Army 'approved use of dogs'

2004-05-22 18:29

Washington - The use of dogs to intimidate Iraqis during interrogation at Abu Ghraib prison was approved by military intelligence officers and was one of several tactics they used even without approval from their commanders, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

Citing interviews gathered by US army investigators and a Red Cross document, the newspaper said intelligence officers also demanded strict limits on Red Cross access to prisoners as early as last October, delaying for a day what the military had previously described as an unannounced visit to the cellblock where the worst abuses occurred.

The documents assembled by army investigators starting in January and obtained by The Times cite accounts by US dog handlers who say the use of military working dogs in interrogations at Abu Ghraib was approved by Colonel Thomas Pappas, commander of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade.

Previously, Pentagon and Army officials have said that only the top American commander, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, could have approved the use of the animals for interrogations, the paper said.

A "memorandum for the record" issued on October 9 by the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Centre at the prison listed as permissible a number of interrogation procedures that Army officials have said were allowed only with approval from General Sanchez, the report said.

Among other things, the memorandum said the use of dogs in interrogations and the confining of prisoners to isolation cells was permitted in some cases without a prior approval from General Sanchez, The Times said.

- AFP