“HUGE COMMAND FAILURES” BEHIND ABU GHRAIB

The for­mer com­man­der of the scandal-​​tainted 372nd MP Company is warn­ing us not to blame Abu Ghraib on a hand­ful of depraved sol­diers.
“These actions were the result of huge com­mand fail­ures,” he says in a Washington Post op-​​ed today.

The senior per­son charged thus far is Ivan L. Frederick, a staff sergeant. In an MP com­pany, a per­son of his rank is nor­mally placed in charge of a squad of 11 sol­diers. I refuse to believe that no leader above Frederick was aware of or com­plicit in the abuses that were appar­ently wide­spread through­out the prison. While cer­tain offi­cers were relieved of their com­mands and other lead­ers were given let­ters of rep­ri­mand, the fail­ure of unit lead­ers, from com­pany to brigade, is stun­ning.
The 372nd has approx­i­mately 150 sol­diers and is divided into five pla­toons, four of which con­sist of MPs. The com­pany com­man­der is directly respon­si­ble for all actions taken by his sol­diers, or those that they fail to take. The 372nd’s com­man­der and the rel­e­vant pla­toon leader either knew or should have known of the actions of their sub­or­di­nates, as should have their non­com­mis­sioned offi­cers. All these lead­ers failed in their most basic respon­si­bil­i­ties of super­vis­ing their sol­diers in the per­for­mance of their duties. (via Phil Carter)

THERE’S MORE: Speaking of com­mand fail­ures, top Pentagon offi­cials still can’t agree on who was run­ning the show at Abu Ghraib. At a Senate hear­ing yes­ter­day, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba and under sec­re­tary of defense for intel­li­gence Stephen Cambone, “con­tra­dicted each other about who was in charge,” accord­ing to Slate.

Taguba said that the top com­man­der in Iraqagainst Army doc­trine­gave mil­i­tary intel peo­ple final con­trol. The Pentagon offi­cial, under­sec­re­tary for intel­li­gence Stephen Cambone, said the order put mil­i­tary intel in charge of the prison “facil­ity,” not the guards.
Taguba and sen­a­tors noted that the abuses came in the fall after the then-​​commander of Guantanamo Bay vis­ited Abu Ghraib and sug­gested “spe­cial oper­at­ing pro­ce­dures” to “Gitmo-​​ize” the prison and help guards “set the con­di­tions” for inter­ro­ga­tions. That gen­eral, Geoffrey Miller, is now head of the Iraqi prison sys­tem and his trip was rec­om­mended by Cambone.”

AND MORE: “The abuse and humil­i­a­tion actu­ally took place at 3 pris­ons in the Baghdad area,” a senior mil­i­tary intel­li­gence NCO tells Soldiers for the Truth. “This was not done by acci­dent, it was a planned, sys­tem­atic way to break down the pris­on­ers will to resist any inter­ro­ga­tion, degrade them and then black­mail them into work­ing for US Intelligence.“
AND MORE: “I was instructed by per­sons in higher rank to stand there and hold this leash and look at the cam­era,” says Pfc. Lynndie England, the woman who’s become infa­mous world­wide for her grin­ning por­traits of abuse.

May 12th, 2004 | War Update | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.