Who Authorized the Use of Dogs at Gitmo?
Some more fingerpointing within the Bush Administration--this time over who authorized the use of dogs during interrogations at Guantanamo. Col. Thomas Pappas, the most senior official at Abu Ghraib, testified under oath it was Major General Jeffrey Miller, who at one time commanded the Gitmo interrogation center. Miller flatly denies it.
"It was a technique I had personally discussed with General Miller, when he was here" visiting the prison, testified Pappas, head of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade and the officer placed in charge of the cellblocks at Abu Ghraib prison where abuses occurred in the wake of Miller's visit to Baghdad between Aug. 30 and Sept. 9, 2003. "He said that they used military working dogs at Gitmo [the nickname for Guantanamo Bay], and that they were effective in setting the atmosphere for which, you know, you could get information" from the prisoners, Pappas told the Army investigator, Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, according to a transcript provided to The Washington Post.
Pappas, who was under pressure from Taguba to justify the legality and appropriateness of using guard dogs to frighten detainees, said at two separate points in the Feb. 9 interview that Miller gave him the idea. He also said Miller had indicated the use of the dogs "with or without a muzzle" was "okay" in booths where prisoners were taken for interrogation.
Miller not only denies the conversations, he denies dogs were ever used at Guantanamo to frighten detainees. So far, there have been no pictures released of interrogation chambers at Gitmo, so we can't know if Miller is telling the truth. Have any of the released Guantanamo detainees mentioned being threatened by dogs?
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