Back in May, professional hate monger and stooge Barbara Ehrenreich demonstrated that the stupid child doesn't fall far from the stupid parent as she ranted against Susan Faludi (among others) and foamed, "But did we really need another lesson in the female capacity for ruthless aggression? Any illusions I had about the innate moral superiority of women ended four years ago with Abu Ghraib. Recall that three out of the five prison guards prosecuted for the torture and sexual humiliation of prisoners were women. The prison was directed by a woman, Gen. Janis Karpinski, and the top U.S. intelligence officer in Iraq, who also was responsible for reviewing the status of detainees before their release, was Major Gen. Barbara Fast. Not to mention that the U.S. official ultimately responsible for managing the occupation of Iraq at the time was Condoleezza Rice." ("Hillary's Gift To Women," May of 2008)
Poor Barbara Ehrenreich's lived her life as though it were an alternative Laura Nyro song: "No one hurries home to ugly women . . ." And you don't get much ugly than Democratic Socialist Babsie. No, folks, that's not a form of a Democrat. It's a Socialist and as a non-Democrat, Babsie really didn't have a reason to endorse in a Democratic Party primary but that's a whole other layer of ugly.
So unable to tackle Faludi's points, Babsie tried to switch the topic and bring up Abu Ghraib. Why? Not because she gives a damn about Iraq. She doesn't. Any more than that ugly daughter of Babsie's cares about a free press. (Rosa Brooks left LAT as they were about to fire her and took up with Barack's White House where she's issued the cry for licensing of all journalists. What a proud moment for Babsie.)
We'll get to Karpinski. Let's start with Babsie's claim Recall that she claimed three out of the five prison guards prosecuted for the torture and sexual humiliation of prisoners were women.
Babsie always felt facts worked best when 'improved' on. What others might call lying, Babsie (and Rosa) terms "journalism."
Three of the five guards prosecuted?
1) Charles Graner
2) Joshua Lee Betts
3) Ivan Frederick
4) Javal Davis
5) Jeremy Sivits
6) Armin Cruz
7) Sabrina Harman
8) Megan Ambuhl
9) Lynndie England
10) Santos Cardona
11) Roman Krol
12) Michael Smith.
We're counting twelve. Joshua Lee Betts was tried . . . and found innocent of all charges. He was prosecuted. So there were 12 prosecuted and one of the 12 was found innocent. There are three women on this list and, no, Babsie, they do not make up half the ranks. Three out of twelve. Our confusion was her "prosecuted for the torture and sexual humiliation." If you look at the charges when they faced their court-martial, you'll see that "sexual humiliation" didn't always make it on to the list. We're not disputing that sexual humiliation took place, we're just attempting to understand Babsie's cracked mind. Looking over which each was charged with (forget convicted of -- except Betts who was found innocent), you won't find that listed for all. Also no one was charged with "torture." We don't disagree that torture took place. But we're attempting to enter Babsie's cracked head.
Three out of twelve is not half, it's a third.
As usual, when the facts aren't good enough for Babsie, she gets creative. Which is how she gets "three of the five." She's not done being creative, though.
Remember, she also wrote, "The prison was directed by a woman, Gen. Janis Karpinski, and the top U.S. intelligence officer in Iraq, who also was responsible for reviewing the status of detainees before their release, was Major Gen. Barbara Fast." Yes, Janis Karpinski was sort of in charge. She wasn't in charge of the section of the prison where abuse took place (military intelligence was in charge of that). It's amazing that in 2009, Babsie didn't 'know' that. It's amazing she wasn't aware of what Major General Geoffrey Miller did and ordered in Iraq. Or that she wasn't offended that while Gen Karpinski was busted down to Col, Miller retained his rank. Last week, the chair of the Senate Arms Committee, Carl Levin released a report entitled [PDF format warning] "INQUIRY INTO THE TREATMENT OF DETAINEES IN U.S. CUSTODY." Miller is featured in it a great deal. He wasn't the saint he (and the Bush administration) claimed. (Start reading the report on page 76.) What the report finds backs up what Karpinski has maintained all these years.
April 5th, retired Army Col and retired State Dept diplomat Ann Wright told Cindy Sheehan on Cindy's Soapbox that Janis Karpinski was made the fall person for Abu Ghraib. (Wright also spoke of how Karpinski fought back, like no one she'd seen do, refusing to be silent while the military did their 'investigation'.) Last week, Karpinski appeared on The Early Show (CBS) and repeated that the torture was brought in and not something the people serving under her came up with on their own. Samira Simone (CNN) observed, "She said was a scapegoat. She said she was just following orders. She said she was demoted unfairly. Now, retired Army Col. Janis Karpinski can say: I told you so. . . . Today, Karpinsi has found validation in a few Bush-era memos released last week by the Obama administration." While Ruth asks, "So are they going to restore her rank? They should. They busted her down when she was innocent," Babsie falsely smears the woman.
That's really all Babsie ever does. The next sentence is equally appalling: "Not to mention that the U.S. official ultimately responsible for managing the occupation of Iraq at the time was Condoleezza Rice." The buck stops with the person occupying the Oval Office. More importantly, the person under the president who would be in charge of Iraq would be the Secretary of Defense. At the time of Abu Ghraib, that was Donald Rumsfeld. Condi did not become Secretary of Defense after him. She did become Secretary of State. The Secretary of State is not over "managing" any occupation, Babsie. But, most importantly, when Abu Ghraib's torture took place and when it was revealed, Condi was the National Security Advisor. Of the US, not Iraq's National Security Advisor.
In other words, she was never an official "responsible for managing the occupation of Iraq" at any time during her White House career.
Babsie loves to 'create' facts. But, if you paid attention, all the creation went to attacking women. So it's past time Babsie was asked why she hates women so? Equally important is asking The Nation and The Progressive why they run Babsie factually challenged ravings?
The Nation ran that garbage and, click here for Google cache, you'll note they never ran a correction to any of Babsie's 'errors.' We zoomed in one paragraph, that's far from the only problem. The question is how did The Nation miss noting these obvious factual errors? Remember that the next time you read something at The Nation.