'Scapegoat' claim of Iraqi prisons boss

Last updated at 11:30 15 June 2004


The American general who ran Iraqi prisons claimed today that she had been made a "convenient scapegoat" for the abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib detention centre.

Brigadier General Janis Karpinski said she had had no reason to visit the cell blocks where the detainees where photographed being abused and humiliated by prison guards as they were run by Military Intelligence.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4's On The Ropes, Gen Karpinski, who has been suspended but not charged, also said she had been told by the commander of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre to treat the prisoners "like dogs".

The instruction came from Major General Geoffrey Miller who ran Camp Delta, where the US holds foreign suspects in its "war on terror", and who has since taken charge of the prisons in Iraq.

"He said they are like dogs and if you allow them to believe at any point they are more than a dog, then you have lost control of them," she said.

She said she had not even been aware of the inspection by the International Committee of the Red Cross which revealed the abuses at Abu Ghraib as the interrogation facilities in cell blocks 1A and 1B were run by Military Intelligence.

"The interrogation operation was directed, it was under a separate command and there was no reason for me to go out to look at Abu Ghraib cell block 1A or 1B or visit the interrogation facilities because it was not in my lane," she said.

She added: "Having lived through the operations in Iraq, having briefed just about everybody in there in a senior leadership position, having been sent out to conduct press conferences and escort congressional delegations because of the extent of my knowledge and responsibilities and then to have somebody, very late in the game, just question my leadership abilities and other people follow suit - I believe I was a convenient scapegoat."

Most watched News videos