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General Denies Urging Dogs for Interrogations
DAVID DISHNEAU
Associated Press
May 25, 2006
FORT MEADE, Maryland (AP) - Military dog handlers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were supposed to help interrogators, but not necessarily with interrogations, according to the two-star general who commanded the U.S. military prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and later Iraq.
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller testified Wednesday at the court-martial of Sgt. Santos A. Cardona, an Army dog handler and military policeman accused of having his dog bite one detainee and harass another at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 and early 2004. The offenses are not alleged to have occurred during interrogations but defense lawyers contend the rules and command structure at Abu Ghraib were hopelessly muddled.
Miller's testimony could support the defense argument that layer upon layer of confusion led Cardona to believe he had to follow interrogators' orders.
Miller, testifying for the first time in a legal proceeding stemming from the Abu Ghraib scandal, said he never recommended using dogs for interrogations despite his belief that Arabs had an instinctive fear of the animals.
Testifying for about 50 minutes as the leadoff defense witness, Miller told the jury he was sent from GuantanamoBay to Iraq in late August 2003 with a team of 17 experts to review detention and interrogation operations that were not producing enough "strategic intelligence" about the Iraqi insurgency.
Miller's Sept. 9, 2003, report to Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, then commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, recommended a reorganization that included using military police to set conditions for interrogations by providing interrogators with what Miller called "passive intelligence" about the prison habits of detainees.
Five days later, a memo signed by Sanchez allowed soldiers to "exploit Arab fear of dogs" during interrogations. The phrase was removed from interrogation rules that were later circulated at Abu Ghraib.
The rules also allowed muzzled dogs to be used in interrogations with Sanchez' approval.
Miller said under direct examination by defense attorney Harvey Volzer that he was aware "that there is a cultural fear of dogs in the Arab culture."
But Miller said he never recommended using dogs in interrogations.
"I found that military working dogs were effective in custody and control and so I found they were very useful at GuantanamoBay," he said.
A military investigation into FBI reports of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo recommended that Miller be reprimanded for failing to oversee an interrogation of a high-value detainee that was found to have been abusive. A top general rejected the recommendation.
Prosecutors rested earlier Wednesday after calling 19 witnesses over three days.
Cardona, 32, of Fullerton, California, is charged with assault, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees, conspiracy to maltreat detainees and lying to investigators. He faces up to 16 1/2 years in prison if convicted on all nine counts.
Prosecutors say Cardona abused detainees for his own amusement and the enjoyment of other soldiers characterized by prosecutors as a small band of "corrupt cops."
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