More than three years after the scandal broke out, only 11 other soldiers have been charged and convicted in the scandal, receiving sentences ranging between community service to 10 years in prison.
But no senior Defense Department official was ever charged in the case, which President George W. Bush described in May 2006 as the "biggest mistake" made by the United States in Iraq.
Only former general Janis Karpinski, prison commander in Iraq at the time of the scandal, was sanctioned with a demotion, but was never put on trial.
Jordan, with tears in his eyes, thanked his defense team after the jury passed sentence Wednesday.
"It is vindication. Lieutenant Colonel Jordan has always said that he had no role in the abuse of detainees," said his attorney, Major Kris Poppe.
The offense carried a possible five-year jail term, but prosecutors at the court martial at the Fort Meade military base near Washington only called for a reprimand and a 7,200 dollar fine, the equivalent of one month's salary.
The army reservist had been in charge of the prison's interrogation unit when the shocking photos circulated around the world in 2004.
Donald Rumsfeld, the controversial defense secretary at the time of the scandal, has said he had twice tended his resignation over the scandal, which he blamed on just "a few bad apples."
The prosecution's case began to falter after Jordan was first charged in April 2006, as eight of the 12 original charges, which carried sentences of up to 22 years in prison, were eventually dismissed.
The prosecution's own witnesses testified that Jordan was not directly in charge of the interrogations or the behavior of the prison guards, military police who worked directly under Karpinski.
But prosecutors had sought to argue that Jordan, who oversaw the Abu Ghraib interrogations center from September to December 2003, had fostered the atmosphere allowing such abuses to happen.
Jordan was acquitted on three charges of mistreating prisoners, including allegations he had stripped them and threatened them with attack dogs, and dereliction of duty.
The jury of one general and nine colonels found him guilty only of disobeying an order not to discuss the scandal with other people, when he sent two emails about it to a colleague in spring 2004.
Jordan, an army reservist, had pleaded not guilty to all four charges, with defense lawyers arguing that he had not been present when the abuses occurred and had no direct authority over the interrogations which happened at the jail.
"It is tempting to say that some officer must be held responsible. But not this officer," said his defense lawyer, Major Kris Poppe.
"You cannot stop somebody from doing something criminal if you're not there and you don't know about it." |
