Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Phillabaum was rebuked in the U.S. Army report on Iraqi prisoner abuse by Major General Antonio Taguba as "an extremely ineffective commander and leader." In his own defense, Phillabaum said he was handed an impossible mission in Iraq with insufficient numbers of soldiers forced to work 16-hour days with food and other basics in short supply.
While accepting responsibility for failing to supervise and train soldiers fully, the West Point graduate said he responded immediately once abuse in the prison was brought to his attention, securing evidence and statements from midnight to 4 a.m. on Jan. 14, 2004.
The report criticizes Phillabaum's 320th Military Police Battalion for an incident on Nov. 24, 2003, that resulted in the shooting of 12 Iraqi prisoners, three of them fatally. Phillabaum said? the 320th was responding to a full-fledged riot involving 4,500 prisoners.
"I could not be everywhere at all times and therefore delegated authority," he said in the memo, dated April 12. "If I were omnipotent, I would have removed Master Sgt. [Lisa] Girman and Corporal [Charles] Graner from their duties and avoided the abuse of prisoners and the disgrace to the nation."
Graner, of the 372nd Military Police Company, is at the center of the prisoner abuse and photo scandal at Abu Ghraib. Girman, of the 320th Military Police Battalion, was allegedly involved in a lesser-known incident at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq on May 12, 2003. She and other reservists were accused of beating and kicking and breaking the bones of Iraqi prisoners -- an allegation they are fighting and continue to deny.
Girman and the other reservists said they brought 44 highly dangerous prisoners, including members of Saddam Hussein's secret militia and Republican Guard, to the camp after a 3 1/2-hour bus and Humvee drive from Talil Air Base. The only restraints available to the reservists was white surgical tape wrapped around the prisoners' wrists.
Phillabaum alleged that shortly after midnight, as prisoners were unloaded, Girman "took vigilante justice against EPW [Enemy Prisoner of War] that she believed had raped Private Jessica Lynch. Four out of the 10 320th MP Battalion soldiers abused some of the EPWs; a clear indication that the abuse was the responsibility of those individuals acting alone and was not condoned by myself or any leader at Camp Bucca."
Girman, 35, a Pennsylvania state trooper, denied the accusation Tuesday by telephone.
Girman said she thinks Phillabaum is using her as a scapegoat because she is an outspoken critic of the commanders in charge of the camps and prisons. "He realizes the chain of command is under a magnifying glass of scrutiny because of their incompetence and he's going to lash out," she said.
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