No prison for US soldier over Abu Ghraib dog assault

AP | June 3rd 2006

A US army sergeant convicted of using his dog to assault an inmate at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison on Friday escaped a prison term or expulsion from the military.

A military jury sentenced Sergeant Santos Cardona, 32, to hard labour without confinement for 90 days, demoted him one rank to specialist fourth class and docked him 7,200 dollars in wages over the next year.

Cardona had faced a maximum term of up to three-and-a-half years and a dishonorable discharge.

The verdict was handed down as a storm mounted over misconduct by US troops in Iraq, with the US military probing several incidents, including alleged killings of civilians in the town of Haditha by US marines.

Cardona on Thursday became the 11th low-ranking soldier convicted over the Abu Ghraib scandal, described last week by President George W. Bush as America's "biggest mistake" in Iraq.

The panel of four officers and three enlisted soldiers found he used his Belgian shepherd dog to commit an aggravated assault by threatening high-ranking Baath Party member Kamel Miza'l Nayil between late 2003 and early 2004. He was also found guilty of dereliction of duty.

But they acquitted Cardona, a veteran of Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti, on seven other counts, including a more serious charge of using his dog to bite a second Iraqi prisoner.

He was also cleared of using his dog to terrify inmates into defecating and urinating on themselves, for what prosecutors had argued was pure "entertainment."

Cardona hugged his military defense lawyer Major Kirstin Mayer, and civilian attorney Harvey Volzer, and bear hugged friends and former comrades in the public gallery after the sentence was handed down.

Mayer had argued in a sentencing hearing on Thursday that Cardona should be allowed to continue his career, after testimony from former comrades and commanding officers who portrayed him as a brave and resourseful soldier.

But prosecutors had implored the panel to consider how the punishment would be seen in the outside world, and in the context of a war in which US soldiers were still deployed in Iraq.

"We can win all kinds of battles but end up losing the whole dang war because there are bone-headed decisions," said prosecutor Major Matthew Miller in a sentencing hearing before the panel retired to consider its verdict.

"How can we win the hearts and minds of the people of Iraq?" he asked, adding that abuse scandals emboldened America's enemies, and undercut US arguments its soldiers were "the good guys."

Cardona's comrade at Abu Ghraib, another dog handler, Sergeant Michael Smith, 24, was jailed for six months in March and demoted to the rank of private over the scandal.

Some critics of the US administration and the Pentagon have complained that no senior officers have been prosecuted over Abu Ghraib. Cardona's defense argued the use of dogs to interrogate prisoners was condoned by his superiors.

The defense also said Cardona and comrades were working with no clear chain of command, and under intense pressure from military and political leaders desperate for actionable intelligence on Iraq's nascent insurgency.

The Abu Ghraib scandal erupted in 2004 after photographs were leaked to the press showing US guards mistreating and sexually humiliating prisoners. Some pictures showed naked inmates cowering in front of unmuzzled dogs.

Cardona's trial heard testimony from the highest-ranking officer yet questioned in court over the affair, General Geoffrey Miller, who testified he had only recommended the use of dogs for keeping order at the prison.

Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the commander in Iraq at the time, and other senior officers have been cleared of responsibility.

But a string of lower ranking soldiers, described by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as "a few bad apples," have faced courts martial.

Specialist Charles Graner and his girlfriend of the time, Private Lynndie England, became the public face of the abuse scandal and both were jailed.

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