Barbara Fast was a general officer in the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 and was the senior military intelligence officer serving in Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

 during the period of time when the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse

Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse

Beginning in 2004, human rights violations in the form of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, including torture, rape, sodomy, and homicide of prisoners held in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq came to public attention...

 occurred.

Fast retired from the Army as a Major General

Major general (United States)

In the United States Army, United States Marine Corps, and United States Air Force, major general is a two-star general-officer rank, with the pay grade of O-8. Major general ranks above brigadier general and below lieutenant general...

 with over thirty of years of service.

Education

Fast graduated from Belleville Township High School East in Belleville, Illinois in 1971 and earned a Master of Science degree in Business Administration from Boston University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. She also is a graduate of the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Military career

Fast was the most senior military intelligence officer serving in Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

 during the period of time when the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse

Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse

Beginning in 2004, human rights violations in the form of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, including torture, rape, sodomy, and homicide of prisoners held in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq came to public attention...

 occurred. Critics believed she should have been held partly accountable for the abuses committed at Abu Ghraib by military intelligence personnel, but she was never officially implicated, charged, or reprimanded. She was previously assigned as the commanding general of the United States Army Intelligence Center

United States Army Intelligence Center

The United States Army Intelligence Center of Excellence is the United States Army's school for professional training of military intelligence personnel...

 at Fort Huachuca

Fort Huachuca

Fort Huachuca is a United States Army installation under the command of the United States Army Installation Management Command. It is located in Cochise County, in southeast Arizona, about north of the border with Mexico. Beginning in 1913, for 20 years the fort was the base for the "Buffalo...

, Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

, and was the last commander of the 66th Military Intelligence Group in Augsburg, Germany.

On November 14, 2006 human rights attorney Wolfgang Kaleck

Wolfgang Kaleck

Wolfgang Kaleck is a German civil rights attorney. He is also the General Secretary for the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights...

 filed a high profile criminal complaint at the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 Federal Attorney General (Generalbundesanwalt) against Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...

 and several senior US officials including Barbara Fast for their alleged involvement in human rights violations at the Abu Ghraib

Abu Ghraib

The city of Abu Ghraib in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq is located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000. The old road to Jordan passes through Abu Ghraib...

prison.
However, legal scholars speculated shortly thereafter that the case had little chance of successfully making it through the German court system.