Sergeant Michael J. Smith, the dog handler shown in photographs sicking unmuzzled dogs on detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is now facing a court martial for alleged abuse of prisoners.
Smith, 24, is charged with using his unmuzzled dog to harass, threaten and assault detainees in late 2003 and early 2004.
The trial will show two contrasting views of this behavior. Prosecutors say that Sergeant Smith was a rogue officer, acting on his own authority. They claim he and a fellow dog handler made a 'game' out of seeing who could frighten detainees into urinating or defecating on themselves.
Smith's defense attorneys claim that he was following orders from his superiors and that the chain of command goes all the way up to the Pentagon.
The court martial is taking place at Fort Meade in Maryland. Smith faces as many as 29 1/2 years in prison if convicted on all 14 counts. Fellow dog handler, Sergeant Santos A. Cardona is scheduled to begin his trial on May 22.
Dog teams were introduced at Abu Ghraib in November 2003 on the recommendation of Major General Geoffrey D. Miller. Miller had previously been in charge of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and was later put in charge of Abu Ghraib. Miller has stated he recommended in 2003 that dogs be used for detainee custody and control, but not for interrogations.
Colonel Thomas M. Pappas, the former head of intelligence at Abu Ghraib, told investigators looking into the case that Miller told him dogs were very helpful during interrogations at Gitmo.
Major David DiNenna told investigators at a preliminary hearing that he understood that Miller had been sent to Abu Ghraib by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld 'to take these interrogation techniques, other techniques they learned at Guantanamo Bay and try to incorporate them in Iraq.'
Thus far, no high ranking officials have been implicated in the prisoner abuse trials arising out of incidents that took place at Abu Ghraib. This court martial will be an interesting test to see how high up the chain of command the treatment of prisoners went.
