June 11, 2004
By Josh White and Scott Higham, Washington Post
WASHINGTON -- US intelligence personnel ordered military dog handlers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq 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 the handlers provided to military investigators.
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 deeply involved in tactics later deemed by a US Army general to be "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses."
President 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 naked, beat them, and photographed them in humiliating sexual poses. An Army investigation into the abuse condemned the MPs for those practices, but 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 dog incidents, even though such use of dogs is an apparent violation of the Geneva Conventions and the Army's field manual. The military intelligence officer in charge of Abu Ghraib later told investigators that the use of unmuzzled dogs in interrogation sessions was recommended by a two-star general and that it was "OK."
Sergeant Michael J. Smith and Sergeant Santos A. Cardona, Army dog handlers assigned to Abu Ghraib, told investigators that military intelligence personnel requested that they bring their dogs to prison interrogation sites multiple times to assist in questioning detainees in December and January. Colonel Thomas Pappas, who was in charge of military intelligence at the prison, told both soldiers that the use of dogs in interrogations had been approved, according to the statements.
Neither Smith nor Cardona have been charged in connection with the abuse at Abu Ghraib.
In Army memos regarding interrogation techniques at the prison, the use of military working dogs was specifically allowed, as long as higher-ranking officers approved the measures. The Army previously has said that the commanding general of US troops in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, would have had to approve the use of dogs.
© Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
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Citation:
Josh White and Scott Higham, "Handlers Say Use of Dogs Approved," Washington Post, 11 June 2004. Original URL: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/06/11/handlers_say_use_of_dogs_approved?mode=PF (16 June 2004)