Army to court-marshall Abu Ghraib colonel
The only US military officer charged with a crime in the Abu Ghraib jail abuse scandal will be court-martialled on eight charges, including cruelty and maltreatment of prisoners.
Lt Col Steven Jordan, a 50-year-old reservist from Virginia who ran the interrogation centre at the notorious Iraqi prison, was accused of failing to exert his authority as the place descended into chaos, with prisoners stripped naked, photographed in humiliating poses and intimidated by snarling dogs.
He was also charged with lying to investigators.
He has not been accused of personally torturing or humiliating prisoners and was not pictured in any of the photos that embarrassed the Pentagon and shocked the Muslim world.
Maj. Gen. Guy Swann, commander of the Military District of Washington, decided Jordan must stand trial, US Army spokesman Col Jim Yonts said last night.
Jordan was charged in April with 12 offences and Swann dismissed four of them after Jordan was given an Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a civilian preliminary hearing, in October.
Most of the dropped charges stemmed from allegations that Jordan had falsified vehicle repair records.
Besides cruelty and maltreatment, the charges include disobeying a superior officer, wilful dereliction of duty and making false statements. The remaining charges carry a total maximum prison term of 22 years.
Jordan’s military lawyers did not immediately return calls for comment.
The move was “certainly a very welcome development on the road toward accountability for what happened at Abu Ghraib”, said Hina Shamsi, deputy director of the law and security programme at Human Rights First, a New York-based civil rights advocacy group.
“We’re actually starting to hold more senior-level officers accountable for what were clearly systemic failures to ensure that lawful interrogation techniques were used and to ensure that subordinates were acting in accordance with established doctrine and laws,” she said.
At his October hearing, Jordan said he had no operational control over interrogations and spent much of his time trying to improve soldiers’ deplorable living conditions.
However, the US government says Jordan’s actions or inaction subjected detainees to forced nudity and intimidation by dogs. He is also accused of lying to investigators in denying that he saw any abuse.
Jordan’s “tacit approval” of violence by military police during an episode in November 2003 “can be pointed to as the causative factor that set the stage for the abuses that followed for days afterward”, concluded Maj. Gen. George Fay and Lt Gen Anthony Jones, who investigated the scandal.
Eleven other US soldiers – all from the enlisted ranks – have been convicted in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, with former Cpl Charles Graner receiving the harshest sentence, a 10-year prison term.
A general and other officers have received reprimands or demotions that ended or blighted their careers.
Since he was charged in April, Jordan has been on active duty with the Intelligence and Security Command at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
