Notorious General Called to Testify

US General Geoffrey Miller, whose heavy-handed interrogation tactics at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib have become infamous, will be called as a defense witness in the military trial of Sgt. Santos A. Cardona who is facing a court martial and up to 16 years in jail for his role in using dogs against detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.

The order by Marine Lt. Col. Paul H. McConnell will give defense attorneys a chance to question Miller about the use of dogs in security and interrogation operations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Iraq. It also means lawyers could use Miller's testimony to attempt to draw connections between the alleged abuse and the policies developed by top Pentagon officials, who had regular contact with Miller when he was the commander at Guantanamo Bay.

The two sides in the case offer conflicting views about the rationale behind Miller's actions. Cardona's lawyer stated:

Volzer said he plans to press Miller for information about a trip he made to Iraq to advise U.S. officials on how to get better intelligence, using his Guantanamo Bay experience as a base line. Top Pentagon officials ordered Miller to go to Iraq in September 2003. Shortly thereafter, military working dogs were shipped to Abu Ghraib and approved for use in interrogations.

"He said, 'Get dogs,' " Volzer told the court yesterday.

While the prosecutor said:

...there have been many attempts to build Miller up "as some sort of boogeyman" and that the general is irrelevant to the charges against Cardona.
[...]
Graveline said that Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib are "two separate things" and that Miller was not actively involved in the operations in Iraq until he was transferred to the country to work full-time in April 2004. He said there is no evidence that Miller ever gave an order to use military working dogs in interrogations.

This opinion is obviously provided to ensure that Cardona does not get away with saying that he was just "following orders". While that may serve the prosecutor's needs in this case, it certainly does not match with the facts we know of to this point.

Col. Thomas M. Pappas, the top military intelligence officer at Abu Ghraib, testified last month at the trial of another dog handler that Miller and his team of intelligence experts recommended using dogs to exploit Arab fears of the animals. Pappas said he approved the use of dogs for interrogations of one high-value detainee after Miller's visit. In a memo written shortly after photos of abuse were turned over to Army investigators, Pappas urged an end to the use of dogs and recommended that charges not be brought against the dog handlers.

Regardless of all of the legal wrangling, the fact remains that the sentences handed to those who committed torture of the prisoners held in Abu Ghraib have not been close to anything resembling justice. It's been a shameful response by the military to the most disturbing chapter of this illegal Iraq war.

(You can see a compilation of those sentences here.)