Pentagon Releases "Al Qaeda in Iraq" Torture Manual (**caution very graphic**)

[sabra]

http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/2938/Al_Qaeda...



The Pentagon this week released a gruesome 13-page deck containing what it says are excerpts from a recently-seized "al Qaeda in Iraq" torture manual as well as photos of what the Pentagon says are Iraqi victims of al Qaeda torture and torture tools recovered from a coalition raid on an al Qaeda torture chamber.

The manual contains gruesome cartoon-like drawings showing how to extract information and torture captives.

Virtually every day, the bodies of torture victims are found on the streets and in the rivers of central Iraq.

Here is the full 13-page deck of drawings and photos of victims and torture tools as released by the Pentagon (page two is above).

* more gruesome pics @ link

[ShortnFiery]

1. Gee, what did they do, get access to Rummy's training files for HumINT Ops?

Even if true, we can NO longer claim the "high road."

TORTURE occurs on both sides these days.

Thanks Rummy ... Thanks Bush ... Thanks Gonzo.

IMO anyone who voices outrage is a hypocrite.

We must behave better ... it must be in Our Character to place ourselves above violence and cruelty to detainees, regardless of their status.

[sabra]

2. don't worry Romney want's to double the size of Gitmo

[magellan]

3. There's another thread about this

...with a link to the report by The Smoking Gun:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

From that site (see if any of this sound familiar):

The images, which were just declassified by the Department of Defense, also include a picture of a ramshackle Baghdad safe house described as an "al-Qaeda torture chamber." It was there, during an April 24 raid, that soldiers found a man suspended from the ceiling by a chain. According to the military, he had been abducted from his job and was being beaten daily by his captors. In a raid earlier this week, Coalition Forces freed five Iraqis who were found in a padlocked room in Karmah. The group, which included a boy, were reportedly beaten with chains, cables, and hoses.

[JackintheGreen]

4. Why does this seem suspicious to me?

Is it because I doubt very seriously the notion that AQ in Iraq needs graphic pictures to figure out how to torture? Or the idea that the organization feels the need to systematize its torture techniques? The conversations I'm imagining are quite amusing:

torturer 1: I have given this dog flowers and even fluffed his cushions. Yet he still will not talk.
torturer 2: Have you seen this handbook?
t1: Why no! I have not. What is it.
t2: By using these tried and true methods, you too can extract information from even the most recalcitrant of infidels.
t1: But how would I get such a useful tool?
t2: For only 450 dinars you can...

And on and on. I don't mean to make light of it, but if it is real, what's the purpose of releasing it? To convonce us that these people really are bad and choccies and perfume won't win them over?

[sinkingfeeling]

5. I'm confused. Is this the Pentagon's manual on how we torture al-Qaeda suspects or

al-Qaeda's manual? If it came from al-Qaeda then why is it in English?

[elehhhhna]

6. "... why is it in English?" indeed.

[MetaTrope]

7. If anyone can identify the tools photographed as being off the shelf of Home Depot

it would be much appreciated...

[ShortnFiery]

8. Citing the stock numbers was a true tell ...

You just can't get good PsyOps/HUMINT spook help these days.

[Aviation Pro]

9. Has anyone noticed.....

...that this is a .pdf file from a PowerPoint presentation? Yeah, I can just see AQ operatives sitting around the boardroom while some project manager clicks through the slides and refers to the SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) as worth the burdened overhead costs of doing business.

This is a bunch of psy-op bullshit for the American public.