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the hits just keep on coming. I don't think a person could this thing up any more if they tried.
From the "Hearts and Minds" department...
An Abu Ghraib Offender Heads Back to Iraq
Exclusive: A military dog handler convicted for his role in the prisoner abuse scandal has been ordered back to help train the country's police
By ADAM ZAGORIN
Posted Thursday, Nov. 02, 2006
As if the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal weren't bad enough for America's image in the Middle East, now it may appear to much of the world that one of the men implicated in the scandal is returning to the scene of the crime.
The U.S. military tells TIME that one of the soldiers convicted for his role in Abu Ghraib, having served his sentence, has just been sent back to serve in Iraq.
Sgt. Santos Cardona, 32, a military policeman from Fullerton, Calif., served in 2003 and 2004 at Abu Ghraib as a military dog handler. After pictures of Cardona using the animal to threaten Iraqis were made public, he was convicted in May of dereliction of duty and aggravated assault, the equivalent of a felony in the U.S. civilian justice system. The prosecution demanded prison time, but a military judge instead imposed a fine and reduction in rank. Though Cardona was not put behind bars, he was also required to serve 90 days of hard labor at Ft. Bragg, N.C.
Before Cardona boarded a plane at Pope Air Force Base this week for the long flight to his unit's Kuwait staging area, he told close friends and family that he dreaded returning to Iraq. One family member described him as "depressed," though stoic about his fate. According to a close friend with whom Cardona spoke just before his departure, the soldier is fearful that he remains a marked man, forever linked to the horrors of Abu Ghraib — he appears in at least one al-Qaeda propaganda video depicting the abuse — and that he and comrades serving with him in Iraq could become targets for terrorists. To make matters worse, his 23rd MP Company has been selected to train Iraqi police, which have been the target of frequent assassination attempts and, according to US intelligence are heavily infiltrated by insurgents. Attempts to reach Cardona directly were unsuccessful.
But Cardona’s physical well-being is not the only issue of concern connected to his transfer. According to former senior U.S. military officers and others interviewed by TIME, sending a convicted abuser back to Iraq to train local police sends the wrong signal at a time when the U.S. is trying to bolster the beleagured government in Baghdad, where the horrors of Abu Ghraib are far from forgotten. "If news of this deployment is accurate, it represents appallingly bad judgment," says retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who commanded a division in the first Gulf War. "The symbolic message perceived in Iraq will likely be that the U.S. is simply insensitive to the abuse of their prisoners."
Retired Major General John Batiste was likewise surprised at the decision to send a soldier convicted of abuse at Abu Ghraib back to Iraq. His only comment: "You just have to wonder how far up the chain of command this decision was made."
Army public affairs specialist Major James Crabtree, who is assigned to the 18th Airborne Corps at Ft. Bragg, which has responsibility for Cardona's unit, said that Cardona, is a military policeman whose " unit happens to be deployed to Iraq, so he went with them." Crabtree said the Army commander overseeing the transfer of Cardona and other members of his unit said "there were no issues associated with [Cardona's new] deployment." He added that although a military judge ordered a reduction in rank for Cardona following his court martial, Cardona has since regained his previous rank of Sergeant.
The military jury acquitted Cardona of seven charges, including alleged attempts to harass a second prisoner with his dog. Cardona's lawyers argued that their client's actions at Abu Ghraib were condoned, if not approved in each case, by officers in charge of the prison, as well as senior officials in the Army command.
Shortly before he left for Iraq, Cardona told a close friend and family members that he was returning against his will. "He loves the Army and has deep respect for the chain of command," said a family member, who asked not to be identified by name, but who described Cardona as feeling duty-bound to accept his Iraqi deployment. The friend said that Cardona had described trying to attach another soldier’s name tags to his uniform in hopes of concealing his iden y from Iraqis, but was told by an officer to desist. According to this friend, Cardona said he had told at least one of his superiors that he feared for his safety in Iraq, especially because of his presence in the al-Qaeda video, but was told by an officer, “We need bodies [in Iraq]" and that he shouldn't worry about it.
