Dogs Called General’s Proposal

A former operations officer at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq testified Wednesday that the use of military working dogs in interrogations was a tactic recommended by the general who commanded the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Maj. David Dinenna’s testimony supported defense arguments during the two-day hearing for two Army dog handlers, Sgts. Michael J. Smith, 24, and Santos A. Cardona, 31. They are accused of engaging in a contest to make inmates defecate and urinate on themselves.

Dinenna, who likened his role at Abu Ghraib to that of a warden, was the only witness for either defendant during the Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a civilian preliminary hearing.

The officer testified that he attended a meeting in Iraq in September 2003 at which Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, who had supervised the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, suggested using dogs during interrogations.

“He wondered why we didn’t have military dogs,” Dinenna said.

At the time, military dogs had been requested for use at Abu Ghraib, but none had been delivered.

The witness said it was understood that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had dispatched Miller to Iraq to teach interrogation techniques.

This month, Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, rejected a recommendation to reprimand Miller for his role at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, which Miller ran until March 2004. He was sent to Iraq soon afterward, after the Abu Ghraib scandal became public, to revamp the military prison system there.

Smith and Cardona are charged with maltreating detainees by using unmuzzled dogs to frighten and threaten them. Witnesses said Tuesday that one prisoner needed stitches after a dog bit his thighs.

Maj. Matthew Miller, an Army prosecutor, said in his closing statement that there was “copious evidence” that Smith and Cardona had committed the crimes they were accused of. Smith, with the 523rd Military Police Detachment in Ft. Riley, Kan., faces 14 charges; Cardona, with the 42nd Military Police Detachment in Ft. Bragg, N.C., faces nine.

Maj. Miller urged Maj. Glenn Simpkins, the investigating officer, to recommend a general court-martial for each.

Simpkins has two weeks to make his recommendation.

In her closing statement, Capt. Mary G. McCarthy, Smith’s military lawyer, challenged the prosecution witnesses’ credibility. She said Pvts. Ivan L. Frederick and Sabrina Harman, who testified Tuesday, cooperated with the government to reduce their sentences stemming from involvement in the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Harvey Volzer, a civilian attorney representing Cardona, said in his closing statement that in the case of the inmate whose thighs were bitten, Cardona and Smith were “doing their job” by following interrogators’ instructions. After the hearing ended, Volzer told reporters that dog handlers were not briefed on interrogation tactics but were told to listen to interrogators.

He also told reporters that Dinenna’s testimony proved that senior officers at Abu Ghraib sought to copy the tactics used at Guantanamo Bay.

There was, he said, a top-down plan to “Gitmo-ize the prison.”

If convicted, Smith, of Fullerton, faces as many as 29 1/2 years in a military prison, reduction in rank to private, a dishonorable discharge, and forfeiture of all pay and allowances. Cardona, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., faces as many as 16 1/2 years in prison and the same other penalties.