WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (AFP) - US military investigators have recommended punishment, including possible criminal charges, against several military intelligence officers who worked at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, NBC News reported Tuesday.
So far, charges have been filed against seven military police officers, most of whom appear in photographs with Arab prisoners stripped naked, piled up in sexually explicit poses or cringing in front of snarling army dogs.
Citing unnamed sources, the network said a report prepared under Major General George Fay but not yet made public, implicates military intelligence officers in addition to the military police already charged.
At least one military intelligence officer as well as three other intelligence officers were present during the abuse of three prisoners at Abu Ghraib, according to testimony presented last week at a pre-trial hearing of Private Lynndie England, a key figure in the scandal.
Under military law, failure to halt or report illegal activity could be considered dereliction of duty, NBC News said.
General Fay's investigation apparently found no evidence that the abuses at Abu Ghraib had been part of any interrogations intended to gather military intelligence, according to the NBC report.
However, Fay said the ultimate responsibility for the lack of discipline at the prison goes all the way to the top military commander in Iraq at the time, General Ricardo Sanchez, who left his post last month, according to NBC News.