The United States army investigation into the torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib has cleared four out of five top officers of any responsibility for the scandal that shocked the US and the world.
The probe has effectively exonerated Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the US senior commander in Iraq at the time of the abuse. It also cleared three of Sanchez’s deputies.
That has led to accusations that the investigation, carried out by the army’s inspector general, is a whitewash that has let ordinary soldiers carry the blame while letting off their commanding officers. The only officer recommended for punishment is Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who was in charge of Abu Ghraib at the time. She is expected to receive a reprimand for dereliction of duty.
The pictures of American soldiers abusing and torturing prisoners created a global backlash against the US presence in Iraq, outraging allies and opponents alike.
Several low-ranking soldiers have been prosecuted. They blamed senior officers, saying they were just following orders, but the new probe has now cleared those officers.
The investigation was intended as the military’s conclusion on the ultimate responsibility for the scandal. It is the only US inquiry so far to have had the power to apportion blame. Critics say it has made scapegoats of ordinary soldiers.
”This decision unfortunately continues a pattern of exoneration and indeed promotion for many of the individuals at the heart of the torture scandal,” said Amnesty International spokesperson Alistair Hodgett.
Army officials say 125 soldiers have been tried at courts martial or been otherwise punished. The officials have always denied that the abuse was systemic or planned by the senior military hierarchy. Yet some soldiers and Karpinski have said their superiors encouraged the abusive practises and relaxed rules about harsh treatment of prisoners.
Guy Womack, a lawyer for Specialist Charles Graner, who has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for abusing prisoners, called for action to be taken against at least two of the senior officers describing the probe as ”a joke”.
Other official investigations have taken a stronger line than the latest army report. One probe by former defence secretary James Schlesinger had concluded that Sanchez should have taken firmer action in November 2003, when the army first realised the scale of the abuse. An investigation released last summer found that the ”action and inaction” of Sanchez and his senior officers ”indirectly contributed” to what was going on at Abu Ghraib.
‘Mitigating factors’
But the new report, which will not be released until senior US politicians are briefed on its contents, is believed to have concluded that mitigating factors have exonerated Sanchez. They included a shortage of senior US officers, the increased pressure he was under as Iraqi insurgents stepped up their campaign, and the manhunt for Saddam Hussein.
The report followed a week of renewed bloodshed — including the massacre of 19 men in a football stadium in Haditha and the shooting down of a civilian helicopter — that appears to have been encouraged by three months of political stalemate in the formation of Iraq’s first freely elected government after January’s elections.
It also follows increasing disillusionment among foreign diplomats and Iraqi party leaders over the choice two weeks ago by the Shia majority of Ibrahim al-Jaafari for the key post of Prime Minister. Iraqi and Western officials have told The Observer that they fear Jaafari lacks the leadership skills to guide Iraq at such a crucial juncture.
According to a report in Saturday’s New York Times, the political impasse is largely the result of leading Kurdish political figures trying to stall the formation of a new Iraqi government in an effort to force out Jaafari.
”The Kurds are intent on delaying the government so that Jaafari will fall,” Sami al-Askari, a member of the Shia alliance, told the paper. A Western diplomat in Baghdad confirmed the effort to ”filibuster” the negotiations.
Last week, British and US officials blamed the increase in violence on the continuing inability of Iraq’s political parties to agree on a government: a hiatus that bodes ill for negotiations on a new Constitution due later this year.
A spokesperson for the Kurdish alliance denied on Friday that there was any effort to unseat Jaafari. However, Kurdish leaders have never been comfortable with religious figures like Jaafari, the leader of a popular Shia religious party.
Iraq’s caretaker Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, writing in Sunday’s Observer, called on his fellow Iraqi political leaders to end the impasse, blaming the ”dragging negotiations” for ”emboldening” those who ”reject democracy and the political process”.
Under Iraq’s transitional law, Jaafari will lose his position if he does not name a Cabinet by May 7, a month after his appointment. If Jaafari is displaced, Iraq’s new President, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and his deputies will choose a new prime minister. A strong candidate would be Allawi, a secular Shia seen as able to bridge the gap between religious Shias led by Jaafari and secular Kurds.
The continued political wrangling came amid more violence in Iraq on Saturday. At least 10 people were killed when US and Iraqi convoys were attacked by insurgents near Baghdad, officials say. — Guardian Unlimited Â