Janis Karpinski

Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, commanding officer of the unit at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq during 2003, was demoted to Colonel in May, 2004, after being (depending on which story you believe) responsible for, or scapegoated for, the scandalous acts of American torture against Iraqi detainees at the prison. Karpinski had never run a prison system before then, and repeatedly claimed that she did not know what was going on.

I had been hesitant to speak out before because this Administration is so vindictive. But now I will. Despite years of this pronouncement that it's an "army of one" -- [here Karpinski refers to the advertisements to join the Marines that carry the slogan "An Army of One"] -- we reservists were absolutely discriminated against. The people at the senior levels of the reserve components, the Chief of the Army Reserve, for example, a three-star, never made so much as one phone call, never exchanged one word with me in all of this. Twice, my lawyer requested a meeting with him face-to-face in Washington, DC, and he declined. He denied both of those requests. It's really a good old boys' network. Come hell or high water, they're going to maintain the status quo. They all live by each other in Fort Myers, or near Fort Myers. I'm sure that they have these cigar-smoking sessions where they're all patting each other on the back that they got another female out of the way... [interview posted at www.truthout.org, 3 August 2005]