How high will the blame go in abuse scandal?

Finger-pointing abounds, a senator said.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
WASHINGTON -- The abuse of Iraqi prisoners sparked so much concern that President Bush was told about an investigation during the winter holidays, White House officials said Tuesday. Within months, the scandal cost the military career of a reserve Army general and several other officers.
Now, people at the Pentagon and across official Washington are asking how high the blame will reach.
With outrage growing over the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib, the military's main prison in Iraq, accountability has become an overriding question.
Accusations fly
Already, mid-level military officers implicated in the case are accusing higher-ups of attempting to shirk responsibility. On Capitol Hill, senior lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are crying foul for not being informed of the military's investigation and are planning to launch one of their own.
Until Tuesday, the Pentagon's top civilian and uniformed officials, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers, said they had not read an investigative report on the matter -- or been given copies of the graphic photographs most of the nation has seen on television and in the newspapers. Rumsfeld said Tuesday he had seen a summary and recommendations from the investigation. Bush has yet to read it.
But where responsibility settles will help determine the domestic political implication and, equally important, the impact of the scandal in Iraq and the Arab world.
Calling Defense on the carpet
Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, said Tuesday that the civilian and military leadership of the Defense Department should be called before the committee to answer questions about the treatment of prisoners not only at facilities in Iraq, but at military prisons around the world.
"It is not clear at this point who should be held to account," Byrd said. "No one has stepped forward to take responsibility for the conditions in Iraqi prisons. Instead, fingers are being pointed in every direction," Byrd said. "With whom does this buck stop?"
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was not pleased with how the abuse allegations have been handled by the military, noting that a battalion commander received a letter of reprimand.
"He will be taken off the promotion list, but he can, apparently, still remain in the Army," Warner said. "And I must say, speaking for myself, I find some concern in that level of punishment."
As the scale of the abuse at Abu Ghraib and the broader deficiencies of management have come to light, questions go beyond whom to blame for the actions themselves. Enraged Arab have asked how those who should have known about the abuses are being punished.