Los Angeles Times
October 15, 2004
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon plans to promote Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo
Sanchez, former head of military operations in Iraq, risking a confrontation
with members of Congress because of the prisoner abuses that occurred during his
tenure.
Senior Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, have privately told colleagues they are determined to pin a fourth star
on Sanchez, two senior defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
said this week.
Rumsfeld and others recognize that Sanchez remains
politically "radioactive," in the words of a third senior defense official, and
would wait until after the Nov. 2 presidential election and investigations of
the Abu Ghraib scandal have faded before putting his name forward.
Top
Pentagon strategists do not have a specific four-star job in mind for Sanchez,
and the officials conceded that the appointment would probably not occur if Bush
were defeated in his reelection bid by Democratic rival Sen. John F. Kerry
(D-Mass.), who has made his criticism of the conduct in the war a centerpiece of
his campaign.
Among his duties in Iraq, Sanchez oversaw all detention
facilities, including Abu Ghraib prison.
Support for the general among
the senior-most policymakers in the Pentagon reflects the Bush administration's
insistence that the prisoner abuse affair — which began in Abu Ghraib
outside of Baghdad and then drew scrutiny to military jails in Afghanistan and
at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — was an
aberration.
But an appointment would encourage a confrontation in the
Senate, where Democrats and some Republicans who would have to
approve the nomination have criticized Sanchez's oversight of Abu Ghraib and the
conduct of the war.
"If they really felt comfortable about this and felt
it was justifiable, they would do it before the election," said Sen. Patrick J.
Leahy (D-Vt.), who was skeptical of the timing.
A senior Senate
Republican aide was more blunt.
"I would say that he would have a
snowball's chance," the aide said, on condition of anonymity. "Somebody needs
to be held accountable…. He failed in his leadership role."
Earlier this year, Sanchez was Rumsfeld's choice to take over the U.S. Southern
Command, a post that would have elevated the three-star general to four stars.
But his name was never formally offered after Senate Armed Services Committee
members challenged Sanchez's role in overseeing the war and the Abu Ghraib
prison affair.
Sanchez is the highest-ranking Latino in the military,
and would be the first to become one of the 33 four-star generals and full
admirals, which are the highest permanent rank.
"He commands a
tremendous amount of respect. And what a tough job he had. He gets credit for
that," an Army official said on condition of anonymity. "If calmer heads can
prevail, they'll look at a soldier whose capability e xceeds all those things."
A powerful constituency is pressing for Sanchez's promotion. Sanchez,
who has commanded the Army 5th Corps in Germany since June, is widely respected
throughout the military, and his rise from humble beginnings to one of the
nation's highest-profile military positions has made him a powerful symbol in
the Latino community.
"Sanchez was born in the equivalent of a log cabin
— no running water, a self-made man," said Charles Krohn, who retired last
year as an aide to former Army Secretary Thomas E. White. "Anything perceived
as an Anglo plot to hold Sanchez responsible for the sins of others would be
looked upon with great disfavor."
Nevertheless, Sanchez would face
scrutiny for his oversight of Abu Ghraib and his supervision of the war during a
time when the Iraqi insurgency wrested control of a number of cities from the
U.S.-led coalition. In a Sept. 9 report to Congress, former Defense Secretary
James R. Schlesinger found that Sanchez was "responsible" for creating an
environment that contributed to the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, but not
directly "culpable."
Schlesinger defended Sanchez against formal
censure, suggesting that his career was effectively over.
"Gen. Sanchez
likely would have gotten his fourth star, and now is unlikely to get his fourth
star," Schlesinger said. "That is a kind of comment on failed
responsibility."
A Sanchez promotion could also engender criticism in
the Middle East, where Abu Ghraib has become an anti-American rallying
cry.
"It'll just be one more thumb in the eye of the Iraqis and the Arab
world," said Charles V. Pena, director of defense policy studies at the Cato
Institute, a conservative Washington think tank. "If Sanchez gets another star,
it's just more evidence that we're not trying to deal with the hearts and mind
issues inside Iraq or the larger Islamic world."
The general personally
approved some of the controversial interrogation tactics that have been
criticized as a busive to prisoners, according to classified portions of a
recent report to Congress by Army Maj. Gen. George R. Fay, obtained by The
Times. A year ago, Sanchez changed the interrogation policy three times in less
than 30 days, confusing interrogators as to what was permissible, Fay wrote.
Fay said Sanchez adapted interrogation rules from those at Guantanamo
where, unlike in Iraq, the administration did not grant detainees the rights of
prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.
Sanchez "authorized the
use of techniques that were contrary to both U.S. military manuals and
international law," Leahy said in an Oct. 1 statement. "Given this incredible
overstepping of bounds, I find it incredible that the reports generated thus far
have not recommended punishment of any kind for high-level officials."
Several members of the Senate Armed Services Committee questioned at a hearing
on the prisoner abuse investigations whether Sanchez should be disciplined for
helping to create an environm ent that contributed to the abuse by failing to
adequately staff the prison, which at its peak had a prisoner-to-guard ratio of
75 to 1. An Army directive says the ratio should not exceed 8 to 1.