimmitt said, appearing on the program after Karpinski. "They made the choice to do those. And now they seem to be a little concerned they've been caught and being prosecuted for that."

Kimmitt added, however, that the investigation was reviewing "concerns expressed about the military intelligence."

Asked whether more people were under investigation, Kimmitt said that it was possible but that he didn't want to "pry into" a continuing probe.

"Something's going on here that's wrong, and we need to get to the bottom of this. There's been determination to open up every door and find out what's going on," Kimmitt said.

Karpinski's lawyer, Neal Puckett, told "Good Morning, America" that though his client received "an admonishment" from her commander, she had not been suspended or relieved of her command.

© 2004 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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