WASHINGTON, May 13: The former commander of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq blamed a ranking officer for introducing the use of human pyramids and dog leashes in the abuse of detainees and said in an interview on Thursday that abuse may be continuing there. Col Janis Karpinski, a former one-star Army Reserve general who was punished in the scandal, blamed Gen Geoffrey Miller for the methods that were used to humiliate detainees.

Gen Miller headed the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and was sent to Iraq to recommend improvements in intelligence gathering and detention operations there. “I believe that Gen Miller gave them the ideas, gave them the instruction on what techniques to use,” she said in an interview on the ABC News “Nightline” program.

Asked if she was referring to the positioning of prisoners in human pyramids and putting dog leashes on detainees, Col Karpinski said: “I can tell you with certainty that the MPs (military police) certainly did not design those techniques, they certainly did not come to Abu Ghraib or to Iraq with dog collars and dog leashes.”

Col Karpinski, who has made similar allegations in the past, was the the first high-level military official to be punished in the abuse scandal. She was demoted from brigadier general to colonel on May 5.

Col Thomas Pappas, the former US military intelligence chief at Abu Ghraib prison, was reprimanded and removed from his command as part of a punishment over the physical abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

The publication a year ago of photographs depicting US forces abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib triggered international criticism of the United States. Numerous additional cases of detainee abuse have since surfaced.

In the ABC interview, Col Karpinski suggested that abuse might still be occurring at the prison. “For several months after I first became aware of the pictures, I said, ‘well at least the photographs will stop this’. I’m not convinced,” she said.

The Army said Col Karpinski was demoted due to dereliction of duty and concealing a past shoplifting arrest. But she said she was being punished for what happened at Abu Ghraib after the prison was no longer under her command.

She said her lawyers believed there were grounds for legal action over the way she had been treated.

“I think there’s definitely grounds for discrimination,” she said. “Why was I the only general officer that was singled out to be suspended from command when all of the information clearly shows that other people had knowledge and were involved?”. —Reuters