Yep, believe it or not former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski of Abu Ghraib prison fame has been demoted. Now some people would think that she deserved to be demoted for her role in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal but the folks at the Pentagon didn't have a problem with any of that. No they decided to go after her on a much more serious issue, a trumped up shoplifting charge for a half empty bottle of lotion.
In Tampa, answers to Abu Ghraib?
A Times Editorial
Published December 3, 2005
Does the military really intend to use the alleged shoplifting of some moisturizer to cover up a fuller accounting of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal? That is exactly what the Army is doing with its shabby treatment of former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, a reservist who was in charge of the prison where Iraqi inmates were abused. Karpinski was relieved of her command and demoted to colonel - not for her actions in Iraq, but for reportedly shoplifting cosmetics at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base.
This wouldn't look so blatantly like scapegoating if (a) the Army had not cleared Karpinski of having contributed specifically to the abuse at Abu Ghraib, (b) the underlying theft charge were not so disputed or petty and, (c) the military were not so bent on keeping records in the case from becoming public. Karpinski's military career was ruined after the Army's inspector general upheld charges that she palmed a bottle of lotion from a MacDill store in 2002 and failed to inform the Army about the misdemeanor charge.
Karpinski said the charge resulted from a misunderstanding. While shopping in the store, she removed several items from her purse while rummaging for her cell phone. A store guard, seeing her place the lotion in her purse, stopped Karpinski and wrote a report. She maintains the bottle was half-empty and that MacDill later apologized. In published remarks in May, Karpinski said: "They had nothing about Abu Ghraib to use against me. So they pull this flaky allegation out and use it to demote me? To save face? To mislead the American public yet again?"
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/03/Opinion/In_Tampa__answers_to_.shtml