|
US general demoted in Abu Ghraib scandal
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-06 09:55
WASHINGTON - The Army said Thursday that only one senior officer will be
disciplined for failed leadership in connection with the Abu Ghraib prisoner
abuse scandal and that more than a dozen lower-ranking officers will face a
variety of punishments.
 |
| U.S. Army PFC Lynndie England leaves her court martial hearing at
the courthouse at Fort Hood, Texas, May 2, 2005.
[Reuters] | The Army said it demoted Brig. Gen. Janis
Karpinski, whose Army Reserve unit was in charge of the prison compound when
Iraqi detainees were physically abused and sexually humiliated by military
police and intelligence soldiers in the fall of 2003. When photos of some of the
abuse became public a year ago a firestorm of criticism erupted worldwide.
The Army also announced that it cleared three other, more senior generals of
wrongdoing in the prisoner abuse cases, actions that had been previously
reported but not publicly confirmed by the Army.
That means Karpinski is the only general to be disciplined thus far. The
demotion means her career in the military, where officers must rise in rank or
leave, is effectively over. Messages left at her home in Hilton Head, S.C., and
with her attorney were not immediately returned.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has said it intends to hold hearings soon
to assess whether senior Defense Department civilian and military leaders were
adequately held accountable for Abu Ghraib.
The Army described its investigations as exhaustive, requiring six months of
work including sworn-statement interviews with 82 people, including L. Paul
Bremer, who was the top civilian authority in Iraq at the time, and Gen. John
Abizaid, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East.
Among those cleared by the Army was Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who was the top
Army general in Iraq at the time of the prisoner abuses. He has been faulted by
some for leadership failures but has never been accused of ordering or
sanctioning any abuse of prisoners.
The Army said it could not substantiate two allegations against Sanchez:
dereliction in the performance of duties pertaining to detention and
interrogation operations and improperly communicating interrogation policies.
Sanchez is currently the commander of 5th Corps, headquartered at Heidelberg,
Germany.
Karpinski was demoted to colonel, a move that required approval by President
Bush. She also received a written reprimand by Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen.
Richard Cody and was formally relieved of command of the 800th Military Police
Brigade on April 8, the Army said in a statement.
The Army's inspector general investigated four allegations against Karpinski:
dereliction of duty, making a "material misrepresentation" to investigators,
failure to obey a lawful order and shoplifting. Only the shoplifting and
dereliction of duty allegations were substantiated.
The Army did not explain the specifics of the allegations, but a number of
previous investigations of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses have accused Karpinski
of failing to maintain order and prevent the abuses. She has said publicly that
she was not given full authority over Abu Ghraib and that when photographs of
the abuse became public she was made a scapegoat.
A U.S. government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said
Karpinski was accused of shoplifting a cosmetic item from a shop at a domestic
Air Force base while she held the rank of colonel. Karpinski did not report her
arrest for this misdemeanor on a later background check, the official said. In
an interview with CBS News last year, Karpinski denied shoplifting.
The generals who were cleared, in addition to Sanchez, were Maj. Gen. Walter
Wojdakowski, who was Sanchez's deputy in Iraq at the time, and Sanchez's
intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast. Both were accused of dereliction of
duty, but the allegations were not substantiated.
Fast is now commander of the Army Intelligence Center and Wojdakowksi is a
special assistant to the commander of U.S. Army Europe.
Col. Marc Warren, who was Sanchez's top uniformed lawyer in Iraq, also was
cleared of allegations of dereliction and "professional impropriety under
lawyers' ethics rules," the Army said.
Without providing their names, the Army also said Thursday that one colonel
and two lieutenant colonels linked to detainee abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan
were given unspecified administrative punishment. Also, two other lieutenant
colonels were given letters of reprimand.
More than a dozen other lower-ranking officers, whose names were not
released, also received various punishments.
_ Three majors were given letters of reprimand and one of the three also was
given an unspecified administrative punishment.
_ Three captains are to be court-martialed, one captain is to be given an
other-than-honorable discharge from the Army, five captains received letters of
reprimand, and one was given an unspecified administrative punishment.
_ Two first lieutenants will be court-martialed, another got a letter of
reprimand and one was given administrative punishment.
_ One second lieutenant was given an other-than-honorable discharge and
another was given a letter of reprimand.
_ Two chief warrant officers are to be court-martialed.
The Army said other cases involving officers linked to detainee abuse are
still open, but it did not say how many.
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top World
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
