We're innocent! Innocent, I tell you!

Updated It's a shocking development, one that no one in the world would have predicted. But it's true. The International Herald Tribune for Monday had the news:

A high-level U.S. Army investigation has cleared four of the most senior army officers overseeing prison policies and operations in Iraq of responsibility for the abuses of prisoners there, congressional and administration officials said.

Gasp! The Army investigated its own top brass and found them not guilty! Can you believe it? Shocker!

An independent panel led by a former U.S. defense secretary, James Schlesinger, concluded in August that Sanchez, the top commander in Iraq at the time, failed to make sure that his staff was dealing with Abu Ghraib's problems. A separate army investigation, called the Kern-Fay-Jones report, found that at one point Sanchez approved the use of severe interrogation practices that led indirectly to some of the abuses.

The Schlesinger inquiry last summer also determined that Sanchez's deputy, Major General Walter Wojdakowski, failed to act quickly enough to make urgent requests to higher headquarters for more troops at the understaffed prison.

But those inquiries were not empowered to recommend any punishments; that was left up to the army.

Which looked at the facts and said "eh."

The Miami Herald sagely editorialized on Tuesday that

[i]f the generals aren't responsible for the conduct of U.S. troops in a combat zone, pray tell, who is? ...

[T]he most senior persons who are in a position to implement and supervise U.S. policy in Iraq and Afghanistan aren't responsible for an embarrassing failure in the actual execution of policy. ... It would be as if the captain of a ship were not held liable for crew members who beat up detainees held in the brig.

On a related point, I can't but wonder if it's merely coincidence that of the top five officials whose roles the Senate Armed Services Committee asked the army to review, the only one who was punished was Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who is both the lowest ranking among the five and the only woman.

But by no means let it be said that the Army protects only the highest (male) brass, oh, no! After all, the BBC informed us,

US military investigators have cleared American soldiers of any wrongdoing over the killing of an Italian agent at a Baghdad checkpoint, an official says.

Nicola Calipari was killed by US forces as he travelled in a car near Baghdad airport after securing the release of Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena.

The US military says the soldiers were "not culpable," according to a US official speaking on condition of anonymity.

Significantly, the report has not yet been released because Italy has refused to endorse it, challenging both US claims that the car was "speeding" and how much communication there was between the car and the checkpoint guards. The US claims

[s]oldiers used "hand and arm signals, flashing white lights and firing warning shots" to get the driver to stop

and fired into the engine block when it didn't.

But Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, quoting an Italian agent who was in the car, said

"[a] light was flashed at the vehicle from 10m away," Mr Berlusconi said. "The driver at this point stopped the car immediately and at the same time there was gunfire for about 10 or 15 seconds.

"A few shots reached the vehicle - one killed Mr Calipari and another bullet injured Ms Sgrena in the shoulder." ...

Italy had made all necessary contacts for safe passage, advising the US military at the airport as Sgrena was en route, Mr Berlusconi said.

Who to believe? Well, who has more to gain by giving a false version? And just how did Calipari and Sgrena get hit by shots to the engine block? Do our soldiers really have that bad an aim? Or did they just spray the car, figuring they'd hit the engine somewhere in there? (Ten to fifteen seconds of gunfire is a lot of bullets.)

Footnote, Maybe This Will Help Make Up Your Mind Div.: The White House, of course, was just full of scripted regrets.

Senior White House official Dan Bartlett called it "a horrific accident" and pledged a full investigation. ...

"People are making split-second decisions and it's critically important that we get the facts before we make judgements."

If it's "critically important" to get the facts, why, Mr. Bartlett, were you calling it an accident before the investigation began?

Updated to note that the car in which the Italians were traveling has finally been released by the US, seven weeks after the incident, so that Italian investigators can examine it.