US soldier should use 'minimum of force necessary'
Backed by enlarged photographs of terrified prisoners at Abu Ghraib being menaced by dogs, a prosecutor in the court martial of a US Army dog handler said today that the defendant violated two tenets of his training: to treat prisoners humanely and to use the minimum amount of force necessary to ensure compliance.
“American soldiers don’t do that,” Major Christopher Graveline told a military jury in Fort Meade, Maryland, gesturing emphatically toward the photographs during closing arguments in the trial of Sgt Michael Smith.
“And we don’t do it because we think it’s fun. And we don’t do it for our laughs. And we don’t take pictures of it.”
Smith, 24, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is charged with 13 offences and faces up to 24 1/2 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
Prosecutors have portrayed Smith and another Army dog handler, Sgt Santos Cardona, as rogue soldiers who, together with some of the reservists who guarded the prison, tormented prisoners for their own amusement.
Cardona, 31, of Fullerton, California, is set to stand trial May 22.
Smith’s lawyer argued that he was following orders.
“He’s on trial for his life for things he did because he thought he was supposed to – things he did because there was a lack of clear guidance,” said Capt Mary McCarthy, who delivered the closing argument for the defence.
Testimony throughout the week-long trial showed conflicting ideas and confusion among prison workers about how dogs were supposed to be used, what constituted an interrogation and who had the authority to approve the use of dogs in interrogations.
On Wednesday, Col Thomas M Pappas, then commander of military intelligence at Abu Ghraib, testified that he approved a one-time use of muzzled dogs inside interrogation booths – but he later learned he lacked the authority to give such an order under a policy he said he still finds confusing.
In May, Pappas was reprimanded, fined £5,000 (€7,300) and relieved of his command of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade for failing to get the required approval from his commander, Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez.
Smith was charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice with five counts of maltreat of detainees, four counts of assault, two counts of conspiracy to maltreat detainees, one count of dereliction of duty and one count of indecency. The indecency charge stems from allegations that Smith had his dog lick peanut butter off the genitals of a male soldier and the breasts of a female soldier while another sergeant videotaped the act.
Before Smith’s trial, nine low-ranking U.S. soldiers had been convicted of crimes in the Abu Ghraib scandal.
