From Phillip Carter's Intel Dump
http://www.intel-dump.com/A picture that's worth a thousand wordsOne of my readers forwarded me a link to the March edition of The Utah Sheriff, a quarterly newsletter for the Utah Sheriffs' Association. On page 6 of the newsletter, this photograph appears depicting Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz touring the Abu Ghraib prison with Lane McCotter, Gary DeLand and BG Janis Karpinski. (The fifth guy in the back looks to me like NYT reporter Eric Schmitt, but it could also be a security guy; I've only met Mr. Schmitt once at a Toyota dealership in Alexandria two years ago.) The caption from the photo reads ""Lane McCotter briefing Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, on a tour of the death house at Abu Ghraib Prison, south of Baghdad."
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The exact date on the picture is unknown, however the New York Times
reports that Mr. McCotter left Iraq on October 1, 2003, to return to the states. The newsletter implies that it was taken during the summer of 2003.
I'm not sure what to make of this photo, or what it says about the Deputy Defense Secretary's involvement at Abu Ghraib. It's certainly possible this is simply what it shows -- a senior Pentagon official touring a detention facility. Additionally, Abu Ghraib was where the Hussein regime committed many of its worst human rights abuses, so it does make sense as a stop for the DepSecDef. But it sure raises some questions, doesn't it? Here are a few I'd like to see answered:
- What exactly was Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz doing at Abu Ghraib in summer 2003? Was he involved with the prison at all, or was this just tourism like the photo caption says?
- Does this picture help corroborate the latest Sy Hersh story, namely, that the chain of command for the special-access program "Copper Green" ran straight from Abu Ghraib's personnel to the Pentagon?
- What was BG Karpinski's role in all of this, and why hasn't she been prosecuted yet? This photo may undercut her assertion that she was cut out of the loop.
More to follow.