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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: June 2006

Dogs used to terrorize prisoners

 

FORT MEADE, Md.–– A court martial jury of four officers and three enlisted soldiers on June 1, 2006 convicted former U.S. Army dog handler Sergeant Santos A. Cardona of aggravated assault and dereliction of duty.


Cardona, 32, of Fullerton, California, in 2003-2004 allegedly used his dog to terrorize inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. A 12-year veteran, Cardona was acquitted of improperly allowing his dog to bite a prisoner, and of conspiring with another dog handler to terrify prisoners into urinating or defecating on themselves.


More sensational allegations about U.S. troops using animals to frighten prisoners during interrogation may surface as result of a case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First against U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in November 2005, on behalf of Iraqi businessmen Thahe Mohammed Sabbar, 37, and Sherzad Kamal Khalid, 35.


Sabbar and Khalid claim U.S. troops pushed them into a cage of lions at one of Saddam Hussein’s Baghdad palaces in July 2003. The men survived uninjured.


Saddam Hussein’s eldest son Udai reportedly fed two rivals to the same lions, before Udai was killed and the lions were impounded.