General 'urged use of dogs'
2006-05-25 21:45
Fort Meade - The former commander of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay urged the use of dogs to the "maximum extent possible" to control detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, but did not order their use in
interrogations, a witness said on Thursday.
The testimony came on the fourth day of the military trial
of army dog handler Santos Cardona, who is accused of
taking part in abuse of detainees at the Iraqi prison that the
US government blames on rogue low-ranking soldiers.
Defence attorneys are trying to prove that Cardona, who
faces 16 years in prison if convicted on all charges, and other
soldiers were acting on orders from their superiors.
Information gathering
US army Major-General Geoffrey Miller, former head of the
Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, was sent to Iraq to try to
improve information gathering as the insurgency intensified
after the March 2003 invasion.
Ten soldiers have so far been convicted of abusing
prisoners, including sexual humiliation and the use of
snarling, unmuzzled dogs in late 2003 and early 2004 after
Miller arrived.
"All I can recall is him encouraging using them (dogs) to
the maximum extent possible," retired Lieutenant-Colonel Jerry
Phillabaum - was in command of Abu Ghraib before September
2003 -old the court in a military base in Maryland.
"I don't recall him saying anything about interrogations."
Pressure
Despite evidence of pressure from above to extract more
information from prisoners, there are few signs that senior
army leaders or administration officials will be charged with
condoning the abuse.
US government was severely
embarrassed when photographs showing prisoners being abused and
sexually humiliated by US military personnel were leaked in
2004.
Miller, the highest ranking officer to testify in the
scandal, said on Wednesday he never suggested using military
dogs in interrogations of Iraqi prisoners, undercutting
Cardona's defence.
Cordona is charged with dereliction of duty
and assaulting and threatening Iraqi detainees with his Belgian
shepherd dog.
'Corrupt cops'
Prosecutors say Cardona and another dog handler, Michael Smith - who was convicted on similar charges in March
and sentenced to 179 days in prison - were "corrupt cops" who
terrified prisoners into urinating and defecating on
themselves.
Captain Carolyn Wood, who was an intelligence officer at Abu
Ghraib, testified there were clear rules against the use of
unmuzzled dogs handed down in a memo from Lieutenant-General Ricardo
Sanchez, the commander of US forces in Iraq, and which were
signed by all personnel at the prison.
"Using an unmuzzled dog goes against the CG's (commanding
general's) policy," she said, when asked if she would have
approved the use of dogs against detainees.