Sepcial
Report:Tension accelerates
in Iraq
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. lieutenant general
who once served as the top commander of American forces in Iraq has been forced
to retire from the Army, allegedly because of the abuse scandal at the infamous
Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, news reports said
Thursday.
"That's the key reason, the sole reason, that I was
forced to retire," Ricardo Sanchez, who retired Wednesday, told a newspaper
based in Texas.
"I was essentially not offered another position in
either a three-star or four-star command," said the three-star general.
The Associated Press said Sanchez, 55, had been a
candidate to become the next commander of U.S. Southern Command, but was passed
over after the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, which occurred from late 2004
through early 2004, exploded into an international controversy in 2004.
Sanchez has not been accused of any misconduct but
has been criticized by some for not doing more to avoid mistreatment of Iraqi
prisoners.
The general, who served in the military for 33 years,
retired in a formal ceremony at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio,
Texas.
U.S. forces hand over Abu
Ghraib prison to Iraq
BAGHDAD, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. forces has handed
over control of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad, to the Iraqi
authorities, Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesman of the Iraqi government, said on
Saturday.
The U.S. forces, who had taken control of the prison
since the fall of Saddam's regime in 2003, has evacuated all detainees from the
prison before handing over the facility to the Iraqi authorities on Friday, the
spokesman told reporters in a news conference.
Abu Ghraib prison is infamous for being one of the
biggest detention camps in Iraq which witnessed the scandal of U.S. soldiers
abusing Iraqi prisoners.
The detention camp held hundreds of thousands of
prisoners during the toppled Saddam Hussein regime, including hundreds of
political prisoners.
368 detainees released from Abu Ghraib
A man just released from the Abu Ghraib prison embraces
a relative upon arrival at a central bus station in Baghdad July 8,
2006. An Iraqi woman to their right is holding a picture of her
son, who was missing in the Iraq war, in hopes of finding clues about
him from the newly released prisoners. (Xinhua
Photo/AFP) |
BAGHDAD, July 8
(Xinhua) -- The Iraqi government and the U.S. military released 368 Iraqi
detainees on Saturday from the Abu Ghraib prison as part of a national
reconciliation plan aimed at curbing sectarian violence, a Justice Ministry
official said.
The latest batch of released prisoners brought the
total number of detainees set free from Iraqi and U.S.-run prisons across Iraq
to 2,721 during the past month, more than the 2,500 promised by Iraqi Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki to release, Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim said.
The detainees were released after a joint U.S. and
Iraqi committee reviewed their cases, Ibrahim added.
Sources from the U.S.-led multi-national forces in
Iraq said that the detainees were not convicted of serious or violent crimes
such as explosions, torture, abductions or killings, adding that they had vowed
to refrain from violence before being freed. Full story>>
U.S. soldier avoids imprisonment in Abu Ghraib abuse
scandal
WASHINGTON, June 2 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. soldier
convicted of using his dog to abuse detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison was
sentenced Friday to 90 days of hard labor without imprisonment, ABC News
reported.
According to the verdict made by a military court in
Fort Meade,Maryland, Santos Cardona, 32, will be reduced one military rank and
lose 600 U.S. dollars of his monthly pay for 12 months, for his role in the Abu
Ghraib abuse scandal of late 2003 and early 2004. Full story>>
