Jury Finds Abu Ghraib Dog Handler Guilty

Jury Finds Abu Ghraib Dog Handler Guilty

Jury Finds Abu Ghraib Dog Handler Guilty
By Josh White
The Washington Post

Tuesday 21 March 2006

A military dog handler who worked at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was found guilty today of improperly using his dog to frighten detainees, the latest in a line of convictions for low-ranking military police soldiers who were depicted in notorious photographs of abuse of detainees in late 2003 and early 2004.

A military jury panel of four officers and three senior non-commissioned officers found Sgt. Michael J. Smith, 24, responsible for maltreatment of one high-value detainee who was believed to be connected to al-Qaeda and of two juvenile detainees whom Smith scared as part of a contest with another dog handler to make them soil themselves. Smith was also convicted of dereliction of duty, simple assault on the al-Qaeda suspect and an indecent act related to an incident in which Smith allowed his dog to lick peanut butter from soldiers' bodies as part of a wager.

While the jury believed prosecution arguments that Smith was operating out of bounds when he allowed his black Belgian shepherd, Marco, to get close to detainees while barking and growling, members found him guilty on fewer than half of the original 13 specific charges against him. The jury rejected the government's argument that Smith conspired with other military police soldiers who have previously been convicted of various abuses at the prison and also found him not guilty of using his dog to abuse two other individual detainees - one of whom is depicted naked and cowering in a hallway in one of the most recognizable photos of abuse at Abu Ghraib.

Smith initially faced a potential sentence of more than 24 years in prison, but an Army spokeswoman said today after the verdict that he now faces a maximum of just less than nine years in prison. The jury, which deliberated for more than two days, was scheduled to reconvene this afternoon to hear evidence for the sentencing phase of the military court-martial at Fort Meade, Md.

"This verdict sends a powerful message that abusive interrogation techniques using unmuzzled dogs to terrify detainees is strictly prohibited," said Human Rights First attorney Avidan Cover, who monitored the proceedings over the past week. "Sergeant Smith's court-martial made clear that there is more than enough blame to go around, with high-ranking officers and civilian command yet to be held to account for their role in these widespread instances of abuse."

The verdict focused largely on two incidents of abuse that took place on Tier 1 of the prison's hard-site, a building with several tiers of cell blocks that housed suspects who were under interrogation by military intelligence, as well as women and children who were in U.S. custody. In one incident, Smith brought his dog within inches of the face of Ashraf Abdullah Ahsy al-Juhayshi, a detainee who was believed to be linked to terrorist networks and was placed under a special interrogation plan that was monitored by high-ranking officers. In the other, Smith allegedly participated in a contest with Sgt. Santos A. Cardona to make detainees urinate or defecate on themselves.

There were pictures of Juhayshi - clothed in an orange jumpsuit with his hands bound behind his back - recoiling from Smith and his dog. There were no pictures of the "contest," and accounts of it came from one witness who recalled not taking the accounts seriously at the time. There was scant evidence that Smith's dog did anything but bark at detainees to scare them, something that his attorneys characterized as being the sole reason officers wanted the dogs at the facility.

Photographs of another detainee, Mohammed Bollendia, showed him naked and scared in a prison hallway and then suffering from a dog bite after an altercation. Evidence at the court-martial showed that Smith's dog did not inflict the bite, and jurors were not convinced that Smith was operating outside of the prison's ad hoc rules in that situation.

Col. Thomas M. Pappas, the top military intelligence officer at the prison, testified last week that he inappropriately authorized the use of dogs in interrogations of three detainees who were captured at about the same time as Saddam Hussein in mid-December 2003. Pappas, the highest-ranking officer to take responsibility for abuses at Abu Ghraib, testified under immunity that he did not properly supervise the use of dogs or ensure that people had the right training to use them.

Though Smith's use of a dog on Juhayshi came days after Pappas's approval and appeared to be supervised by at least one civilian interrogator, jurors still believed the act was illegal.

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