A US Army inspector general's report has cleared four of five senior Army officers over seeing prison policies and operations in Iraq of responsibilities for theabuse of military prisoners there, newspaper reports said Saturday.

The investigations essentially found no culpability on the partof Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, who was the top US commander in Iraq from June 2003 to July 2004, and three of his senior deputies, ruling that allegations they failed to prevent orstop abuses were "unsubstantiated."

Sanchez was the highest ranking officer to face allegations of leadership failure in connection with the abuse scandal, but the inquiry, barring new evidence, effectively closes the Army's book on whether the highest-ranking officers should be held accountablefor command failings described in past reviews.

The only Army general officer recommended for punishment for the failure that led to abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison and other facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan was Brigadier General Janis L. Karpinski, who was in charge of US prison facilities in Iraq as commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade in late 2003 and early 2004.

Karpinski was relieved of her command and reportedly has received an administrative reprimand for dereliction of duty. She has repeatedly said she was made the scapegoat for the failures ofsuperiors.

The findings came nearly a year after shocking photographs of US military police officers stacking naked Iraqi prisoners in a human pyramid and of other abuses first surfaced.

A 10-member team began the investigation in October and based its conclusions on the 10 major defense inquiries into abuse and interviews with 37 senior officials, including L. Paul Bremer, wholed the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. The report has not been released.

Army officials were quoted as saying that they have identified 125 soldiers and officers who were either tried at courts-martial or issued administrative punishments for detainee abuses. So far, seven low-ranking soldiers have faced the most serious charges in abuse cases arising out of Abu Ghraib. Five have pleaded guilty orhave been found guilty, and two have courts-martial scheduled for next month.

An independent panel led by former Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger concluded last August that Sanchez had failed to make sure that his staff was dealing with Abu Ghraib problems. A separate Army investigation, called the Kern-Fay-Jones report, found that at one point Sanchez approved the use of severe interrogation practices that led indirectly to some of the abuses.

In a statement issued Friday, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee John Warner said he strongly agreed with one investigation report last year that concluded commanders should beheld accountable for their action or inaction, and that when all Pentagon assessments of accountability were complete, he would hold a committee hearing to examine the adequacy of those reviews.

Source: Xinhhua