Inmate freed from Baghdad jail DENIES tales of torture

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=514012004 ^ | 5-6-04 | COLIN FREEMAN

[OXENinFLA]

Inmate freed from Baghdad jail denies tales of torture

COLIN FREEMAN AT ABU GHRAIB PRISON

WHEN Ahmed Jassim was released from Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison yesterday, he expected nothing more than a hug from his family and a chance to shave the straggly beard he grew inside.

Instead, he walked into a blaze of publicity as journalists and local people quizzed him about the allegations of torture by United States troops. Was it all true, demanded a scrum of faces around him. Had he too been beaten, hooded, stripped naked and humiliated?

Mr Jassim, blinking in bemusement as the cameras flashed, then sprang something of a surprise himself. "It’s all lies," he said, elbowing his way through the crowd into an elderly minibus.

"Life in there is very hard, yes, but there is no electrocution and no mistreatment."

"Rubbish", said his Iraqi listeners. Mr Jassim, who had just done time for possessing machine guns and grenades, was clearly scared he would be dragged back inside if he told the truth, they claimed. Either that, or he was a cunning plant released by his captors in an effort to salvage their tarnished reputation.

[OXENinFLA]

A small bit of light in the darkness.

[OXENinFLA]

ping............

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[BlueAngel]

bump

[Arkie2]

One man, reading a statement through a bullhorn, complained of arbitrary arrests and "mental and psychological interrogations for no obvious reasons".

Did I miss something here? Was this guy a prisoner and if so how did he get hold of a bullhorn?

[RedBloodedAmerican]

A small bit of light in the darkness.

No darkness. A passing shadow.

[KeyLargo]

Something does not seem right about all of these "new" prison photos being found?

When I see the photos of those poor souls jumping from the WTC this seems unimportant. Go to:
http://www.homestead.com/prosites-prs/index.html

Higgins has a good cartoon in the Chicago Sun Times today. Go to: http://www.suntimes.com/index/commentary.html and click Higgins.

[craig_eddy]

When this story (of the pictures) first broke, what I heard was that these pictures were shown to the inmates in an effort to get them to talk: "talk or this will happen to you."

To me, it seems entirely possible that the acts in the pictures WERE STAGED in order to create this leverage and are not pictures of "abuses" taking place.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"This whole thing is a farce," said Ali Abdul Hassan, whose brother Riyadh was still languishing in the jail after three months on a weapons charge.
"As long as they are there running the place, we know that no matter what they say it will change nothing."

One or one million, it just doesn't matter. Not one of them will believe anything except that which they want to believe. Weak minded fools.

[Chieftain]

I wonder if this will appear in the US press? Yeah right!

All the networks show is these hysterical Demoncraps and their shrill calls for Rumsfeld's head on a platter.

I guess their staffs were too busy with the Howard Dean "I have a scream" speech in Iowa to have paid attention to the press releases the DoD sent out IN JANUARY!

[BillyCrockett]

I wondered about it being staged too. Then some idiot let the photos out because it went against his liberal Democratic party beliefs. :)

[StoneColdTaxHater]

One thing came to mind over this story. We keep hearing that it is humiliating for Arab men to be naked in front of each other. Don't they have sports teams in iraq? Didn't they shower after a match? (you'd hope so) So did they enter the locker room 1 at a time to avoid the "humiliation" of seeing each other naked? And another thing, the media keeps telling us how everything seems to to humiliate Arab men. If that's the case what a bunch of pusswads!

[Steely Tom]

The more I think about this, the more skeptical I become. And I am not normally a conspiracy-theory guy.

I keep asking myself these questions:

Why would people who know they are committing serious military crimes allow themselves to be photographed doing so?

Why would they take numerous pictures in which their faces are visible?

We've all heard about what a horrible thing it is for a Muslim man to be pictured in such embarrassing poses. But what if the Muslim man in question knew that, by allowing himself to be so depicted, he would seriously undermine the war, would seriously threaten the entire US military chain of command, and would make it much easier for Islamic forces to get away with inhumane treatement of captured US soldiers. Would he go for it?

And finally:

Who is helped by all this, and who is hurt?

