Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who oversaw the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq from 2003 to 2004, spoke on campus this Wednesday with the intent of shedding light on the inner workings of the U.S. government’s activities in Iraq. Karpinski addressed a crowded Center for the Arts (CFA) Cinema, rejecting claims that implicated her in the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal and giving a scathing commentary on the Iraq War.

“We still don’t know if it continues or how long it will,” Karpinski said of the torment and torture practices that photographs have documented from Abu Ghraib.

Karpinski said that her assignment to administer 15 detention facilities, including Abu Ghraib, resulted from a logistical lapse in which only three of 83 necessary prison experts were available. Alongside other military personnel with similarly deficient skills in handling prisoners, Karpinski witnessed the Abu Ghraib population transform from a group of several hundred self-confessed Iraqi criminals to a throng of “security detainees.”

In reality, Karpinski said, this vague term described any number of innocent Iraqis who, amidst the American search for “high interest” terrorism suspects, were lumped into the Abu Ghraib facility. She said it was a hopeless situation for incarcerated Iraqis who attempted to prove their innocence without regulations or due process.

“Our constitutional rights apparently don’t have a long reach,” Karpinski said.

Karpinski focused less on specific abuses that occurred in Abu Ghraib than on the messy aftermath of the April 2004 release of photographs taken within the facility. She was demoted to colonel while commanders more directly in charge of the prison, she said, were not held accountable.

In accordance with the larger message of military sexism that Karpinski repeatedly stressed, she claimed that her status as a woman rendered her an easy scapegoat in the scandal.

She caustically described the scenario from the perspective of male personnel.

“This was the case of a female commander who was overwhelmed with her responsibilities,” Karpinski said. “[Meanwhile], a whole chain of command walked away blameless.”

After Karpinski’s demotion, General Geoffrey Miller was appointed as deputy commanding general for detention facilities.

Yet it had been Miller, Karpinski said, who recommended “GTMO-ising” Abu Ghraib, referring to Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.

“[Treat prisoners] like dogs,” Karpinski recalled Miller saying. “If you allow them to believe at any point that they are more than a dog, then you’ve lost control of them.”

In addition to describing the Abu Ghraib scandal and the resulting political turmoil, Karpinski spent much of her lecture discussing other things that she feels have plagued the U.S. and its chances for success in Iraq.

Commanders and units ventured into Iraq “not with flawed intelligence, but false intelligence,” Karpinski said.

She described the various films that commanders showed to military units, depicting the faces of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden and images of a mushroom cloud in order to stress, “this is why we’re here.”

Considering Iran’s possible presence in Iraq, Karpinski addressed students directly, saying that a governmental decision to take the war to Iran would result in a draft.

She emphasized the lack of both governmental foresight and current maneuverability in the war.

“I don’t think there is an exit strategy,” Karpinsky said.

The audience supported Karpinski’s assessment on how to support U.S. troops in Iraq with a round of applause.

“You bring them home,” she said.

During the question-and-answer session that followed, Karpinski responded to an inquiry into the military’s reaction to her lectures. She could recount only one blatant example of disapproval. The chief of the U.S. Army Reserves sent Karpinski several letters that cautioned against public lectures. After she spoke at a law school in California, two reservists approached her on behalf of the chief and attempted to dissuade her from continuing.

But, Karpinski said, her desire to share the truth about the scandal in various settings and forms has overpowered such warnings.

Attendees appreciated the insider’s view that Karpinski was able to offer.

“I thought it was interesting that finally it was someone speaking out who wasn’t from the way left, hippie propaganda shit,” said Destin Douglas ’09. “We don’t often get that perspective.”

Karpinski published “One Woman’s Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story” in 2005, relaying her experiences in the military and at Abu Ghraib.

Wednesday’s lecture was sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs, Project for Global Change, WesPeace, and Students for Ending the War in Iraq (SEWI).