Jun. 12, 2004
U.S. general approved using dogs at Iraqi jail
Dog handlers give sworn statements
JOSH WHITE AND SCOTT HIGHAM
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
WASHINGTON-U.S. intelligence personnel ordered dog handlers at Iraq's Abu
Ghraib prison to use unmuzzled dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees
during interrogations late last year, a plan approved by the highest-ranking
military intelligence officer at the facility, according to sworn
statements.
A military intelligence interrogator also told investigators that two dog
handlers at Abu Ghraib were "having a contest" to see how many detainees
they could make involuntarily urinate out of fear of the dogs, according to
the previously undisclosed statements obtained by The Washington Post.
The statements by the dog handlers provide the clearest indication yet that
military intelligence personnel were involved in tactics later deemed by a
U.S. general to be "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses.''
President George W. Bush and top Pentagon officials have said the criminal
abuse at Abu Ghraib was confined to a small group of rogue military police
soldiers who stripped detainees, beat them and photographed them in
humiliating sexual poses. An army investigation into the abuse condemned the
MPs for those practices, but also included the use of unmuzzled dogs to
frighten detainees among the "intentional abuse.''
So far, the only charges to emerge have been against seven MPs and do not
include any dog incidents, even though the use of dogs in this manner is an
apparent violation of the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. army's field
manual.
The military intelligence officer in charge of Abu Ghraib told investigators
using unmuzzled dogs in interrogation sessions was recommended by a two-star
general and that it was "OK."
The newly obtained documents reinforce the picture that the abuse falls into
two categories: sexual humiliation and beatings at the hands of military
police, and intimidation using dogs that is clearly tied to military
intelligence.
Sgt. Michael Smith and Sgt. Santos Cardona, army dog handlers assigned to
Abu Ghraib, told investigators intelligence personnel requested they bring
their dogs to prison interrogation sites multiple times to assist in
questioning detainees in December and January.
Col. Thomas Pappas, who was in charge of military intelligence at the
prison, told them the use of dogs in interrogations had been approved,
according to the statements.
In mid-December, the dog handlers said they were asked for help in dealing
with an unco-operative detainee. Part of what followed was captured in
photographs that have come to define the abuse at Abu Ghraib: A naked
prisoner was up against a wall, two dogs squaring off against him.
The detainee, identified in the documents as Ballendia Sadawi Mohammed, told
investigators he was bitten by dogs while he was handcuffed.
Washington Post
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1086991811102&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724
--
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired,
signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed,
those who are cold and are not clothed."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
April 16, 1953
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