Army Dog Handler Gets 90 Days Hard Labor (for Actions at Abu Ghraib)

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2032846

Army Dog Handler Gets 90 Days Hard Labor
Military Jury in Md. Sentences Army Dog Handler to 90 Days Hard Labor for Actions at Abu Ghraib


FORT MEADE, Md. Jun 2, 2006 (AP)— A military jury sentenced an Army dog handler to 90 days hard labor and a reduction in rank Friday for allowing his Belgian shepherd to bark within inches of an Iraqi detainee's face at Abu Ghraib prison.

Army Sgt. Santos A. Cardona was the 11th soldier convicted of crimes stemming from the abuse of inmates at the prison in late 2003 and early 2004.

He was found guilty of dereliction of duty and aggravated assault for allowing his dog to bark in the face of a kneeling detainee at the request of another soldier who wasn't an interrogator.

The military jury acquitted him of other charges, including unlawfully having his dog bite a detainee and conspiring with another dog handler to frighten prisoners as a game.

"three memos issued in a month's time by Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, then commander of U.S. forces in Iraq... authorized harsher interrogation techniques such as stress positions, sleep deprivation and dogs at Abu Ghraib but only with written authorization.

The changing policies confounded Col. Thomas M. Pappas, an intelligence officer who assumed the prison's management in late 2003. Pappas was reprimanded last year for approving a request to use dogs in an interrogation without Sanchez' approval something Pappas testified he believed at the time the policy allowed."