Abu Ghraib dog officer is given hard labor

FORT MEADE, Md. -- A military jury sentenced an Army dog handler to 90 days hard labor and a reduction in rank yesterday for allowing his Belgian shepherd to bark within inches of an Iraqi detainee's face at Abu Ghraib prison.

Army Sergeant Santos A. Cardona was the 11th soldier convicted of crimes stemming from the abuse of inmates at the prison in late 2003 and early 2004.

He was found guilty of dereliction of duty and aggravated assault for allowing his dog to bark in the face of a kneeling detainee at the request of another soldier who wasn't an interrogator.

The military jury acquitted him of other charges, including unlawfully having his dog bite a detainee and conspiring with another dog handler to frighten prisoners as a game.

Cardona, who won't be confined during his sentence, will return to Fort Bragg, N.C., where his company commander will decide what extra duties to assign as hard labor, said Lieutenant Colonel Bobbi J. W. Davis. Cardona probably will lose his security clearance, which would bar him from resuming work as a military policeman, Davis said.

Cardona's rank was reduced to specialist and the court ordered him to forfeit $600 a month in pay for 12 months. Major Matthew Miller, the prosecutor, had recommended 12 months confinement and a bad conduct discharge.

Cardona's military lawyer, Captain Kirsten M. Mayer, said Miller exaggerated the circumstances.

``What we have here is a soldier who let his dog get too close to a detainee, and the dog barked," she told the jury.