Army Dog Handler Facing Abu Ghraib Charges

[Rose Siding]

HAGERSTOWN, Md. -- The court-martial of an Army dog handler charged with abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq could help clarify who approved the harsh treatment that human-rights advocates say amounted to torture.

Sgt. Michael J. Smith, 24, is accused of using his unmuzzled dog to harass, threaten and assault detainees in late 2003 and early 2004 -- the same period in which guards at the prison subjected inmates to sexual humiliation and other abuses documented in widely seen photographs.

Military justice experts and civil-rights activists expect Smith's attorneys to argue that his actions, documented in some of those Abu Ghraib photos, were condoned by superiors in a chain of command stretching to the Pentagon.

Prosecutors, however, have portrayed Smith and another dog handler, Sgt. Santos A. Cardona, as rogue military policemen who made a game of trying to frighten prisoners into urinating or defecating on themselves.

Smith's trial was set to begin Monday at Fort George G. Meade, midway between Baltimore and Washington. He faces up to 29 1/2 years in prison if convicted on all 14 counts. Cardona's trial is set for May 22.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-abu-ghraib-dog-handler,0,616735.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[saigon68]

1. HERE IS THE THUG AND HOODLUM "AT WORK"

[damntexdem]

2. I thought they'd go further down the chain of command and ...

indict the dog.

Hey, it might play well: a dog as a scapegoat.

Rumsfeld, and his boss, should be up on charges.

[cliss]

3. You beat me to it.

What about that God-damned Rumsfailed? We know he approved of the dog-terrorizing because that paperwork came up 2 years ago. It was all over the DU. Rumsfool approved it. HE should be held accountable.

[rodeodance]

4. WPost Detainee in Photo With Dog Was 'High-Value' Suspect

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031200962_pf.html


Detainee in Photo With Dog Was 'High-Value' Suspect

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 13, 2006; A03

When Army Sgt. Michael J. Smith faces a court-martial today on charges that he used his military working dog to harass and threaten detainees, one of the prime examples of that alleged misconduct will be a photograph of Smith holding the dog just inches from the face of a detainee. It is one of the notorious images to emerge from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Although officials characterized the other detainees who appeared in the Abu Ghraib photographs as common criminals and rioters, the orange-clad detainee seen cowering before the dog was different. Detainee No. 155148 was considered a high-value intelligence source suspected of having close ties to al-Qaeda. According to interviews, sworn statements from soldiers and military documents obtained by The Washington Post, Ashraf Abdullah Ahsy was at the center of a military intelligence "special project" designed to break him down, and was considered important enough that his interrogation was mentioned in a briefing to high-ranking intelligence officials at the Pentagon.

Although Ahsy -- also identified in documents by the tribal last name of al-Juhayshi -- was described without his name in an Abu Ghraib military investigation as a "high value" detainee, he has largely remained a mystery. Ahsy's story, and his months of intense interrogations, contrast with statements by U.S. officials that the images of abuse at Abu Ghraib depicted malfeasance of a few soldiers randomly selecting victims on the night shift.

Ahsy could become a central figure in Smith's trial because attorneys for the Abu Ghraib dog handlers have said that military intelligence (MI) directed the soldiers to use their animals as part of an interrogation regimen, one that top officers approved in December 2003. Unlike others implicated in the Abu Ghraib abuse, the dog handlers can point directly to approvals of the technique in question from top commanders......

[Whoa_Nelly]

5. "Aw, Gwarsh, Folks!" sez Goofy McChimp

"There ain't no torture. Rummy done tol' me them's jest few bad apples!