10/26/2005

few bad apples get punished while the tree that bore the fruit still stands

AMY GOODMAN: As we come to the end of this conversation, very much the tone of your book, of One Woman's Army," is that your were scapegoated. You feel, especially because you’re a woman, the only woman put in charge of a combat operation from the United States, and now you have been demoted. Do you feel that if others were demoted, if others were punished, who do you feel should be punished? What would be your list of names?
JANIS KARPINSKI: Well, we have to start at the very top, and the original memorandum directing interrogation -- harsher interrogation techniques and the departure from the Geneva Conventions starts at -- Alberto Gonzales was one of the people who made the recommendations to the President. I don't know if he talked about each detail of that departure or what that may imply, but I do know that the Secretary of Defense signed a very lengthy memorandum authorizing harsher techniques to be used in Afghanistan and specifically at Guantanamo Bay. This was the global war on terrorism. This was a prisoner of a different kind. You needed to get down at the same level as they were to be effective.
And those techniques migrated from Guantanamo Bay, with General Miller, to Iraq and were implemented at Abu Ghraib. So clearly, the Secretary of Defense; Secretary Cambone, his assistant who sent General Miller to Iraq with very specific instructions on how to work with the military intelligence people; General Fast, who was directing interrogation operations and giving instructions to Colonel Pappas on how to proceed and how to be more effective; General Sanchez, because this was his command, and he knew what General Fast was doing, and he knew what Colonel Pappas was doing, to the point that Colonel Pappas made a comment one time that he thought maybe he had a bruise on his chest because Colonel -- General Sanchez had repeatedly poked him in the chest telling him to “Get Saddam! Get Saddam!” and use whatever he needed to use to get the information.
AMY GOODMAN: If all of these people were punished, do you think it's fair that you are punished?
JANIS KARPINSKI: I would say that these soldiers, they were certainly assigned to a subordinate unit, and they are my responsibility, ultimately, yes. I think that they have been fair -- unfairly and unjustly held accountable for all of this, as if they designed these techniques, as if Lynndie England deployed with a dog collar and a dog leash. And that's unfair, and that's a tragedy in all of this. Should they be punished for doing what they did, for agreeing to do what they did? Absolutely, but singled out? No.



this is the interview i blogged about earlier today. the one that stunned my ex-husband, c.i. and myself. they did a partial translation earlier today but i'm too lazy to transcribe (c.i. did transcribe the section at democracy now. janis kaprinski is the guest for the hour and the topics include abu ghraib, guantanamo bay, torture, rumsfeld and much more.



this is an interview that should be required viewing, listening or reading for anyone concerned about what's going on in iraq. in fact, i'd go further, i'd argue that it should be required reading especially for those who don't bother to think about what's going on there.

who got blamed? lynddie england a few other enlisted. where did the orders come from? the top.

when is torture czar alberto gonazles going to be charged?

this is news and you won't hear about it from the online dylan who daily jerk off went up so late today that c.i. made a joke about it. the daily jerk off has ignored torture and prisoner abuse except to lecture katrina vanden heuvel, excuse me, to scold and ridicule her. because our online latter day dylan knows everything about ... nothing.


the daily jerk off has squirted substance from 1999 throughout the last few years when not trying to slime joe wilson. our big brave dylan wanna be couldn't inform you about anything that matters because he was so busy performing his greatest hits over and over. he stopped getting hits somewhere around feb. 2001 so in the years since, the daily jerk off has issued best ofs and remixes.


maybe before the daily scold attacks another person who's trying to speak out about something that truly matters today, he might want to ask himself if he shouldn't have shut down shop after all? it certainly would have saved him the embarrassment of selling out his integrity in the joe wilson case.

in the real world, things have been happening for the last four years, hideous things and he hasn't been there to tell the people. he's jerked off to 'al gore was slimed' over and over. and when a real issue came up, prison abuse or any thing else, he's trashed the people who dared leave his favorite narrative.


a list of those unfairly trashed would include: katrina vanden heuvuel, amy goodman, janeane garofalo and basically any woman.


today, while real news is all around, he's jerking off again to answer an e-mail and grab another chance at sliming joe wilson.


c.i.'s been holding the tongue waiting for the long promised change (and hoping it included a self-confession by the daily scold) but i'll tell you right now, reading the daily scold trash wilson yet again (with republican talking points, does any 1 else notice that?), i can't promise i'll hold my tongue.

but tonight's let's talk about the fact that justice is applied differently. those ordered to do the dirty business go to prison, those who give the orders are given a pass. that's very different from nuremberg where those handing out the orders were held accountable.

and maybe america's okay with it? maybe we're just wanting to rush home and watch lost and tune out to all news except for who got stabbed somewhere or shot somewhere and cluck our tongues over the violence?

while we can't afford to fund our schools or to help those in need, we can spend billions fighting this immoral war.

i was reading an interviews with studs terkel & howard zinn the other day (c.i. passed on the print version because they are not available online) and at 1 point (this is clamor magazine, by the way) the point is made that with the military buildup after wwii we turned away from
a chance to fund the people and increase our knowledge and opportunities. we continue to do that.

we always have money for the weapons and the military (though not for the the troops on the ground or their families) but give a tiny sliver to head start or another program that actually helps people and you get republicans screaming 'communism' or some other nonsense.

but our tax dollars can go towards killing and destruction and we're apparently all okay with that.

i'm on the phone with elaine and mike (and be sure to check their sites tonight) and elaine brought up tal afar and how there was a tendency to focus on hurricane katrina while people, innocent civilians, were being bombed in tal afar. we covered that in the third estate sunday review news reviews. that was an editorial decision. elaine, c.i., ava, dona and jess wouldn't have stood for it not being covered (and the rest of us agreed whole heartedly) but tal afar didn't get a lot of play in a lot of places. so is it that we're not concerned that we can fund slaughter?

we're all hitting in a different way tonight. elaine's focusing on those who make themselves useless. mike's focusing on how granting a pass to some reporters rewards the system of lies and deceit. i'm focusing on the fact that killing is going on.

i know my readers agree with me and are outraged. but what would really help is when you discuss this in your classes tomorrow, if you're in high school (or junior high, stacy is in 8th grade), or at work, or on campus at a college, or where ever, if you would hit hard on the interview amy goodman did with janis karpinski.

there is so much truth in that interview. and sadly it's truth that a lot of people have been able to avoid.

so please share that interview. talk it up. if someone's interested, show it to them. don't say, 'oh i'll send you the link' if they're next to you, pull it up on the computer right then and show it to them.

the only way this war ends is if we all get honest, all of us who care. a lot of people don't care. they're saying 'send more troops.' we need to counter those voices by getting the truth out there.

last thing (elaine got off the phone some time ago but mike and i could talk all night!), please read cedric's post from yesterday. i think he did a wonderful job. i know c.i.'s going to touch on that tonight and may have already. (it was in the long version of the mid-day post that would not post, c.i. and i both had trouble with our sites today.) inclusion means inclusion. there's no way around it. i know cedric wishes he had found another thing to say and isn't pleased with the post but i think it's great and it's from the heart - you can't ask for more.












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