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.