Cardona's fears may be well founded. The Abu Ghraib scandal is still a fresh subject in Iraq and elsewhere in the Muslim world. The episode is still used in Jihadi propaganda, and is featured on Islamist websites. As for Cardona, his name can be referenced almost instantly on the Internet, along with news of his conviction and photos of him holding his large tan Belgian Malinois dog, as an Iraqi prisoner cowers against a concrete wall at Abu Ghraib prison. Dogs, which are considered unclean by many Muslims, have been used in U.S. detention facilities in both Iraq and Guantanamo to intimidate prisoners.
When the recently slain terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi executed American Nicholas Berg, he went out of his way to specify that the gruesome murder was an act of revenge for crimes committed by the U.S. military against Muslims at the prison. Both Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, use events at the prison to explain their calls for Holy War against the U.S. "Al-Qaeda and other Jihadis still cite Abu Ghraib to demonstrate what they call U.S. crimes against Muslims," notes Rita Katz, director and co-founder of the SITE Ins ute, who has made a study of terrorist videos and other propaganda. "Some of the videos actually feature the dogs used at Abu Ghraib."
After his conviction, Cardona's dog was removed from his care and control. But if the Army has its way, the former Abu Ghraib MP may soon be training Iraqi police in how to maintain security and proper conduct amid the country's chaos.
the hits just keep on coming. I don't think a person could this thing up any more if they tried.
Nice picture. I'm surprised Al-Sadr allowed them to make it.
Which thread discussed this........not the picture, the Al-Sadr thing?
I think all threads are worthy of discussing Al-Sadr. Bush has made him a player.
But wasn't there one that kind of focused on this subject........or am I imagining that?
I don't know. I wouldn't worry about it.
Al-Sadr's not going anywhere but up.
Al Sadr's influences the US Army... So you say... But the reality is his influences are with the Prime Minister. Al Sadr is head of one of one of the largest political blocks in Iraq that are part of Al-Maliki's party alliance, which influences politics in Iraq... So quite making it’s simpler than it is... I’m sure you have some lovely conspiracy theory stories, but I don’t care to hear them.
Conspiracy theories? I think you mean reality. You think Al-Sadr's power is some kind of surprise?
For instance, take Maliki. Where did he come from? How did he get there? What do we really know about this guy?
He has spent the last 20 years living in Syria and Iran. Now. he takes orders from a guy with american blood on his hands. Conspiracy? Bring something.
You twit most Iraqi exiles lived in Syria and Iran... Whats your point... Where are you getting your facts...
Which fact? The one where we were told pack up our belongings and head back to the green zone?
The one where we were told to stop looking for our kidnapped soldier, oh, and take that dead soldier and the other eight wounded with you?
Are those the facts?
Kidnapped Iraqi who on his own will left to see his wife who's Iraqi... That solider... The one who was not with his military unit... That one... Don't blur the truth... It's not cool he was captured... But let’s not dramatize the conversation...
BTW tell that to the Marines in Anbar...
The "kidnapped" one who secretly married an Iraqi women a likely just split town?
So I guess your saying that our military blundered in searching for him. I guess your saying that to the parents of a dead soldier that died for nothing.
I guess your saying that Al-Sadr doesn't have more influence than our pres.
It's not my place to tell the marines in Anbar about Al-Sadr's growing influence and power to call the shots.
I think we should let Bush tell them, don't you?
When did this get away from the subject line? This is a PR nightmare, but it shows the desperation of the Army to maintain troop levels with fewer re-enlisting and quota's falling short.
Having said that, this individual was probably on a regular deployment schedule and couldn't find a replacement, though his commander probably should've interviened and requested that another be sent in his stead.
using dogs to scare a ing terrorist is not torture. but if dogs scare them, that shows why they use ieds. because they are pussies!
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