Wait for the sentence

US Army dog handler Sgt Santos Cardona has been convicted on two of nine charges relating to abusing Iraqi detainees with his dog at Abu Ghraib prison. While I welcome the conviction, as in the case of his fellow dog handler, Sgt Michael Smith, I think we'll have to wait for the sentence to see whether justice is truly done. In Smith's case, the jury convicted him, then effectively endorsed his behaviour by handing out a slap on the wrist. If this happens again, then it will set a clear pattern of endorsing abuse, and one which would undermine President Bush's promise that the murderers of Haditha will be punished.

Meanwhile, Human Rights First's Hina Shamsi notes that one of the people in charge at Abu Ghraib, Capt. Carolyn Wood, is testifying in another abuse trial, this one relating to the beating and abuse of detainees at Bagram in Afghanistan. Captain Wood ran interrogation facilities and set interrogation policies at both Bagram and Abu Ghraib, and torture seems to follow her around like a bad smell - possibly because she based her policies on those used by a special forces unit now notorious for torture. But despite this clear failure of command, she has not yet been held accountable for torture permitted on her watch, and worse, gets to testify under immunity. So much for punishing the perpetrators...