Timeline: Iraq Prison Abuse Scandal
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Thursday, May 06, 2004The following is a list of important dates in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal:
2003
• June 30: Army Reserve Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski named commander of all military prisons in Iraq.
• Aug. 31-Sept. 9: A team of counter-terrorism experts investigating prisoner interrogations in Iraq concludes that although the prisons should provide a "safe, secure and humane environment that supports the expeditious collection of intelligence, … it is essential that the guard force be actively engaged in setting the conditions for successful exploitation of the internees."
• October: The 372nd Military Police Company ordered to guard Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
• Oct. 13-Nov. 6: A team of military police and legal and medical experts reviews the prison system in Iraq; it concludes that there are possible manpower, training and human rights problems that should be addressed immediately.
2004
• Jan. 13: A Member of the 800th Military Police Brigade tells superiors about prison abuses, and Pentagon officials are informed. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is told a day or so later. Shortly afterward, Rumsfeld tells Bush.
• Jan. 14: U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, opens criminal investigation of abuses.
• Jan. 16: U.S. Central Command announces that an investigation of prison abuses is underway.
• Jan. 17: Sanchez formally advises Karpinski that there are serious deficiencies in her command and that the performance reflects a lack of leadership. Karpinski is later suspended from duty.
• Jan. 19: Sanchez asks for a high-level review of prison procedures.
• Jan. 24: Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, U.S. ground forces commander in Iraq, is directed to conduct the review.
• Jan. 31: Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba is named chief investigator on the review.
• Feb. 2: Taguba and his team visit Abu Ghraib.
• March 3: Taguba's preliminary findings are presented to McKiernan; they point to members of the 372nd Military Police Company and intelligence operatives as the abusers.
• March 13: The Army's Criminal Investigation Division charges six soldiers with counts ranging from conspiracy to indecent acts.
• April 6: McKiernan approves some report recommendations, including letters of reprimand for six MPs and noncommissioned officers; two are relieved of duties.
• April 28: "60 Minutes II" shows photographs of prisoners forced to engage in simulated sex acts.
• May 3: Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) asks Pentagon officials to testify before his committee the next day.
• May 4: Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld says those responsible will be brought to justice and widens investigations of prisons outside Iraq and Afghanistan. National security advisor Condoleezza Rice tells the Arab world that the abuses will be investigated and the perpetrators punished. Army officials give Senate committee a private briefing.
• May 5: President Bush appears on two Arab television channels, saying those responsible for the abuses will be brought to justice. Rumsfeld agrees to testify before the Senate committee on May 7.
© Associated Press. Copyright © 2004 ComStock, Inc. Copyright 2004 FOX News Network, LLC.
Reply 1 - Posted by: themarkman, 5/8/2004 6:29:35 AM
Takes 'em a sec, but eventually the news catches up with the public perception.
Reply 2 - Posted by: shards, 5/8/2004 7:10:54 AM
Looks like Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski is in deep trouble.
Reply 3 - Posted by: Jaybird, 5/8/2004 8:25:47 AM
I caught a glimpse of Martha Burke on TV last night. She's already trying to portray the female prison guards as "victims" of a male dominated military culture. That didn't take long.
Reply 4 - Posted by: Mardi47, 5/8/2004 8:46:03 AM
Well the dems needed an issue to take attention away from the moron they have running for president. Looks like they found a new horse to beat to death.
Rather needs to be investigated by the military to find out who he got the photos from. They need to confiscate his emails, and phone records. He poked his nose into a military investigation, now HE and CBS need to be looked at under a microscope. How convenient that this info falls into democrat hands.
I demand an investigation into CBS, and Rather. After all, isn't that what dems do, gather a commission for everything.
Reply 5 - Posted by: Texas Ranger, 5/8/2004 9:15:50 AM
CBS and Rather did a great dis-service to this country by releasing the photos. Some other source would have eventally gotten them, but they would not get the world wide viewing if published in tabloids. For CBS and Rather to completely ignore the impact that this could have on the safety of our troops is near treasonous. Boycott this network and all who advertise on it.
Reply 6 - Posted by: freedomlover, 5/8/2004 9:39:59 AM
Will be interesting to see what happens to Karpinski. She was obviously the person in charge. If she were equal to leaders of the past, she would accept her responsibility, accpt her punishment, and uphold the honor of being US military officer.
Instead, she was well prepared with a civilian lawyer and was immediately out on the talk shows claiming victimhood.
For all the capable and honorable women who are in the military, I hope she is brought to task and not let off for political correctness. If this happens, the respect for real women will be set back.
Reply 7 - Posted by: Barlyk, 5/8/2004 9:44:48 AM
I intend to start compiling a list of CBS advertisers, especially during that jerk ratherdan's nightly embarrassment.
Reply 8 - Posted by: Texas Pete, 5/8/2004 9:55:40 AM
I would submit that the showing of these pictures won't have that big an impact on our operations in Iraq or anywhere else. Fallujah happened before these pics came out as did the al Sadr mess in Najaf and surrounding areas.
The big mass of bombings in November happened before these pics came out.
There is a significant minority of Muslims convinced that Allah wants us all killed and that Allah has chosen them to do the killing.
Just exactly how are these pics (and the ones to come) going to change that? Is Allah going to tell them to kill us deader than dead? Perhaps they'll get an idea and hijack airliners to fly into the Pentagon and the Twin Towers of the WTC, oops! They've already done that.
