Posted on 12/13/2005 3:00:47 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
BAGHDAD -- An Iraqi general formerly in charge of special Interior Ministry forces said yesterday that a senior Iranian intelligence officer was in charge of a network of detention centers where suspected insurgents were routinely tortured and sometimes killed.
Gen. Muntazar Jasim al-Samarrai spoke to The Washington Times just as Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said he had widened an urgent investigation into complaints of abuse and torture in the country's detention facilities.
The prime minister, who has been pressured by Washington and United Nations officials to end prisoner abuses, promised at a press conference a "very quick" public announcement on the findings.
Gen. al-Samarrai said the Iranian intelligence officer, Tahseer Nasr Lawandi, works directly under the Kurdish deputy minister, Gen. Hussein Kamel, and is known throughout the ministry as "The Engineer."
"The Engineer was behind the torturing and killing in the ministry and was also in charge of Jadriya prison," said Gen. al-Samarrai, who left the ministry after a dispute with superiors and is now living in Jordan.
U.S. troops raided the secret Jadriya facility in mid-November and found 166 prisoners, many emaciated and bearing obvious signs of torture.
An American raid on Thursday on another facility in Baghdad found 625 prisoners huddled in overcrowded and degraded conditions, including at least 13 who required hospitalization. The existence of that prison was first reported by The Washington Times on Saturday.
On Sunday, The Times in a joint investigation with World News & Features identified the locations of at least four other detention centers where torture was said to be routine. Gen. al-Samarrai said yesterday that he knew of 10 such facilities.
Mr. Lawandi, who had been a colonel in the Iranian Mukhabarat intelligence service, was granted Iraqi citizenship May 12, 2004, and awarded the rank of general,........
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Gen. al-Samarrai seems to have lots of important info.
Ping
Folk Iran.
Sure, according to his name he is a Sunni probably related to the former Iraqi head of military intelligence after the Gulf war.
I think Gen. al Samarrai should be sitting on the other side of a very bright lamp right now answering some questions to one of our "contractors".
Though on second thought, as is the case of so much in Iraq, there probably is no bottom to this.
WHY???
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE???
Why, he is probably on our side.
Not sure what to believe with this report....
*******************************
Today: December 13, 2005 at 16:27:29 PST
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - At least 120 abused prisoners have been found in two detention facilities run by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry, the U.S. ambassador said Tuesday. Iraqi officials say allegations of mistreatment have been exaggerated.
Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters that "over 100" of the 173 prisoners found last month in an Interior Ministry building in Baghdad's Jadriyah district had suffered abuse.
U.S. and Iraqi authorities visited a separate ministry lockup Thursday and found another 21 to 26 prisoners who had been abused, Khalilzad said.
"I want to let the Iraqi people know that we are very committed to looking at all of the facilities," Khalilzad said. "This is unacceptable for this kind of abuse to take place."
The Iraqi Human Rights Ministry said this week that 13 prisoners found at the second facility needed medical treatment.
Sunni Arabs long have complained about abuse and torture by Interior Ministry security forces, allegations that have become a major issue for Sunni Arabs in national parliamentary elections set for Thursday. Some Shiite politicians have suggested that American attention to the torture charges is aimed at getting out the Sunni Arab vote.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr has said torture allegations have been exaggerated by people who sympathize with the Sunni-led insurgency.
Khalilzad said U.S. military officers would be joining Interior Ministry forces on counterinsurgency raids "so that they can observe ... how raids are carried out, how people are taken into custody."
After the discovery of the prisoners at Jadriyah, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, ordered an investigation and said a full report would be completed within two weeks. No report has yet been released, and Sunni politicians have accused the government of delaying it until after the election.
At a luncheon Tuesday for a group of Iraqi and Western reporters, al-Jaafari said he was deeply concerned about the abuse allegations.
"This government did not and will not allow the practice of torture even against the most hardened of criminals who committed crimes in all parts of Iraq - Saddam" Hussein, al-Jaafari said.
Al-Jaafari also suggested that it was unrealistic to expect the abusive practices and human rights violations to disappear quickly after decades of tyranny by Saddam's Baath party.
---
Associated Press writer Hamza Hendawi contributed to this report from Baghdad.
--
None of these @$$holes are on our side. He is probably working for the mullahs.
You are right about the @-s, but this general is definitely not working for the Mullahs. He is a Sunni. But the colonel is for sure working for the Mullahs.
fyi
Iran needs to be smacked.
I'd say the Kurds need to get rid of that deputy minister Hussein Kamel.
Another one of those "Hmmm."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.