Fri, Feb. 17th, 2006, 03:59 pm
Abu Ghraib Follow-Up

[info]tepintzin reminded me the Abu Ghraib scandal is in the news again, with another batch of pictures selling papers. I'd previously posted on the punishments given out to 27 of the officers involved. I thought I'd go back and see if the promised court-martials had happened, and what the results were. I found the official Army press release that was the source of the info I'd seen before, but the only officer being punished who was mentioned by name was Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who was demoted.

Searching the database for more info brought up accounts of the enlisted troops convicted in the scandal. Sivits, Frederick, and Graner had stories of their own. Davis and Krol had a joint one. The female troops, Harman and England, not only had their own stories but got their names in the headlines instead of just being "soldier."

For the officers? Nothing in the Army database. Google found some accounts. Col. Thomas M. Pappas, MI commander, got an LOR. Lt. Colonel Jerry Phillabaum (MP battalion commander) was reprimanded. Capt. Donald Reese (company commander of above convicts) received immunity for testifying. Capt. Leo Merck resigned to avoid court martial, for something not prisoner related but deserving jail time IMHO.

As an aside, the latter two really tick me off. Captains have real authority and responsibility, and should be held accountable.

That leaves 22 officers receiving punishment even if those two captains get counted in the list. I found a bunch of names of other officers involved:
Lt. Col. Stephen Jordan, Majors David Price, Michael Thompson, and David DiNenna, Capt. Carolyn Wood, and CWOs Jon D. Graham and Jeffrey Hanson Edward Rivas, Jon D. Graham, and Kevin Kramer. Googling them doesn't bring up anything other than mentions of testifying at the court-martials above and sometimes "facing investigation." So what happened with all those charges? It's not like a media blackout could be to blame, the Army's not talking about it. Did they get carried out without announcement? Why hide it? Are all the charges being dropped? That'd stink and I wouldn't expect the brass to be that stupid. So what's going on?
Current Mood: annoyed
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Sat, Feb. 18th, 2006 02:11 am (UTC)
[info]electorprince

"Captains have real authority and responsibility, and should be held accountable."

Not really. An O-3 is like the Specialist of the commissioned ranks; there are a million of them, and you can make CPT without having to face a board like you do for field grade (O-4 and above) rank. As for the list you found on Google, most of them seem to have gotten off light in comparison to the enlisted who were convicted, but there won't be any of them who ever rise in rank again. A letter of reprimand on an OER is like a hemorrhage on a career.

"Lt. Col. Stephen Jordan, Majors David Price, Michael Thompson, and David DiNenna, Capt. Carolyn Wood, and CWOs Jon D. Graham and Jeffrey Hanson Edward Rivas, Jon D. Graham, and Kevin Kramer. Googling them doesn't bring up anything other than mentions of testifying at the court-martials above and sometimes "facing investigation." So what happened with all those charges?"

They were never charged due to lack of evidence of wrongdoing after the conclusion of investigation, or were covered when BG Karpinski took the hit. There's no coverup, just nothing to report because their involvement ended after testifying.
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Sat, Feb. 18th, 2006 04:37 am (UTC)
[info]libertarianhawk

there are a million of them

Yes--some are LJ users. Maybe I should add some more details to my userinfo.

you can make CPT without having to face a board

Yes, though it's not totally automatic. A guy in my unit was denied promotion since he was awaiting sentencing on his courtmartial (he's still in Leavenworth AFAIK).

They were never charged due to lack of evidence of wrongdoing

All the names I listed are presumed innocent, sure. But who are the 22 who were facing action, particularly the six facing court-martial? That's nearly as many as the enlisted who got CMs. But no names. And if they were important enough in the mess to CM, why aren't their names in the other reports?
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Sat, Feb. 18th, 2006 05:06 am (UTC)
[info]electorprince

"Yes, though it's not totally automatic. A guy in my unit was denied promotion since he was awaiting sentencing on his courtmartial (he's still in Leavenworth AFAIK)."

Courts-martial typically warrant flagging, so of course you're not going to get pinned automatically.
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Tue, May. 16th, 2006 08:41 pm (UTC)
(Anonymous)

While there are a lot of captains in the Army, to say they are like specialists is misleading. CPTs command companies; in that position they have a lot of authority and responsibility, and should be accountable for what goes on in their units. Specialists are only responsible for their own actions, while leaders should be responsible for the actions of their whole unit.

The whole incident sounds like a great leadership problem, and should be studied by all young leaders. What do you do when given a mission you don't have the resources to do? What do you do when your boss is absent or uninvolved? How can you influence the culture of the unit while in the middle of perfomring a difficult and challenging duty? Unfortunately, those in this case didn't find adequate answers to these questions.
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Sat, Feb. 18th, 2006 03:23 am (UTC)
[info]noumignon

Weird stuff. If people are actually being punished for Abu Ghraib some media ought to pick it up and run with it. I have never heard anyone mention any punishment for anyone except the seven low-level stooges. The WSJ editorial page says Taguba report exonerates everyone, and everybody else says things were stonewalled. Maybe people familiar with the system don't read these punishments as serious enough to point to? Or maybe it just needs someone like you willing to do some followup.
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Sat, Feb. 18th, 2006 10:25 pm (UTC)
[info]tepintzin

Wasn't the general in charge of the prisons demoted? I think I recall that the hammer fell on her too.
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Sun, Feb. 19th, 2006 08:21 pm (UTC)
[info]libertarianhawk

That's Karpinski, the only officer mentioned in the release. I suppose they could be trying to scapegoat a BG to protect all those lower-level guys but that's not the usual Army MO.
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Fri, May. 12th, 2006 02:35 pm (UTC)
[info]libertarianhawk: Update

Okay, a court martial is announced.
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1739948.php
Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan was charged April 28 on seven specifications under the Uniform Code of Military Justice that include disobeying a superior commissioned officer, dereliction of duty, failure to obey a regulation, false swearing, cruelty and maltreatment and interfering with an investigation.

(hattip to [info]john_of_arabia)
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Fri, Jun. 2nd, 2006 05:46 am (UTC)
[info]selenite

Sgt. Santos A. Cardona convicted of dereliction of duty and aggravated assault for allowing his dog to bark within inches of a prisoner's face. But the panel of four officers and three enlisted soldiers acquitted Cardona of some of the most serious charges he faced, including unlawfully having his dog bite an inmate and conspiring with another dog handler to frighten prisoners into soiling themselves.
Ten low-ranking soldiers, including fellow dog-handler Sgt. Michael Smith, have been convicted in the Abu Ghraib scandal, in which detainees were abused and photographed in painful or sexually humiliating positions. Smith was sentenced to 179 days in prison.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060602/ap_on_re_us/prison_abuse_dogs_8
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