Undertrained and overwhelmed

JIM KRANE; The Associated Press

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq - A U.S. Army investigation into abuses at Abu Ghraib prison depicts the military police running the penitentiary as a motley lot, overwhelmed by one of the worst assignments in Iraq and bitter about the military's broken promises of going home.

When Pentagon investigators arrived at the prison west of Baghdad, they found fatalistic Army reservists toting weapons while wearing civilian clothes. Also, command authority had been replaced by old friendships, said a report written by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba.

"We were stretched thin and (headquarters) continued to assign us more missions far outside of our capabilities," the unit's commander, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, told The Associated Press in an e-mail.

More.