WASHINGTON - A US colonel who was in charge of military intelligence at Abu Ghraib prison has been relieved of command after being found guilty of dereliction of duty for authorizing the use of dogs in an interrogation of a detainee, the army announced Thursday.
Colonel Thomas Pappas was given a written reprimand and was fined for his role in the scandal, which came to light last year when photographs were published showing guards abusing and sexually humiliating detainees at the prison.
Pappas, who commanded the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, "has been punished for two instances of dereliction of duty and has been relieved of command in actions resulting from investigations of interrogation operations at the Abu Ghraib facility in Iraq in 2003 and early 2004," the army said in a statement.
Major General Bennie Williams on Tuesday found that Pappas failed to ensure that his subordinates were "adequately informed of, trained upon and supervised in the application of interrogation procedures," the statement said.
"He was also alleged to have failed to obtain the approval of superior commanders before authorizing a non-sanctioned interrogation technique -- specifically, the presence of military working dogs during the questioning of a detainee," it said.
Williams "found that Colonel Pappas had committed both offenses as alleged."
Military police guards implicated in the scandal have said interrogators encouraged them to soften up the inmates. Newspaper photographs printed around the world showed US guards holding unmuzzled army dogs close to reeling inmates.
The decision came just days after the army demoted and relieved of command Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who commanded the prison. She was found guilty of dereliction of duty for general leadership failures and for shoplifting at a US base, but not for specifically contributing to the abuses at the prison.
Karpinski, who has said she was being made a scapegoat for actions of the military intelligence unit at the prison, is the highest-ranking US military officer punished so far in the Abu Ghraib scandal.
An army official said the case of Lieutenant Steve Jordan, who was in charge of interrogations at the prison, remains open.
05/12/2005 20:30 GMT