Senior Abu Ghraib officer says rules for dog use were lacking

The former US military intelligence chief at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison says he regrets not setting “appropriate controls” there, where detainees were bitten by dogs and assaulted and sexually humiliated by guards.

Col. Thomas Pappas, commander of military intelligence at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 and early 2004, testified yesterday at the Fort Meade, Maryland, court-martial of Sgt. Michael Smith, an Army dog handler charged with abusing detainees at the prison.

“If I had to list my biggest failure, I think it was not setting appropriate controls,” said Pappas, the highest-ranking witness scheduled to testify.

“In hindsight, clearly we probably needed to establish some definitive rules and put out some clear guidance to everybody concerned,” he said, testifying for the defence under a grant of immunity.

Nevertheless, Pappas said under cross-examination that a photograph showing Smith’s unmuzzled dog straining at its leash inches away from the face of a terrified prisoner, was not consistent with any policy or guidance.

During nearly two hours of testimony, the colonel provided few details about the genesis of harsh interrogation tactics that included “exploit Arab fear of dogs” – a technique recommended in a policy dated September 14, 2003.

But he told the court at Fort Meade that the dogs were to be used “to assist in setting conditions for interrogations”.

The policy required interrogators to get case-by-case approval from Pappas’ supervisor, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, and required dogs to wear muzzles and to be controlled by their handlers.

Pappas said he signed one such request on December 14, 2003, for interrogating one of three prisoners said to have been captured with Saddam Hussein a day earlier. Pappas said he approved the request, mistakenly thinking he had that authority under a revised policy he called “confusing”.

In May, Pappas was reprimanded, fined $8,000 (€6,200) and relieved of his command of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade for failing to get Sanchez’s approval in that case.

Other testimony in the trial, which began on Monday, has revealed conflicting notions among prison workers about how dogs were supposed to be used, what the approval process was and where interrogations were supposed to occur.

Defence lawyers contend Smith was following his training and his instructions. But prosecutors have portrayed him 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.

Smith, 24, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is charged with 13 offences and could serve up to 24 years in prison if convicted on all counts. Cardona, 31, of Fullerton, California, is set to stand trial on May 22.