That bunch of Muslims is going to hate us anyway. The rest either just want to be left alone or are scrambling for Green Cards.
Reply 9 - Posted by: petie3, 5/8/2004 9:57:42 AM
Karpinski was properly relieved for lack of leadership. Now that the S hit the Fan she will probably do hard time. This situation has been more or less public for quite a while. As the devil is in the details the pictures are what turned the stomach.
Remember the single sentence in the Bible about scourging and crowned with thorns, and the 45 minutes of 'The Passion of the Christ' where it hit home.
Agree to boycott CBS, and include CNN, NBC, ABC. Nothing on there I want to see anyway.
Reply 10 - Posted by: Rumblehog, 5/8/2004 10:55:32 AM
Looks like some kind of S&M porno ring was operating under the auspices of the 372nd Military Police Company.
Why else would there be so many pictures? Soldiers don't take that many "trophy photos".
This Clinton General, Karpinski is doing ALL the wrong things. Blaming her superiors, not taking responsibility, etc.
Reply 11 - Posted by: Rumblehog, 5/8/2004 11:13:41 AM
According to testimony yesterday by the Generals, the officer under investigation, BG Karpinski, was given access to the Report prior to its being sent to Washington for her review and rebuttal. The fact that she's a Clinton General and DC insider smacks of a connection to the photos leak to CBS and Spy Hersch from her attorney.
Quite a diversionary tactic. They've just muddied the entire criminal proceeding by leaking Grand Jury testimony and evidence to the public.
Someone should be hung out to dry.
Reply 12 - Posted by: gone2pot, 5/8/2004 11:45:54 AM
Wow, when Rudyard Kipling wrote "Tommy", he had no idea the left could make the girls laughing in the bar pikers compared the likes of Ted Kennedy and Carl Levin. The left can't even say "Thank You Mr. Atkins" WHILE the band is playing, let alone when it begins to play.
Reply 13 - Posted by: Sooner, 5/8/2004 11:50:08 AM
CBS used the excuse that they learned that these pictures were going to be aired by another source which is why they showed them. I wonder what they paid for them, and who is now very rich. But, whatever their excuse, there are times when even the media should use some discretion which would of course in today's political climate be a miracle. Rather, if not guilty of treason, is certainly guilty of subversion and aiding and abetting the enemy as well as the Dems. If this were like World War II, Rather would be viewed like Ezra Pound who propagandized for the Nazis. He spent years after the war in an insane asylum.
Reply 14 - Posted by: Allegra, 5/8/2004 1:49:02 PM
#13, they didn't have to pay anything for them CBS is owned by viacon, viacom is owned by sumner redstone, sumner redstone is owned by satan himself.
Reply 15 - Posted by: arikari, 5/8/2004 1:55:38 PM
I predict a book from Karkinksi next year, one attacking the Bush administration.
Reply 16 - Posted by: pomom, 5/8/2004 1:55:56 PM
#11, now, it appears that David Hackworth is in the mix. He facilitated the dispersal of those photos to 60 Min.
Reply 17 - Posted by: westernskies, 5/8/2004 1:59:24 PM
I agree..let's boycott CBS and its advertisers especially on Dan Rather's show...The damage was done mostly by the pictures...we must remember the prisoners were not beaten, their fingernails were not ripped out, their tongues were not cut out oh no! but they were HUMILIATED for which grave sin our 'holier than thou' CBS, Dan Rather and a lot of our dimwit congressmen want to severly punish some of our troops who are just praying to stay alive thru this war.. Dear God, we need help to save us from sanctimonious fools such as these.
Reply 18 - Posted by: Allegra, 5/8/2004 2:13:31 PM
They needed a bomb, a bomb was delivered.
Pray that the Lord will reveal the truth.
Reply 19 - Posted by: Evocatus, 5/8/2004 4:31:36 PM
From the article:
• March 13: The Army's Criminal Investigation Division charges six soldiers with counts ranging from conspiracy to indecent acts.
• April 6: McKiernan approves some report recommendations, including letters of reprimand for six MPs and noncommissioned officers; two are relieved of duties.
• April 28: "60 Minutes II" shows photographs of prisoners forced to engage in simulated sex acts.
In my opinion, it is CLEAR from this time line that one of the punished perpetrators gave "60 Minutes" the incriminating pictures as a form of after-the-fact blackmail for their punishment. Prove this contention is not true.
Reply 20 - Posted by: nolie, 5/8/2004 8:33:21 PM
In my opinion, CBS News and Dan Rather will always diss the USA at every opportunity. An investigation of this will prove absolutely nothing, it would wind up like the 9/11 Commisssion, useless.
Reply 21 - Posted by: starboard, 5/8/2004 10:37:28 PM
I was a Hackworth fan until I found out he was anti Bush.
Reply 22 - Posted by: danu, 5/9/2004 2:21:12 AM
so many ravening wolves in sheep's clothing.,
we need a score card
and some bi-i-g traps
Reply 23 - Posted by: mamamoose, 5/9/2004 2:50:37 AM
I agree with No. 19, and I did BEFORE I read the No. 1 article in "Must Reads". The reasoning is the simplest, most direct and most logical conclusion as to how the pics got to the Media. Now, the path they took getting there is a whole nother matter, Ollie. Frankly, it doesn't matter a whole heck of a lot just HOW they got there. Obvioiusly a facilitator or two were necessary, but the leftists have bunches of them. Might as well believe the Hack story as anything.
