Army punishes colonel over Iraq prison abuse scandal

Citing two instances of dereliction of duty in late 2003 and early 2004, the Army this week reprimanded, fined and removed Col. Thomas Pappas from command of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, the unit charged with gathering information from prisoners held at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

Soldiers ostensibly under Pappas' command physically abused and sexually humiliated prisoners in a scandal that galvanized anti-American sentiment around the world and continues to reverberate through U.S. foreign policy.

Maj. Gen. Bennie Williams, commander of the 21st Theater Support Command and the general courts-martial convening authority, ordered the punishment following a hearing in Germany on Monday, although the Army did not announce the findings until Thursday.

Williams found Pappas "failed to ensure that subordinates were adequately informed of, trained upon, and supervised in the application of interrogation procedures." In a separate incident of dereliction of duty, Pappas "failed to obtain the approval of superior commanders before authorizing a nonsanctioned interrogation technique, specifically, the presence of military working dogs during the questioning of a detainee."

Pappas elected not to demand trial by court martial or appeal Williams' decision, although he did present evidence in his defense at the hearing. Pappas had previously told military investigators that his superiors knew of and encouraged abuse at the prison, according to Army documents.

The Army will not bring criminal charges against Pappas, but the disciplinary actions against him, which include a written reprimand placed in his personnel file and forfeiture of $4,000 pay per month for two months, effectively end his career.

According to a statement from the Army, the maximum punishment that could have been imposed for the offenses was 30 days house arrest or 60 days restriction, a written reprimand, and forfeiture of $4,087 per month for two months.

After Williams' findings of dereliction of duty, Gen. B.B. Bell, commander of all Army troops in Europe, relieved Pappas of command.

The announcement comes a week after the Army reprimanded and demoted Army Reserve Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who was in charge of military police personnel at Abu Ghraib. Karpinski was reduced to the rank of colonel for poor job performance, dereliction of duty and concealing a prior arrest for shoplifting, a violation of Army regulations. The shoplifting arrest was unrelated to her conduct in Iraq, but the Army inspector general cited it as further evidence of Karpinski's poor fitness for duty.

Army investigators found that a confusing command structure and the contentious relationship between Pappas and Karpinski contributed to disciplinary problems at the prison. Former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, who led one of a dozen investigations into detainee abuse in the global war on terrorism, determined that both Karpinski and Pappas "knew or should have known" about the abuse and taken measures to prevent it.

Investigations into wrongdoing at Abu Ghraib continue. To date, Pappas and Karpinski are the only officers to be held accountable for abuse there.