An army dog handler convicted of tormenting Abu Ghraib prisoners with his snarling animal for fun was unrepentant about the abuse charges at his sentencing hearing.
"Soldiers are not supposed to be soft and cuddly," Sergeant Michael Smith, 24, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, told the court-martial jury on Tuesday.
His sentencing hearing was set to continue yesterday.
PHOTO: AP
Smith said he wished he had learned better in basic training to "CYA," a euphemism for "cover your backside."
Soldiers who don't, "end up in a heap of trouble," Smith said.
Smith was found guilty on Tuesday of six of 13 counts. The judge later dismissed one of those six counts, saying it duplicated another.
The five charges carry penalties totaling up to eight years behind bars.
Prosecutors said Smith let his unmuzzled black Belgian shepherd Marco bark and lunge at several prisoners for his own amusement. One of the photographs that exposed the Abu Ghraib scandal shows his dog straining on its leash, just inches from the face of a cowering prisoner.
The defense maintained that Smith was a good soldier who believed he was doing what the government wanted canine handlers to do at the prison in Iraq: provide security and frighten interrogation subjects.
Defense attorney Captain Mary McCarthy said all that Smith's dog did to prisoners was bark at them.
The defense further argued that Abu Ghraib was a dangerous, chaotic place where policies were so murky that even the colonel who supervised interrogations testified he was confused.
The jury deliberated for about 18 hours over three days. The trial began on March 13.
Smith was found guilty of maltreating three prisoners, conspiring with another dog handler in a contest to make detainees soil themselves, dereliction of duty, assault and an indecent act. The assault charge was dismissed.
The indecency conviction was for Smith directing his dog to lick peanut butter off the genitals of a male soldier and the breasts of a female soldier.
Smith expressed remorse for that action.
"It was foolish, stupid and juvenile. There is nothing I could do to take it back. If I could, I would," Smith said.
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