[News] Abu Ghraib prisoners speak of 'torture'

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Abu Ghraib prisoners speak of 'torture'

Tuesday 04 May 2004 9:53 AM GMT


Former inmates of the US-occupation run Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad 
still find it difficult to relate their experiences of torture and 
humiliation, as more pictures of abuse come to light.

One of the released detainees who was forced to pose naked in a human 
pyramid has told Aljazeera that the acts committed against them were so 
horrible that he still could not get himself to speak about most of it.

"They wanted to humiliate us. It was disgusting", said Hashim Muhsin.

"They covered our heads with plastic bags and hit our backs with sharp 
objects, which added to our wounds".

"They then took off all our clothes, made us stand next to the wall and 
carried out immoral acts that I cannot even talk about", Muhsin continued.

He said "women soldiers took pictures of naked men and did not care".

CIA present

Another released prisoner, Haider Sabbar told Aljazeera that "CIA officials 
and two Iraqi and Egyptian translators showed us immoral pictures of the 
acts that took place" before interrogating them.

"They then took off all our clothes, made us stand net to the wall and 
carried out immoral acts that I cannot even talk about"


Seven US soldiers have been reprimanded for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners 
and six more are under investigation. The reprimands were the first known 
punishment meted out to soldiers involved in the mistreatment of prisoners 
at Abu Ghraib.

Last week, an American television channel, CBS, broadcast images showing 
Iraqis stripped naked, hooded and being tormented by their US captors.

An internal US army report found that Iraqi detainees were subjected to 
"sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses", according to The New Yorker 
magazine.

Intelligence blamed

Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski who oversaw the prison, claimed she did 
not know about the abuse and blamed "military intelligence" for being 
behind the abuse.


"The cellblocks were actually in operation for the interrogations and 
isolation under the Military Intelligence control," she said. "It was part 
of the Abu Ghraib prisoner operation but those cellblocks, cellblock 1A and 
1B and the prison was actually under the control at that time".

Karpinski added that "there was one photograph that didn't show the faces 
completely, but the photograph showed 32 boots (of a lightweight boot)".

Asked whether she was saying the people who were wearing those boots were 
CIA or military intelligence, she replied "I'm saying other people than the 
military police were the ones committing the abuses."

'Shared responsibility'


Karpinski said she thought "there are others responsible here, not limited 
to one person or any individual or command. But there is a shared 
responsibility in this."

The alleged abuses were said to have involved about 20 prisoners and took 
place in November and December last year.

The New Yorker magazine, meanwhile has released additional images of the 
abuse, including that of the dead body of a prisoner, wrapped in cellophane 
and packed in ice as well as a group of Iraqis bound and lying on the ground.

Latest reports by Aljazeera's correspondent, quoting a US military 
spokesman is that 208 prisoners have been released from the Abu Ghraib prison.

Aljazeera + Agencies


You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/316F0ADE-FDFC-466A-95F6-A591FD01A75C.htm 



The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20040504/d6a3557d/attachment.htm>