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Where Are They Now?

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld – who authorized abusive interrogation techniques including stress positions, sexual humiliation and threatening dogs, resigned the day after the 2006 mid-term election, more than two years after the photos of Abu Ghraib and his role in ordering the abusive interrogation techniques became public.
Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales – among the first to embrace the no-rules-apply approach to the "war on terror"– was appointed U.S. Attorney General. Gonzales stepped down as AG in summer 2007.

General Dan K. McNeill – who oversaw operations in Afghanistan during the time that detainees were tortured to death at the Bagram Air Force Base and claimed there were no indications of abuse contributing to the deaths despite autopsy reports finding severe trauma to the detainees’ bodies, received a fourth star and was promoted to Commanding General U.S. Army Forces Command. He will take over the NATO command in Afghanistan in February 2007.

The month after the Abu Ghraib photos became public, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller – formerly in charge of interrogations at Guantanamo and credited with instituting the use of dogs at Abu Ghraib – was made senior commander in charge of detention operations in Iraq. Although an investigation recommended Miller be punished, top military officials refused to discipline him. The Senate Armed Services Committee permitted Miller to retire in August 2006 on the condition that he testify before Congress if called in the future.

Jay S. Bybee, former Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel and the principal author of the memo defining torture so narrowly as to require an act to “be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death,” became a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in March, 2003.

William J. Haynes, Defense Department General Counsel – who recommended over the protests of military lawyers many of the most abusive tactics used at Guantanamo (tactics that quickly “migrated” to Iraq) – has been nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast – the highest-ranking intelligence officer so far tied to the Abu Ghraib scandal – is now in charge of the Army’s main interrogation training facility at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez – who oversaw detention facilities in Iraq and authorized abusive interrogation techniques including stress positions, dogs and sleep deprivation, was excoriated in Pentagon reports for his role in letting torture continue under his command but received no punishment. He retired in November 2006.

Col. Marc Warren – who provided legal advice to Lt. Gen. Sanchez in Iraq supporting the use of dogs and stress positions in violation of the Geneva Conventions and delayed notifying superiors of Red Cross reports of detainee abuse – was nominated to be a brigadier general.

Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski – who oversaw military police and intelligence units responsible for operations at Abu Ghraib, and who was criticized in army investigations for weak and ineffectual leadership that led to the abuses – is now in charge of the Army's infantry training school at Fort Benning.

Capt. Carolyn Wood – who was the commander in charge of the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion, members of which were involved in the killing of Afghan detainees Habibullah and Dilawar was subsequently assigned to Abu Ghraib in Iraq where she drafted abusive interrogation rules of engagement authorized by Lt. Gen. Sanchez. Wood is reportedly an interrogation instructor at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

Former Deputy White House Counsel Timothy Flanigan, who helped craft the brutal interrogation policy and design military commissions, had been nominated to be Deputy Attorney General. Mr. Flanigan withdrew his nomination in October 2005 after questions arose over his involvement in crafting the rules on detainee treatment and his dealings with individuals implicated in lobbying improprieties.

CACI International and Titan Corporation, two of the Defense Department’s biggest contractors - whose employees participated in or failed to report abuses at Abu Ghraib – earned almost $4 billion in prime contracts with the government from 1998 to 2003. In August 2004 the Army awarded CACI a contract to extend its interrogation services in Iraq worth $15 million. In June 2004 the Titan Corporation was awarded a $255 million contract by the Department of Defense to provide comprehensive intelligence and information technology support worldwide. On April 25, 2005 Titan announced it had been awarded a $9.4 million contract to provide services including intelligence for a Naval Surface Warfare division.

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Where Are They Now?