It looks very much like a circling of the wagons to me. With these people owing their promotions to the very people who ordered the criminal behaviour, they would be cutting their own throats if, in future, they should find themselves under any pressure to name those persons who ordered their actions.
Gary
Autoplectic wrote:
> [Vomit bag, anyone?]
>
> <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
snipped
--
Gary Williams
"Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign." - John Stuart Mill
Todays Iraq Body Count
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22582 25590