corrente

Maybe there is a smoking gun.

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Well. It will be rather difficult for the MWs, the Sabbath Day Gas Bags, and the WhiteWash House, Inerrant Boy and poor old Donald "Wolf Meat" Rumsfeld to portray the torture at Abu Ghraib as individual failures after these photos.

MWDs (Military Working Dogs) are worked as part of a team.

Here are some regulations, from Department of the Army Pamphlet 190­12 (PDF). To quote:

1­7. Quality assurance
Every level of command within the Army has specific responsibilities for making sure that the MWD program is properly established and efficiently managed. This includes ensuring that operational units are provided with trained dogs and handlers to form teams, and the necessary equipment and facilities to maintain effective local MWD programs. The Air Force is the executive manager of the MWD program for the Department of Defense (DOD), and is responsible for the procurement, initial training, and initial distribution of MWDs used by the military services and several Federal agencies. Specific responsibilities are per AR 190­12.

Right up the chain of command, eh? "Every level." Somebody's got to authorize the dogs, the kennels, the handlers, and the purpose. To quote the regulations again:

Requests for authorization of MWDs and their shipping crates are submitted through command channels according to AR 310­34 and AR 310­49 on DA Form 461 0­R (Equipment Changes in MTOE/TDA). Part I is self­explanatory. The request for authorization must identify the nomenclature and line item number (LIN) for the type dogs being requested, as well as specify the number of dogs of each type being requested in Part II. Part III, Personnel, also should be completed so the approving authority has verification that the correct handlers (by number, ASI, and rank/grade) are being requested. Part IV, Justification, contains a complete justification for the dogs being requested as required by AR 190­12. If additional space is needed, continue on plain white, letter­size paper. DA Form 4610­R is forwarded through command channels as a letter request for authorization of equipment. Approval authority for all requests for authorization of MWDs is at Headquarters, Department of the Army (DALO­EARA­A).

So. "Forward through command channels." Who let the dogs out?

NOTE These regulations are from the Army site. If we have an alert reader who is military, perhaps they can give us more detail on current MWD regulations.