XPost: alt.military.uk, alt.politics.gw-bush, aus.legal   
   XPost: soc.culture.afghanistan, us.military.navy   
   From: theprof@jonez.net   
      
   >   
   >>> 11th US soldier convicted over Abu Ghraib scandal   
   >>>   
   >>> Stephen CollinsonPublished: June 02, 2006   
   >>   
   >>> A US Army sergeant was on Thursday found guilty of using his dog to abuse   
   an   
   >>> Abu Ghraib prisoner, in the 11th conviction of a scandal President George   
   W.   
   >>> Bush called America's "biggest mistake" in Iraq.   
   >>>   
   >>> A military jury also found Sergeant Santos Cardona, 32, guilty of   
   >>> dereliction of duty but acquitted him of seven other counts, including a   
   >>> more serious charge of using his dog to bite another prisoner.   
   >>>   
   >>> Cardona faces a maximum of three-and-a-half years in prison, as well as   
   >>> possible discharge from the army or reduction in rank, for the crimes in   
   >>> late 2003 and early 2004 that sparked a public relations disaster for the   
   >>> United States.   
   >>>   
   >>> The panel of four officers and three enlisted soldiers held an hour of   
   >>> deliberations on Cardona's punishment, but was expected to pass a sentence   
   >>> on Friday.   
   >>>   
   >>> Prosecutors had asked them to make a statement about America's intentions   
   in   
   >>> Iraq with their decision.   
   >>>   
   >>> "We can win all kinds of battles but end up losing the whole dang war   
   >>> because there are bone-headed decisions," said prosecutor Matthew Miller in   
   >>> a sentencing hearing after the jury returned 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 that its soldiers were "the good guys".   
   >>>   
   >>> The latest trial focusing on Abu Ghraib prison, once used as a torture   
   >>> chamber by Saddam Hussein, reached its climax as a new scandal brewed.   
   >>>   
   >>> Bush said on Thursday that a transparent probe would be held into the   
   >>> alleged killing of 24 civilians by US marines in the Iraqi town of Haditha,   
   >>> a day after saying that anyone guilty of atrocities would be punished.   
   >>>   
   >>> Cardona's assault conviction involved an episode in which he drew his   
   >>> unmuzzled Belgian shepherd dog to within inches of the face of prisoner   
   >>> Kamel Miza'l Nayil, a former Iraqi general.   
   >>>   
   >>> But he was cleared of using the dog for what prosecutors said was personal   
   >>> "entertainment" derived from terrifying prisoners into urinating and   
   >>> defecating on themselves.   
   >>>   
   >>> The panel reached its guilty verdicts after 16-and-a-half hours of   
   >>> deliberations following a week of testimony.   
   >>>   
   >>> A two-thirds majority was needed for a conviction on any charge.   
   >>>   
   >>> Some critics of the US administration and the Pentagon have complained that   
   >>> no senior officers have been prosecuted over the affair. Cardona's defense   
   >>> lawyers argued that the use of dogs to interrogate prisoners was condoned   
   by   
   >>> his superiors.   
   >>>   
   >>> The defense also said that 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.   
   >>>   
   >>> "He made a mistake, bottom line, that's all you've got," said defense   
   >>> counsel Major Kirsten Mayer, imploring jurors to give Cardona a lenient   
   >>> sentence, in light of his combat service in Haiti and Afghanistan as well   
   as   
   >>> Iraq.   
   >>>   
   >>> Had Cardona been convicted of all the charges, he would have faced up to   
   >>> sixteen-and-a-half years in jail.   
   >>>   
   >>> The Abu Ghraib scandal erupted in early 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 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.   
   >>>   
   >>> Cardona's trial heard testimony from the highest-ranking officer yet   
   >>> questioned in court over the affair, General Geoffrey Miller, who testified   
   >>> that 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 in the Abu Ghraib   
   >>> scandal.   
   >>>   
   >>> 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.   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>   
   >>   
   >   
   >   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)