Better late than never

The Pentagon figures out that it "wouldn't be prudent" to send a convicted Abu Ghraib dog handler back for another tour in Iraq.

Published November 3, 2006 5:55PM (EST)

It appears that the Army is having second thoughts about sending Sgt. Santos Cardona back to Iraq. As we noted earlier today, Time is reporting that Cardona -- convicted on criminal charges related to his use of a guard dog to terrorize a naked Iraqi detainee at Abu Ghraib -- is on his way back to the war for another tour of duty there.

The Army Public Affairs office has just released a press release in which it says that Cardona's "forward movement into Iraq with his unit has been stopped by commanders on the ground" as his "situation" is being evaluated. Cardona's unit is in Kuwait now, where it was supposed to have been en route to an assignment training Iraqi police. An Army official told Time that Cardona's return to Iraq raised "no issues." Now an Army spokesman tells CNN that it "wouldn't be prudent" to send Cardona back to Iraq after all.


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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Abu Ghraib Iraq Iraq War Middle East War Room