With Tuesday’s conviction of an Army dog handler, the military has now tried and found guilty another low-ranking soldier in connection with the pattern of abuses that first surfaced two years ago at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
And once again, an attempt by defense lawyers to point a finger of responsibility at higher-ranking officers failed to convince a military jury that ultimate responsibility for the abuses lay further up the chain of command.
Some military experts said one reason there have not been attempts to pursue charges up the military chain of command is that the military does not have anything tantamount to a district attorney’s office, run by commanders with the authority to go after the cases.
“The real question is, Who is the independent prosecutor who is liberated to pursue these cases?” said Eugene Fidell, a specialist in military law. “There is no central prosecution office run by commanders. So you don’t have a DA thinking, ‘I’m going to follow this wherever it leads.”‘