Sgt. Smith's Own Words

With the court martial to begin today, the Washington Post has another great article on Abu Ghraib dog handler Sgt. Michael Smith - revealing new information about one of the detainees,  Ashraf Abdullah Ahsy, who was interrogated with the aid of dogs.  Ashy, it turns out, was a high value detainee, who was interrogated some 43 times and whose interrogation developments were communicated to higher-ups at Abu Ghraib and at the Pentagon.

 

It may not be an exaggeration to say that the Taguba investigation revealed more about the  role of the chain of command and the scope of abuses than all of the other investigations that have followed - many of which were classified to the point of revealing little or were whitewashed such that they offer virtually no insights.  Some of the most interesting information may be found in the Taguba annexes - many of which are available here on the Center for Public Integrity website.

 

It's worth reading the interview of Sgt. Michael Smith from February of 2004 before his court martial begins.  In addition you can read the interviews of two other dog handlers who were at Abu Ghraib - Sgt. Santos Cardona and Master in Arms 1st Class William Kimbro.  Reading them I found most disturbing the fact that none of the men had been schooled in the Geneva Conventions.

 

Needless to say, the Army Regulation on military working dogs, which Smith was aware of, makes no mention of using dogs for interrogation and only refers to using them in relation to prisoners to prevent escapes and escort them in transit.  As discussed in Friday's post, interrogation policy at Guantanamo Bay and at Abu Ghraib from at least September 2003 to possibly as late as May 2004 allowed for the use of dogs in interrogation. And as today's piece in the Post makes clear, those much higher than Smith were aware of these abusive practices and in many instances authorized them.