WASHINGTON, April 24 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army is being criticized following reports of the Pentagon's internal investigation of the Abu Ghraib prison abuses clearing top officers.
"This just proves that the Army cannot investigate itself," Reed Brody, legal counsel for Human Rights Watch, told CNN. "If the U.S. is going to wipe away the stain of Abu Ghraib, there has to be an independent investigation that looks at the responsibility of all those people who ordered or who tolerated torture, no matter where they are in the chain of command."
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq when the prison abuses occurred and who called Abu Ghraib "a defeat for the coalition," was cleared of wrongdoing, officials said.
While the findings of the investigation have not been officially released, government officials told the Washington Post only Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, would receive an administrative reprimand for dereliction of duty that could end her military career.
"She feels like it's a shared responsibility," Karpinski's lawyer Neal Puckett, told CNN. "She accepts her part of the responsibility, but it's a shared responsibility throughout the chain of command, not just her."
