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</font><h1><b>Army general is said to urge use of dogs to scare
prisoners</b></h1><font size=2><b>By R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington
Post | May 26, 2004<br><br>
WASHINGTON -- A US Army general dispatched by senior Pentagon officials
to bolster the collection of intelligence from prisoners in Iraq last
fall inspired and promoted the use of guard dogs there to frighten the
Iraqis, according to sworn testimony by the top US intelligence officer
at the Abu Ghraib prison.<br><br>
According to the officer, Colonel Thomas Pappas, the idea came from Major
General Geoffrey Miller, who at the time commanded the US detention
center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and was implemented under a policy
approved by Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, the top US military
official in Iraq.<br><br>
</b>''It was a technique I had personally discussed with General Miller,
when he was here" visiting the prison, testified Pappas, head of the
205th Military Intelligence Brigade and the officer placed in charge of
the cellblocks at Abu Ghraib prison where abuses occurred in the wake of
Miller's visit to Baghdad between Aug. 30 and Sept. 9, 2003.<br><br>
<b>''He said that they used military working dogs at Gitmo [Guantanamo
Bay], and that they were effective in setting the atmosphere for which,
you know, you could get information" from the prisoners, Pappas told
the Army investigator, Major General Antonio M. Taguba, said a transcript
provided to the Post.<br><br>
</b>Pappas, who was under pressure from Taguba to justify the legality
and appropriateness of using guard dogs to frighten detainees, said at
two separate points in the Feb. 9 interview that Miller gave him the
idea.<br><br>
Miller, appointed as the new head of Abu Ghraib this month, denied
through a spokesman that the conversation took place. ''Further, military
dogs were never used in interrogations at Guantanamo," said
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, spokesman for US forces in
Iraq.<br><br>
<b>Meanwhile, the New York Times reports today that a US Army summary of
deaths and mistreatment of prisoners in military custody in Iraq and
Afghanistan reveals a widespread pattern of abuse that began earlier and
continued longer than previously known.<br><br>
</b>One of the oldest cases involved the death of a prisoner in
Afghanistan in December 2002 when enlisted active-duty Army personnel and
members of an Ohio reserve unit were involved in ''assaulting and
mistreating the detainee<b>." The most recent was last month, when a
prisoner detained by Navy commandos in Iraq died in a suspected case of
homicide attributed to ''blunt force trauma to the torso and positional
asphyxia," according the Army summary, dated May 5.<br><br>
</b>Pappas's statements provide the fullest public account to date of how
he viewed the interrogation mission at Abu Ghraib and Miller's impact on
operations there. <b>Pappas said, among other things, that interrogation
plans involving the use of dogs, shackling, ''making detainees strip
down," or similar aggressive measures followed Sanchez's policy, but
were often approved by Sanchez's deputy, Major General Walter
Wodjakowski, or by himself.<br><br>
</b>The claims and counterclaims between Pappas and Miller concern one of
the most notorious aspects of US actions at Abu Ghraib, as revealed in
pictures taken by military personnel that became public late last month.
The pictures show unmuzzled dogs being used to intimidate Abu Ghraib
detainees, while the prisoners are cowering, naked, against a wall.
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