The Abu Ghraib prison case has effectively ended, and responsibility for the detainee pictures that drew world outrage ended up rising no higher on the chain of command than staff sergeant.

The only officer charged, Lieutenant Colonel Steven L. Jordan, was acquitted of failing to control lower-ranking soldiers who abused and sexually humiliated detainees at the prison near Baghdad in the fall of 2003. A military jury found that his only crime was disobeying an order not to discuss the investigation.

The jury yesterday reprimanded him for disobeying the order. The impact of the reprimand on Jordan's career was not immediately clear.

The allegations at the US-run prison became known with the release of pictures of US troops smiling while detainees, some of them naked, were held on leashes or in painful and humiliating positions. Jordan, 51, never appeared in the photos, but was accused of fostering a climate conducive to abuse.

Eleven soldiers were convicted, the highest-ranking, military police reservist Staff Sergeant Ivan L. Frederick, is now serving an eight-year sentence.

(China Daily via agencies August 30, 2007)