IRAQ: US intelligence personnel ordered military dog handlers to use unmuzzled dogs to intimidate detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, the Washington Post reported yesterday, citing sworn statements from handlers provided to military investigators.
A military intelligence interrogator also told investigators that two dog handlers at the prison were "having a contest" to see how many detainees they could make involuntarily urinate out of fear of the dogs, the Post said, citing statements obtained by newspaper.
Six US soldiers face possible courts martial and one has already been jailed for a year because of the abuses at Abu Ghraib, where photographs have shown detainees being sexually humiliated, physically tormented and threatened with dogs.
Two army dog handlers assigned to Abu Ghraib, Sgt Michael Smith and Sgt Santos Cardona, told investigators that military intelligence personnel asked them to bring their dogs to prison interrogation sites numerous times to help question detainees in December and January, the Post reported.
According to the report, Sgts Smith and Cardona said they complied with the requests by the interrogators because they believed the tactics had been approved by Col Thomas Pappas, the military intelligence officer in charge of the prison.
At the cell blocks, they allowed their dogs to menace detainees, the Post said they told investigators.
At the behest of interrogators, Sgt Smith said, in some cases he would bring the barking dog to within six inches of terrified prisoners, the Post reported.
The Dutch government said yesterday it plans to keep around 1,300 troops in Iraq until March 2005 as part of a multinational force in a boost to the US-led coalition overseeing the transfer of power to Iraqis.
The decision by Prime Minister Mr Jan Peter Balkenende's centre-right government to renew the mandate for its troops to stay in Iraq is expected to be put to the lower house of parliament within two weeks. It is expected to gain approval.
"The mission is not open ended. The eight-month period is related to the organisation of elections and points in the UN resolution," Mr Balkenende told a news conference.
The decision by the Dutch coalition could prove controversial. A recent opinion poll showed that the Dutch public is divided over keeping its forces in Iraq.
"It's an important decision and I hope that it will benefit from the support of parliament and Dutch society," Mr Balkenende said at a news conference.
Dutch troops have been based at Samawa in southern Iraq since July 2003 with a mandate to help with reconstruction and to provide security and stability in a region where Japan has sent 550 non-combat troops to help rebuild the country. The death of the first Dutch soldier in a grenade attack in Iraq in May provoked shock in the Netherlands.
He was the first Dutch soldier to be killed in conflict since 1995 when a peacekeeper died in the Srebrenica enclave in the Bosnian war. "The government is fully aware of the risks this operation poses for Dutch soldiers. - (Reuters)