Junior ranks take flak for Abu Ghraib

By Paul Reynolds World affairs correspondent, BBC News website
The acquittal of a US army colonel on charges relating to the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib means no officers have been found criminally guilty.
The episode stained the reputation of the US military and may well have acted as a recruiting agent for insurgents.
Ten junior soldiers have been convicted over the Abu Ghraib abuse (AP Photo/Courtesy of The New Yorker)
The officer, Lt-Col Steven Jordan, was found not guilty by a military jury of failing to train and supervise the soldiers under his authority at Abu Ghraib.
Instead he was convicted of breaking an order not to discuss the case. He was reprimanded.
The lack of convictions among the senior ranks leaves doubt as to whether the abuse was part of a wider policy of condoning or even encouraging the breaking of prisoners' morale in advance of interrogation.
Two officers were subject to disciplinary punishments.
Col Thomas Pappas, the senior military intelligence officer at the prison, was reprimanded and had pay deducted for dereliction of duty. This included allowing dogs to be present at interrogations.
Brig-Gen Janis Karpinski, the officer in charge of Abu Ghraib and other prisons in Iraq, was reduced in rank to colonel for dereliction of duty.
Policy of abuse?