Notorious celebrity: Santos Cardona

This blogger feels a trifle mean for including Santos Cardona in this section of the blog because Cardona was killed while on military duty in Afghanistan in 2009. Still, the events that brought him his 15 seconds of fame were not at all admirable even though he was no doubt acting under orders.

Sgt. Cardona was one of the U.S. Army MPs shown on videotape torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq during 2003 and 2004.

Specifically, Cardona was a dog handler and was shown having his dog menace and bite various prisoners. In 2006, a military court found him guilty of dereliction of duty and demoted him to specialist, fined him, and gave him 90 days at hard labor.

Some Americans, safe at home but still frightened, applauded his actions. Others pointed out that by mistreating or torturing prisoners, we lower ourselves to the level of our enemy. Still others were convinced that the enlisted men and women shown in the Abu Ghraib videos seen on television around the world were simply the fall guys or scapegoats for their superiors, who had approved such measures. Some said the orders from the top had come from the White House and from the CIA.

Cardona served his time and returned to active duty. He was reinstated as a sergeant and was sent to Kuwait, ironically to train Iraqi police. Embarrassed, the Army announced that he would be returned stateside for a different assignment.