<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/29/international/middleeast/29detain.html>
June 29, 2005 Army Moves to Advance 2 Linked to Abu Ghraib By ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON, June 28 - The Pentagon has promoted or nominated for promotion two senior Army officers who oversaw or advised detention and interrogation operations in Iraq during the height of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal.
The Army promoted Maj. Gen. Walter Wodjakowski, the former deputy commander of American forces in Iraq, earlier this month to be the head the Army's infantry training school at Fort Benning, Ga. It has also nominated Col. Marc Warren, the top military lawyer for the American command in Baghdad at the time, to be a one-star, or brigadier, general.
A third officer, Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, the former top intelligence officer in Iraq, took command earlier this year of the Army's intelligence center at Fort Huachuca, Ariz.
An independent inquiry led by a former defense secretary, James R. Schlesinger, last August faulted all three officers for their actions in Iraq, but a subsequent review by the Army's inspector general exonerated all of them, clearing the way for their advancement, military officials said.
If the White House supports Colonel Warren's promotion, as is expected, the Senate would still need to approve it. In their new, more visible and prestigious assignments, General Wodjakowski and General Fast remain at their two-star rank, and therefore do not require Senate confirmation.
The promotions come as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is considering elevating Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the former senior commander in Iraq, to four-star rank. Three influential members of the Senate Armed Services Committee warned this week that any officers with connections to Abu Ghraib will face tough scrutiny if Senate approval is required for their promotions.
"If their nominations are sent to the Senate, they will face a lot of tough questions at their confirmation hearings," Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the committee's ranking Democrat, said in a statement, echoing the sentiment of another Democrat, Jack Reed of Rhode Island.
Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, said in a statement that the panel "should give close scrutiny to any recommendations for promotions of military officers who were criticized in the Schlesinger report."
Congressional critics of the Pentagon say the officers' promotions reflect the lack of senior-level accountability in the scandal. The Defense Department says there have been more than 360 criminal investigations into abuse charges, and that 130 military personnel have been disciplined. But only one general, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, a reservist who commanded the military police at Abu Ghraib, has been punished.
Senator John W. Warner, a Virginia Republican who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday that he may hold a long-promised hearing on the accountability of senior military officers and Pentagon officials by August. He said there was "no actionable item" before the committee now that would delay any of the officers' promotions.
Andrew J. Bacevich, a retired Army colonel who is a professor of international relations at Boston University, said the promotions send a political signal that "everything's O.K." with the operations in Iraq and obscure a broader flaw. "The real issue is that the conduct of the war by senior commanders has largely been off-limits when it comes to a critical assessment," he said.
The Schlesinger report said General Wodjakowski "failed to initiate action to request additional military police for detention operations after it became clear that there were insufficient assets in Iraq." The report faulted Colonel Warren for knowing about prisoner abuses witnessed by inspectors for the International Committee of the Red Cross and failing to report them to General Sanchez for two months.
One member of the Schlesinger panel, Gen. Charles A. Horner, a retired Air Force officer, defended Colonel Warren in a telephone interview on Tuesday, calling him a "hero" and "straight shooter" for owning up to the mistakes he made, and said he deserved the promotion.
A separate report by three Army generals implicitly faulted Colonel Warren for giving bad legal advice to General Sanchez, who approved the use in Iraq of some severe interrogation practices that were intended to be limited to captives held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and Afghanistan.
That report contended that by issuing and revising the rules for interrogations in Iraq three times in 30 days, General Sanchez and his legal staff, headed by Colonel Warren, sowed such confusion that interrogators at Abu Ghraib violated the Geneva Conventions, which they understood poorly anyway.