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]