WASHINGTON, 24 March 2006 — A US Army dog handler has been sentenced to nearly six months in prison and reduced in rank for tormenting Abu Ghraib prisoners with his snarling Belgian shepherd. But the trial and sentence failed to examine the origins of the harsh interrogation techiques that were used at Abu Ghraib and Bagram prisoins in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sergeant Michael Smith, 24, was ordered to serve 179 days in confinement, reduced to the rank of private, and forfeit $2,250 in pay for convictions on five criminal counts, including maltreatment of detainees, dereliction of duty and an indecent act. Smith will also receive a bad-conduct discharge at the end of his prison term.

The sentence is the lightest given to any of the four military police soliders who have gone to trial,. The jury of four officiers and three senior non-commissioned officers decided Smith’s use of this military working dog was out of bounds but not esepcially egregious, acquitting him on half of the original charges.

Smith conspired with another dog handler to try to frighten detainees into soiling themselves, and directed his dog to lick peanut butter off other soldiers’ bodies.

Smith faced up to 8 years in prison on five of the 13 offenses he was charged with.

In closing arguments, prosecutors urged the jury to send Smith to prison for at least three years, followed by a bad-conduct discharge. Prosecutor Major Matthew Miller said such a sentence would send a message that such actions would not be tolerated. “Every soldier must understand that individual acts of misconduct have strategic implications,” Major Miller said.

The military jurors found that Smith let his unmuzzled Belgian shepherd threaten three detainees at the prison, conspired with another dog handler to try to frighten prisoners into soiling themselves by having his dog lick peanut butter off other soldiers’ bodies. Smith was the 10th low-ranking soldier convicted in the Abu Ghraib scandal, in which prisoners also were beaten, sexually humiliated and forced to assume painful positions while being photographed. Smith’s sentence surprised Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, in Alexandria, Virginia, who said he thought Smith would get years, not months, of confinement. “I think people around the world are going to be scratching their heads at that sentence,” Fidell told the media. “The conduct of which this soldier was convicted is highly offensive, and if this is all one gets — it’s not impunity, but it’s getting real close.” Sgt. Smith said he was following interrogation procedures approved by the chief intelligence officer at Abu Ghraib, Col. Thomas Pappas. In turn, Col. Pappas had said he followed guidance from Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, commander of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who in September 2003 visited Iraq to discuss ways to “set the conditions” for enhancing prison interrogations, as well as from superiors in Baghdad.

Gen. Miller had been sent to Guantanamo Bay by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Joint Chiefs of Staff to improve the interrogation procedures and the quality of intelligence at the compound in Cuba. Observers were surprised that, during Sgt. Smith’s trial, Gen. Miller was never called to testify. Col. Pappas said the had mistakenly authorized a one-time use of muzzled dogs, but he said he had no idea that dog handlers were using unmuzzled dogs to terrorize detainees as part of the interrogation process.

Some observers expressed dismay at the Smith sentencing. “A mere slap on the wrist for abusing prisoners gives the appearance that once again the United States is not serious about its responsibility to discipline those convicted of human rights violations, Curt Goering, Amnesty International’s senior deputy executive director for policy and programs, said in a statement.

The trial of a second dog handler, Sgt. Santo Cardona, is scheduled to begin on May 22, and may offer another opportunity for defense lawyers to try to direct blame at higher levels.