I think this is not going to play out as our opponents believe.

I think this is going to be another watershed moment for the credibility of the press and the Anti-american left. Along with other things that are happening (the brutal killing/mutilation of American captives in Iraq and elsewhere, the "call to prayer" situation in Michigan, the growing awareness by Mr. and Mrs. America of the real danger posed by the Islamic threat), this will drive more and more people off the fence.

The time to decide is coming. The moment of truth for the partisan press is coming too. Is their power to distort reality (and sell a foolish agenda) as great as they have convinced themselves it is?

Stay tuned. And don't lose heart.

(steely)

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

[OXENinFLA]

Give me an hour and I'll post what the dems were SPEWING on the Senate floor yesterday.

[BunnySlippers]

•

[Jalapeno]

Why would people who know they are committing serious military crimes allow themselves to be photographed doing so?

Why would they take numerous pictures in which their faces are visible?

Because they were idiots and perverts. Yes, we have them in this country too.

I think folks need to not work themselves in denial here. Why is it shocking to us that there are depraved souls in our country and in our military? This is no surprise. Clearly some bad things were taking place. It must be dealt with, not hidden. This is America.

I think if you try to discount these events, come up with conspiracy theories, or flat out not accept they happened when the Army is making no denials, you fall right into our enemy's hands. Clearly damage has been done here to the war effort, and this mess, like all other messes in Iraq, needs to be cleaned up. I think we are doing that with all this airing of the events. We do not need to contribute to the damge by closing our eyes.

This and the military deaths we have been hearing so much about are part of what this country must bear for surviving and winning the war on terror. Are we so weak as a nation that these incidents will force us to lose focus on what needs to be done here? Or should we instead clean up and punish those deserving of such, and proceed with the mission vital to the survival of our nation?

[jwpjr]

I find it curious that none of the photos really show any of the people being "tortured", you could not identify any of them based on the photos I saw. Also, most of the bodies in the photos seemed to be in awfully good shape, more like what I think of when I see a US Marine than someone who has spent a year fight a guerilla war. Probably doesn't mean anything, but I tend to be suspicious of pictures that seem to serve the purposes of the enemy so completely.

[TomGuy]

I'm sure there is an organized effort behind all 'breaking news' and the negative pics/reports just now surfacing. [Politics, of course.]

Why/how would Brit AND American 'atrocities' hit the media at the same time when those militaries were in completely different areas?

Note that many of the Brit 'photos' have already been proved to be hoaxes or misrepresentations -- wrong uniforms, wrong equipment, wrong rifles-- those shown in pix were never issued to Brits in Iraq.

Note that the initial Pentagon reports are from January. The media missed that---intentionally? or blindly? The media vetting GWB's NG service for the 2000 election and dragged that dead horse for a week of news-cycles, not once, but twice (so far) for the 2004 election cycle. Notice that they have been relatively quiet about Kerry's military service, however.

Even stateside police interrogate certain prisoners/detainees in the nude. The pics should be considered in context. But they won't be. They are fodder for the Left who are against Bush, against the War, against Conservatives, against heroes like Pat Tillman, etc., and they are getting free airtime on all the networks. None of this is harming the Dems, but it sure is damaging GWB and Rumsfeld. And the GWB PR is slow to respond and counter.

GWB stepped away from Ashcroft for releasing the Gorelick memos. Now, it appears GWB is stepping away from Rumsfeld. GWB demands complete loyalty; he should give the same to 'his' team members.

What gripes me is that Pubbies will end up resigning/fired.

Who got fired on the other side for:
Judicial memo?
Memo to use 9-11 Commission against GWB?
Dodd honoring Byrd and Byrd's XXX-ness?

GWB PR doesn't handle these things very well.

[Mo1]

Why do some of the protesters there sound like the ones we have here at home?

[JesseHousman]

Don't they have sports teams in iraq? Didn't they shower after a match?

Muslim men never shower.Their camels prefer that earthy odor.

Of course that could be the reason why many blow themselves apart in order to get to "heaven" and get their 72 virgins.

The bottom line, however, is that this is a stupid way to meet girls.