The Senate bill would have halted aid if Colombia failed to punish abusive officers.

Government armed forces will be cut in half from their present level of 53,000, and corrupt or abusive officers will be purged.

Diplomats say he has used it to intimidate critics, protect abusive officers from prosecution, and expand the army's vast business empire.

New York police officials say they are vigilant in rooting out abusive officers and punishing colleagues who try to protect them.

And some abusive officers use their connections inside the criminal justice system to block their victims' appeals for help.

In several cities, officials said they viewed abusive officers as threats to more than just their spouses.

Few aspects of defense policy were more poisonous than the Pentagon's support for abusive and anti-democratic Latin American officers.

Civilians found it hard to identify the abusive officers and officers refused to testify against each other.

The subsequent disciplinary delays, the critics argue, could then be blamed on the board's blunders instead of the department's reluctance to punish abusive officers.

Defenders of the department point to the program as evidence of the city's efforts, if not its success, in seeking to unearth abusive officers.