Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Abu Ghraib, assolti tutti gli alti ufficiali

Confermata l'accusa per la generale Karpinski, rimossa dal comando. I suoi  
uomini sono direttamente responsabili degli abusi
WASHINGTON - Sono stati assolti i generali e gli alti ufficiali sotto  
inchiesta per lo scandalo degli abusi su detenuti iracheni nel carcere di  
Abu Ghraib, a Bagdad. Un'indagine condotta dall'esercito americano ha  
scagionato tre generali e un colonnello da tutte le accuse. Uno dei  
quattro ufficiali è il generale Ricardo Sanchez, che dal giugno 2003 fu  
per circa un anno l'ufficiale americano più alto in grado in Iraq,  
sospettato di non avere fatto nulla per evitare gli abusi sui prigionieri.  
Complessivamente, l'indagine riguardava 12 ufficiali ed è stata condotta  
dall'ispettore generale dell'esercito, il generale Stanley E. Green, che  
ha raccolto 37 deposizione giurate. Il Congresso non è stato ancora  
informato delle conclusioni dell'indagine e il rapporto non è stato ancora  
pubblicato. I risultati dell'indagine, diffusi dalla stampa americana,  
vengono quindi considerati ancora ufficiosi.
http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Esteri/2005/04_Aprile/23/abughraib.shtml
-- 
Creato con il rivoluzionario client e-mail di Opera:  
http://www.opera.com/m2/

 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/23/AR2005042300401.html
Army Clears Officers in Abu Ghraib Case
By ROBERT BURNS
The Associated Press
Saturday, April 23, 2005; 10:53 AM
WASHINGTON -- Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, faulted by some for leadership
failures in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, has been cleared by
the Army of all allegations of wrongdoing and will not be punished,
officials said.
Three officers who were among Sanchez's top deputies during the period
of the prisoner abuse in the fall of 2003 also have been cleared. An
Army Reserve one-star general has been reprimanded, and the outcome of
seven other senior Army officer cases could not be learned Friday.
 
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez smiles during a welcome ceremony for soldiers
of the 1st Armored Division at their base in Wiesbaden, Germany, on
Thursday, Oct. 7, 2004. The Army has cleared four top officers,
including Sanchez, of all allegations of wrongdoing in connection with
prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and will not be punished, officials said
Friday, April 22, 2005. (AP Photo/Bernd Kammerer)
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez smiles during a welcome ceremony for soldiers
of the 1st Armored Division at their base in Wiesbaden, Germany, on
Thursday, Oct. 7, 2004. The Army has cleared four top officers,
including Sanchez, of all allegations of wrongdoing in connection with
prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and will not be punished, officials said
Sanchez, who became the senior U.S. commander in Iraq in June 2003, two
months after the fall of Baghdad, has not been accused of criminal
violations. It is unclear, however, whether the controversy surrounding
his role in Iraq will stand in the way of his earning a fourth star. He
is nearing the end of his tenure as commander of the Army's 5th Corps,
based in Germany.
After assessing the allegations against Sanchez and taking sworn
statements from 37 people, the Army's inspector general, Lt. Gen.
Stanley E. Green, concluded that the allegations were unsubstantiated,
according to officials familiar with the details of Green's probe.
Green reached the same conclusion in the cases of two generals and a
colonel who worked on Sanchez's staff.
The officials who disclosed the findings spoke only on condition of
anonymity because the results on Sanchez and 11 other officers who were
the subject of Green's scrutiny have not yet been publicly released and
Congress has not been fully briefed.
The question of accountability among senior Army and Defense Department
officials who were in positions of responsibility on Iraq detention and
interrogation policy has been hotly debated in Congress. Some Democrats
accuse the Pentagon of foisting all the blame onto low-ranking soldiers.
In a statement issued Friday that did not mention Sanchez or other
specific cases, Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee, said that as soon as all Pentagon assessments of
accountability are complete he will hold a committee hearing "to examine
the adequacy of those reviews" and to hear senior civilian and military
officials address the issue.
Warner, R-Va., said he strongly agrees with one investigation report
that concluded last year that commanders should be held accountable for
their action or inaction and that military as well as civilian leaders
in the Pentagon "share this burden of responsibility."
The office of Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, the ranking Democrat on the
Senate Armed Services Committee, declined to comment on the matter.
Asked about public expectations of punishment for senior officers
associated with Abu Ghraib, the Army's chief public affairs officer,
Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, said the Army went to great lengths to make
its investigations thorough and fair.
In addition to clearing Sanchez, the Army inspector general has
determined that there should be no punishment given to Sanchez's former
top deputy, Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski; to Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, who
was Sanchez's intelligence chief in Baghdad; or to Col. Mark Warren,
Sanchez's top legal adviser at the time.
In an interview Friday, three senior defense officials associated with
the Green investigations cited mitigating circumstances in the Sanchez
case, including the fact that his organization in Iraq, known as
Combined Joint Task Force 7, initially was short of the senior officers
it required. They also cited the upsurge in insurgent violence shortly
after Sanchez took command and the intense pressure the military faced
in hunting down Saddam Hussein.
The three officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
A separate investigation by a panel headed for former Defense Secretary
James Schlesinger concluded that Sanchez should have taken stronger
action in November 2003 when he realized the extent of problems among
the military intelligence and military police units running Abu Ghraib.
A subsequent Army investigation, made public last summer in what was
called the Kern-Fay-Jones report, concluded that although Sanchez and
his most senior deputies were not directly involved in the bases at Abu
Ghraib, their "action and inaction did indirectly contribute" to some
abuses.
Sanchez and Wojdakowski were cited in the Kern-Fay-Jones report for
failure to "ensure proper staff oversight of detention and interrogation
operations" in Iraq, specifically at the Abu Ghraib prison where Iraqi
detainees were physically abused and sexually humiliated by military
police and intelligence soldiers in fall 2003.