The Washington Post had a good editorial today decrying the fact that the prison abuse/torture scandal has faded from public view and has commanded almost no attention in the presidential campaign. The paper’s editorial board asked, “Remember Abu Ghraib?”
When it comes to the Bush administration, the answer is clearly, “No.”
First, we learned today that Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who oversaw detention facilities in Iraq, including the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, is slated for a promotion.
The Pentagon plans to promote Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former head of military operations in Iraq, risking a confrontation with members of Congress because of the prisoner abuses that occurred during his tenure.
Senior Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have privately told colleagues they are determined to pin a fourth star on Sanchez, two senior defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said this week.
I can understand the administration’s hesitation to punish Sanchez, but he was identified by the Taguba Report as being directly involved in efforts to hide prisoners from the Red Cross and the officer who issued a classified order last November directing military guards to hide a prisoner, later dubbed “Triple X” by soldiers, from Red Cross inspectors and keep his name off official rosters. Now he deserves a promotion?
Even some Republicans aren’t buying it.
“I would say that he would have a snowball’s chance,” [a senior Senate Republican] aide said, on condition of anonymity. “Somebody needs to be held accountable…. He failed in his leadership role.”
Of course, Sanchez isn’t the only Abu Ghraib figure up for a promotion.
The Army’s intelligence chief said yesterday that he has “great confidence” in the ability of Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, the highest-ranking intelligence officer tied to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, to lead the Army’s intelligence school.
“In my opinion, she’s a great officer and we ought to put her in command,” Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the Army’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence, said in a breakfast interview with defense writers.
So, Fast was the top intelligence officer in Iraq while other intelligence officials were torturing people. An independent panel, appointed by the Pentagon and led by former defense secretary James R. Schlesinger, said Fast failed to advise Sanchez “on directives and policies needed” for conducting interrogations, operating the interrogation center at Abu Ghraib, and “appropriately monitoring” separate activities at the prison by CIA interrogators. And now she, like Sanchez, may get promoted.
This administration has an odd sense of how to hold people accountable.