Abu Ghraib Army dog handler is convicted of tormenting prisoners

FORT MEADE, Md. -- An Army dog handler at Abu Ghraib was convicted Tuesday of tormenting prisoners with his snarling animal and competing with a comrade to make the Iraqis soil themselves.

Sgt. Michael J. Smith, 24, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was found guilty at a court-martial of six of 13 counts. The judge later dismissed one of those six counts, saying it duplicated another.

A sentencing hearing began in the afternoon, and will conclude today. The five charges carried up to 8 1/2 years behind bars.

Prosecutors said Smith let his unmuzzled black Belgian shepherd bark and lunge at several prisoners for his own amusement. One of the photographs that led to the exposure of the scandal at the Iraqi prison shows his dog straining on its leash, just inches from the face of a cowering prisoner.

The defense maintained that Smith was a good soldier who believed he was doing what the government wanted canine handlers to do at Abu Ghraib: provide security and frighten interrogation subjects. Also, defense attorney Capt. Mary G. McCarthy said all that Smith's dog did to prisoners was bark at them.

The defense further argued that Abu Ghraib was a dangerous, chaotic place where policies were so murky that even the colonel who supervised interrogations testified he was confused.

The jury deliberated for about 18 hours over three days. The soldier, wearing his green dress uniform, stood at attention, staring straight ahead, as the verdict was read.

Smith was found guilty of maltreatment involving three prisoners, conspiring with another dog handler in a contest to make detainees soil themselves, dereliction of duty, assault and an indecent act. The assault charge was dismissed.

The indecency conviction was for directing his dog to lick peanut butter off the genitals of a male soldier and the breasts of a female soldier.

During the sentencing hearing, Smith said he wished he had to learned how to "CYA" -- shorthand for "cover your backside." Soldiers who don't, he said, "end up in a heap of trouble."

He did express remorse for the actions that led to the indecency conviction.

"It was foolish, stupid and juvenile. There is nothing I could do to take it back. If I could, I would," Smith said.

The other dog handler, Sgt. Santos A. Cardona, 31, of Fullerton, Calif., is set for trial May 22.

Nine other soldiers have been convicted of abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, in many cases by putting them in sexually humiliating poses and photographing them. Former Cpl. Charles Graner Jr. received the longest sentence -- 10 years in prison. Lynndie England, a 23-year-old reservist photographed giving a thumbs-up in front of naked prisoners, is serving three years behind bars.

During the prosecution's closing argument at Smith's trial, the jury was shown enlarged photographs from 2003 and 2004 of Smith's dog menacing cowering detainees in cellblock hallways.

"Look at the fear in his eyes," prosecutor Maj. Christopher Graveline said of one prisoner. "This is not to gain compliance."

Sgt. John H. Ketzer, an interrogator at the prison, testified that one night, he followed the sounds of screaming to a cell where Smith's dog was straining against its leash and barking at two cowering, teenage boys.

Ketzer said Smith laughingly told him afterward: "My buddy and I are having a contest to see if we can get them to (defecate on) themselves because we've already had some (urinate on) themselves."

Under cross-examination, Ketzer said he thought Smith was only joking about the contest.

Prosecutors told the jury that Smith had violated two tenets of his training: treat prisoners humanely and use the minimum amount of force needed to ensure compliance.