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Army General Advised Using Dogs at Abu Ghraib
From The Washington Post, an article by Josh WhiteArmy Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller told top officers during an advisory visit to Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison that they needed to get military working dogs for use in interrogations, and he advocated procedures then in use at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to court testimony yesterday. Maj. David DiNenna, the top military police operations officer at Abu Ghraib in 2003, said that when Miller and a team of Guantanamo Bay officials visited in early September 2003, Miller advocated mirroring the Cuba operation. .... DiNenna's testimony at a preliminary hearing for two Army dog handlers provided additional confirmation that the Guantanamo teams brought their aggressive interrogation tactics to Iraq in the weeks before abuse was committed there. While methods employed at Abu Ghraib -- including hooding, nudity and placing prisoners in stress positions -- have been characterized by senior defense officials as rogue, abusive horseplay on the night shift, some of them had been authorized for experienced interrogators at Guantanamo Bay. Dogs, seen menacing detainees at Abu Ghraib in grisly photographs, were also used in Cuba under Miller's command. The defense teams for Sgt. Santos A. Cardona and Sgt. Michael J. Smith argued during their two-day hearing at Fort Meade, Md., that the dog handlers were doing their jobs when their dogs bit a naked detainee whose cell was being searched for contraband. Defense lawyers portrayed their clients as following orders -- from both military intelligence and military police officials -- they believed to be appropriate. ... Cardona and Smith, who face potentially lengthy sentences should they be convicted at court-martial, were charged this summer after an initial criminal investigation in early 2004 found that allegations of abuse against them were unfounded, according to their attorneys. It was only after photographs of the two dog handlers surfaced publicly that they again faced legal scrutiny. Maj. Matthew Miller, a prosecutor in this week's preliminary hearing, said yesterday in a closing statement that there is "copious evidence" that Cardona and Smith abused detainees beyond the scope of their duties. ... The use of military dogs to exploit fear in detainees was approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for use on a specific important detainee in Cuba in late 2002 and early 2003. Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller was later sent to Iraq for 10 days with a team of 17 Guantanamo Bay interrogators and analysts beginning Aug. 31, 2003. .... Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2005-07-28 |
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