Mon May 3,12:29 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US general in charge of the prison where Iraqi prisoners allegedly faced humiliation and abuse, Janis Karpinski, defended herself against charges that she failed in her leadership.

Saying she was "sickened" by photographs showing US military police mistreating Iraqi prisoners, Karpinski told ABC television she asked herself how the alleged abuses could have occured on her watch.

"I did not know anything about it," she said Monday. "Had I known anything about it I certainly would have reacted very quickly."

"The cell blocks were actually in operation for the interrogation and the isolation under the military intelligence control," she said. Karpinski also noted that there were 32 boots -- 16 soldiers -- shown in the photographs, more than the six under her command who have been reprimanded.

Asked if she meant CIA (news - web sites) or military intelligence officials, Karpinski responded, "I'm saying other people than the military police."

Karpinski argued that the abuses were not the result of a leadership problem in the military police, but rather an "interrogation and isolation procedure issue, and that was run and orchestrated by a seperate command from the military police brigade."

Last week, US media broadcast pictures of inmates at Abu Gharib prison outside Baghdad, some naked, in humiliating, sexually suggestive poses. Other prisoners were paraded hooded with electrical cables attached to their bodies. Some of those images also showed US military personnel pointing and laughing at prisoners.

In Baghdad, a coalition official said Monday on condition of anonymity that six US army officers have received the highest letter of reprimand over the prison scandal, effectively ending their military careers.

Besides the officers, six US prison guards have been charged with criminal conduct for abusing detainees and four more guards are still under investigation.

Coalition military spokesman, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told CBS news that he did not believe that soldiers would be able to defend the charges by claiming they doing as they were told.

"Well, nobody condones and nobody has to accept an order -- an illegal order, something they know is wrong. And clearly what we saw in those pictures was wrong," he told CBS.

"Whoever told them to do it, they are being investigated as well. But I'm not certain that the excuse that, 'I was told to do this,' is going to pass muster," he said.

Kimmitt also said that the leadership would be held responsible.

"It's more than just giving orders, giving training," he said. "It's also supervising, it's also overwatching, it's also checking, double- checking and rechecking, and it's also having the guts to stand up when you find something's wrong, to stand up and say, 'That's wrong and we need to fix it.'"

For her part, Karpinski suggested that responsiblity goes to the top of the chain of command.

"I think that there's others responsible for here, not limited to one person or an individual or a command. But there is a shared responsibility in this," she said.

By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military has reprimanded seven officers in the alleged abuse of inmates at Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison, the first known punishments in the case, an official said Monday. Two of the officers were relieved of their duties.

The American officer who oversaw the prison said many more troops might have been involved.

The soldiers were reprimanded on the orders of Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq (news - web sites). Six of them — officers and noncommissioned officers — received the most severe administrative reprimand in the U.S. military, a military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A seventh officer received a more lenient admonishment.

Two of the six were "released for cause," meaning they were relieved of their duties and reassigned "with prejudice," said Larry Di Rita, spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. He also said that the six who received letters of reprimand were from a military police unit.

"There may well be additional decisions" about disciplinary action against others as a result of the investigation," Di Rita added.

The official said he believed the seven officers would not face further action or court martial, but the reprimands could mean the end of their careers.

Another six U.S. servicemembers — all military police — also may face criminal charges.

President Bush (news - web sites) called Rumsfeld before a campaign trip Monday and urged him to make sure the U.S. soldiers are punished, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

"The president wanted to make sure appropriate action is being taken against those responsible for these shameful and appalling acts," he said.

The U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council joined the chorus of international criticism of the alleged abuse, terming it a violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions. The council demanded that U.S. authorities allow Iraqi judges to take part in the interrogation of prisoners and open the detention centers to inspection by Iraqi officials.

At a news conference in Baghdad, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zibari condemned the alleged abuse and called for an independent inquiry.

Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who oversaw the prison, said that she did not know about the prisoner abuse while it was happening.

"They were despicable acts," Karpinski said Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America." "Had I known anything about it, I certainly would have reacted very quickly."

Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, said one photograph from the prison appeared to show more Americans involved in the alleged abuse than the six MPs who have been charged.

"One photograph showed — it didn't show faces completely, but the photograph showed 32 boots," Karpinski told ABC. "I'm saying other people than the military police."

It wasn't clear if that would include the seven soldiers reprimanded.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said on ABC that he isn't sure Army military intelligence "had anything to do with the individual acts of criminal behavior" as Karpinski and others have alleged. Kimmitt said, however, that the investigation is reviewing "concerns expressed about the military intelligence."

Last week, CBS' "60 Minutes II" broadcast images allegedly showing Iraqis stripped naked, hooded and being tormented by their U.S. captors.

An internal U.S. Army report found that Iraqi detainees were subjected to "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses," according to The New Yorker magazine.

A British newspaper also published photos purporting to show members of a British Army regiment abusing prisoners, but a former commander of the unit said Monday that the photos had "too many inconsistencies" to be genuine.

The Daily Mirror newspaper stood by the photos, which allegedly show a hooded Iraqi being pushed, threatened and urinated on by a soldier from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment.

Col. David Black, who led the regiment in the 1980s, told British Broadcasting Corp. television that equipment and a truck pictured in the photos had not been used by the regiment in Iraq. He said he did not believe the photos had been taken in the Middle Eastern country.

"The evidence we have seen so far looking at the photographs, there are too many inconsistencies," he said.

British military police are conducting an investigation in Iraq, in Britain and in Cyprus, where the regiment is based, the Ministry of Defense said Monday.

The Daily Mirror said the photos were supplied by two serving members of the regiment. On Monday it quoted one of the unidentified soldiers as saying he had seen "literally hundreds" of similar pictures.

Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) has condemned the alleged abuse by British soldiers, but said the vast majority of troops "are doing a fantastic job for the Iraqi people."

The Arab language television station Al-Jazeera broadcast an interview Monday with two Iraqis who said they were abused at Abu Ghraib. One, identified only as Hashim, said guards "covered our heads with bags, they beat us with the butts of their guns without any fear that we would die of the blows."

"They made us take our clothes off and they pushed us against the wall," he said. "They did things to us that I am unable to talk about."

The other Iraqi, Haider Sabar, said an American intelligence officer, along with an Iraqi and an Egyptian translator, showed him "immoral photos of the acts that took place" — apparently to frighten him.