US: The US army has offered its last word on holding its generals accountable in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, but Congress is going to have the final say.
The army announced that it had demoted Brig Gen Janis Karpinski, whose army reserve unit was in charge of the prison compound during the period of abuse. Dropping her in rank to colonel required approval from President George Bush, and officials said that he granted it on Thursday.
The army also said it hadcleared 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 Gen Karpinski is the only general to be disciplined so far. The demotion means her career in the military, where officers must rise in rank or leave, is effectively over. Some in Congress have sharply criticised the Pentagon for failing to hold the more senior officers in Iraq accountable and instead pinning most of the blame on low-ranking soldiers like Pte Lynndie England.
She pleaded guilty on Monday to two counts of conspiracy to maltreat prisoners, four counts of maltreating prisoners and one count of committing an indecent act, many of which were captured in photographs that shocked the world when published a year ago.
But the military judge rejected the plea agreement she had reached with prosecutors.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has said it intends to hold hearings soon to assess whether senior Defence 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 Paul Bremer, who was the top civilian authority in Iraq at the time, and Gen John Abizaid, the commander of US forces in the Middle East.
Among those cleared by the army was Lieut Gen Ricardo Sanchez, who was the top general in Iraq at the time of the prisoner abuses. He has been criticised by some for leadership failures but has never been accused of ordering or sanctioning any abuse of prisoners.
The army also said that one colonel and two lieutenant colonels linked to detainee abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan were given unspecified punishment. Two other lieutenant colonels were given letters of reprimand. More than a dozen other lower-ranking officersalso received various punishments.