Officer in Charge of Abu Ghraib Interrogation/Torture Gets Promotion
/ The U.S. officer in charge of
gathering intelligence in Iraq during the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse
scandal got a plum new post Wednesday: head of the Army Intelligence
Center at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast took command of
the center - where soldiers learn the proper treatment of prisoners -
just a week after the latest investigation into the scandal cited no
wrongdoing by her or other higher-ups. Fast's promotion troubles some
experts, who question how thorough the investigations have been and why
no senior officials have been held accountable. "It used to be that if
you were the captain of a ship and something happened, even if it was
not your fault you took responsibility," said Lawrence Korb, assistant
secretary of defense in the Reagan administration. "Here we have a
situation where people were in the chain of command when something
happened and yet they get another career-enhancing job." Fast, whose
new post reportedly pays $132,100, remains on track to become only the
second female three-star general in Army history. As chief
military intelligence officer in Iraq, Fast, 51, was in charge of
interrogators who were trying to glean information from prisoners about
the growing insurgency [more]