General Demoted Over Prison Scandal

President Bush has approved the demotion of Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the Army Reserve commander once in charge of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Army officials announced Thursday. The Army said she failed to properly supervise guards who in the fall of 2003 routinely abused and sexually humiliated Iraqi prisoners.

The disciplinary action came as the Army completed what it called an exhaustive internal review of top commanders in Iraq and their role in the prison abuse scandal, naming Karpinski as the sole high-ranking officer to merit punishment.

Allegations against the others, including Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the top ground commander in Iraq at the time, were found by the Army to be unsubstantiated.

For Karpinski, who has complained that she is a scapegoat, the demotion reduces her in rank to colonel in the Army Reserves. “I’m sure she will want to fight,” said her lawyer, Neal A. Puckett.

Investigations of soldiers involved in detainee abuses continue. But the findings issued Thursday in effect close the Army’s examination of the culpability of senior officials.

Four other top commanders came away unscathed Thursday, a development likely to anger Pentagon critics who believe high-ranking officials have escaped accountability while sergeants and privates who worked as prison guards have been court-martialed.

Last spring, the Army suspended Karpinski from her command of the 800th Military Police Brigade. Now Bush, acting on recommendations from Army officials, has demoted her because her “performance of duty was found to be seriously lacking,” according to the Army.

Army officials added, however, that Karpinski did not personally order, approve or engage in the abuse. The investigation also did not find that she was aware of the abuse as it was occurring.

The Army found her guilty of two charges -- dereliction of duty and shoplifting. Karpinski was found derelict in what one Army official called “all the aspects of command responsibility.” These included the training, readiness and standards of her soldiers.

The charge of shoplifting stemmed from an incident at a domestic Air Force base several years ago while she was still a colonel. She did not report the incident when she was being considered for her promotion to brigadier general, a requirement under military law, officials said.

Two other charges against Karpinski were found to be unsubstantiated -- making a material misrepresentation to an investigating team and failing to obey a lawful order.

Karpinski could not be reached for comment Thursday. In an interview with The Times last year, she complained of being a scapegoat and said she was overworked and unable to adequately supervise the prison while in Iraq. On Thursday, her lawyer said she had been unfairly singled out in the command structure’s rush to protect itself and sacrifice a Reserve officer.

“That’s the way it’s been from the very beginning,” Puckett said. “It’s never changed from Day One.”

Army officials denied that Karpinski was being held to a higher standard than full-time Army commanders. “As far as the Army is concerned,” the official said, “she’s done.”

The internal Army investigation was prompted by calls from Senate leaders who wanted to allay concerns that top commanders were getting away without any punishment. In response, the Army said Thursday that it had conducted a “series of exhaustive investigations into detainee abuse and interrogation operations” at Abu Ghraib.

According to the findings from the Army’s Inspector General, Lt. Gen. Stanley E. Green, allegations of dereliction of duty and improperly communicating interrogation policies against Sanchez were unsubstantiated. He is now commander of V Corps in Heidelberg, Germany.

An allegation of dereliction of duty against Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, then deputy commander of ground operations in Iraq, was also unsubstantiated. He now is a special assistant to the commanding general of the Army European operations headquartered in Heidelberg.

A dereliction of duty allegation against Maj. Gen. Barbara G. Fast, then an intelligence operation supervisor in Iraq, was found to be unsubstantiated. She is commander of the Army Intelligence Center at Ft. Huachuca, Ariz.

And Col. Marc Warren, who served as Sanchez’s legal advisor in Iraq, was cleared of allegations of professional impropriety and dereliction of duty, and now serves at Army headquarters in Washington.

The Army also specified that 24 other officers -- including a colonel and four lieutenant colonels -- and two chief warrant officers faced military prosecution or received nonjudicial punishments and letters of reprimand for their roles in detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Army did not release the names of these officers or details of their cases.

The abuse scandal has prompted a dozen other investigations that also have stopped short of laying blame on senior officers.

However, some investigations are expected to continue, and human rights groups have demanded appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate prison abuses.

One investigation into alleged abuses at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt, is ongoing.

Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, has pledged to hold hearings on the prison abuse scandal. However, some Republicans have shown little interest, and no future hearings are scheduled.

The most severe punishment was handed to Pvt. Charles A. Graner Jr., who was convicted in a court-martial at Ft. Hood, Texas, and is serving a 10-year prison sentence.