Army General (Sanchez) Retires, Blames Abu Ghraib (AP)

Army General Retires, Blames Abu Ghraib

The Associated Press
Thursday, November 2, 2006; 2:02 AM

McALLEN, Texas -- Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who served a tumultuous year
as commander of all U.S. forces in Iraq, retired from the Army on Wednesday,
calling his career a casualty of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

"That's the key reason, the sole reason, that I was forced to retire," Sanchez
said for a story in Thursday's editions of The (McAllen) Monitor. "I was
essentially not offered another position in either a three-star or four-star
command."

Sanchez had been a candidate to become the next commander of U.S. Southern
Command but was passed over after the prisoner abuse scandal exploded into an
international controversy. He was criticized by some for not doing more to avoid
mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners.

-snip-

Sanchez, 55, served for 33 years. As commander of the Army's 5th Corps in 2003,
he issued three memos authorizing harsher interrogation techniques such as stress
positions, sleep deprivation and dogs at Abu Ghraib _ but only with written
authorization.

-snip-