Janis Karpinski demoted for half empty bottle of skin lotion

[DoYouEverWonder]

Yep, believe it or not former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski of Abu Ghraib prison fame has been demoted. Now some people would think that she deserved to be demoted for her role in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal but the folks at the Pentagon didn't have a problem with any of that. No they decided to go after her on a much more serious issue, a trumped up shoplifting charge for a half empty bottle of lotion.

In Tampa, answers to Abu Ghraib?
A Times Editorial
Published December 3, 2005

Does the military really intend to use the alleged shoplifting of some moisturizer to cover up a fuller accounting of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal? That is exactly what the Army is doing with its shabby treatment of former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, a reservist who was in charge of the prison where Iraqi inmates were abused. Karpinski was relieved of her command and demoted to colonel - not for her actions in Iraq, but for reportedly shoplifting cosmetics at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base.

This wouldn't look so blatantly like scapegoating if (a) the Army had not cleared Karpinski of having contributed specifically to the abuse at Abu Ghraib, (b) the underlying theft charge were not so disputed or petty and, (c) the military were not so bent on keeping records in the case from becoming public. Karpinski's military career was ruined after the Army's inspector general upheld charges that she palmed a bottle of lotion from a MacDill store in 2002 and failed to inform the Army about the misdemeanor charge.

Karpinski said the charge resulted from a misunderstanding. While shopping in the store, she removed several items from her purse while rummaging for her cell phone. A store guard, seeing her place the lotion in her purse, stopped Karpinski and wrote a report. She maintains the bottle was half-empty and that MacDill later apologized. In published remarks in May, Karpinski said: "They had nothing about Abu Ghraib to use against me. So they pull this flaky allegation out and use it to demote me? To save face? To mislead the American public yet again?"

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/03/Opinion/In_Tampa__answers_to_.shtml

[liberaliraqvet26]

1. I served under Gen Karpinski in Iraq....

under the 800th MP Bn. She was given an IMPOSSIBLE mission with the amt of troops & supplies she was given. She was also kept out of the loop on the pentagons operations in the very prisons she was supposed to be running.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. SInce she's come back to the US

she has been very outspoken about what she saw in Iraq. Of course, that doesn't go over well with folks like Rummie so they had to figure out some way to punish her. Can't have too many people telling the truth now can we?

[KharmaTrain]

2. Shameless In So Many Ways

When this scandal broke, Gen. Karpinski was far from being a sympathetic figure, but seeing how she's been screwed over by the military is appauling. But then it's not much different than the number they did in scapegoating Lyndie England or their attempts to use Jessica Lynch as a PR pawn.

The treatment of women in the military needs a real good look-see. Gen. Karpinski has paid a big price for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and in a situation she was never prepared to deal with...but in the machismo world of G.I. Joe, an uppity woman needs to be put in her place.

Here's hoping the judge and most of the jurors at whatever tribunal handles Rummy, Crashcart and the other butchers are predominately women!

[MADem]

3. That woman was treated horribly by the military, and they should be

ashamed of themselves.

First of all, her civilian expertise is HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT, not running prisons--what, was she supposed to put a chocolate on every pillow? They stuck her in a job that had a steep learning curve and gave her NO time to prepare for it...even at that, she did well at most of her locations. All of the other prisons in her network did not have these problems.

AG was a problem because a certain faction within DOD and the CIA MADE it a problem. It would not have mattered who was running the system, they essentially walled off their area and did their own thing.

[spartan61]

5. I have just finished reading Karpinski's book

"One Woman's Army" and I have even more respect for her than prior to reading it. In the book she doesn't whine about the conditions, but she certainly speaks the truth. No wonder the Pentagon quarterbacks are going after her. Heaven forbid the American people should ever find out what is really going on with what used to be our country.

[I Have A Dream]

6. Can it get any more pathetic than this? The neocons have no shame. n/t

[postulater]

7. What has happened to her is disgusting

makes me ashamed my government did this to her.