Abuse 'widespread' in Iraqi prisons (Army Major speaks out)

[Barrett808]

Abuse 'widespread' in Iraqi prisons
By Dan Murphy, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

BAGHDAD AND CAIRO - After a US raid on a secret Iraqi government jail last month revealed some detainees were tortured and abused there, Interior Minister Bayan Jabr insisted abuse claims were exaggerated and that torture will not be tolerated in the new Iraq.

US soldiers and some Iraqi officials disagree. They say not only is prisoner abuse widespread, but that much of it is carried out by Mr. Jabr's subordinates. Efforts to bring the problem under control during the past year have largely been frustrated by indifference from senior Iraqi officials, they say.

Privately, half a dozen US officers have acknowledged to the Monitor that prisoner abuse by Iraqi police is common.

Now, one officer is speaking out. Major R. John Stukey, a US Army doctor who served in Baghdad from January to June, frequently visited Interior Ministry facilities on the east side of Baghdad to assess the health of prisoners. He says he personally treated about a dozen men who had been tortured and observed an environment of overcrowding and neglect.

Many more of his patients alleged torture, but in most cases this couldn't be verified, since he often saw them for the first time months after their initial arrests and interrogations.

In one east Baghdad facility run by Iraq's Interior Ministry, a few miles from the secret jail that was raided by US forces on Nov. 13, Major Stukey says about 220 men were held in filthy conditions in a space so crowded that many couldn't lie down to sleep.

...

"We did report what we saw, but it was like trying to put out a forest fire with a bucket of water,'' says Stukey by telephone at Fort Rucker in Alabama, where he is currently based. "The MPs submitted reports at least several times a week on detention issues. We knew about it, and we tried to change it, but it was just one of those things you had to deal with."

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20051207/ts_csm/otorture

[lebkuchen]

1. Makes me sick, but I'll nominate it anyway

[greiner3]

2. Like a poorly built dam;

First one crack, then it widens and more cracks appear. Soon it's a torrent and the little crack eventually brings down a great dam. It's up to the media to keep up the stories. It's they who will finally bring down the evil empire that calls itself 'bush.'

[Supersedeas]

3. are these the alleged values resulting from the nuclear bomb of democracy

[Jim__]

4. We need more soldiers that speak out.

Soldiers who speak out to the media about the abuses in Iraq will be covered. And, I still believe that if the American public is informed about what's going on, they'll put a stop to it.

[leftchick]

5. USA now Known as Tortures R Us....

and exporting the techniques around the globe. Doesn't it make you proud?? :puke:

[Barrett808]

6. That electric drill torture really gets me...

...I wonder who invented that. Seriously, drilling holes in the joints would cause the synovial fluid to leak out, making the joints seize. Then, after a few days of that horror, your death squad gets into drilling the skull and brain. Probably in front of other prisoners, to maximize the terror.

:scared:

[pushycat]

7. I wonder who can be so apathetic to another's pain to inflict

this torture. Gads, it is positively diabolical behavior carried out by psychopaths.

[Barrett808]

8. Unfortunately, any society has plenty of psychopaths for this kind of work

It's only the State's will to employ them that is necessary.

[Barrett808]

9. kick