In Secret Unit's 'Black Room,' a Grim Portrait of U.S. Abuse

NY Times ^ | Eric Schmitt & Carolyn Marshall

[Crackingham]

As the Iraqi insurgency intensified in early 2004, an elite Special Operations forces unit converted one of Saddam Hussein's former military bases near Baghdad into a top-secret detention center. There, American soldiers made one of the former Iraqi government's torture chambers into their own interrogation cell. They named it the Black Room.

In the windowless, jet-black garage-size room, some soldiers beat prisoners with rifle butts, yelled and spit in their faces and, in a nearby area, used detainees for target practice in a game of jailer paintball. Their intention was to extract information to help hunt down Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to Defense Department personnel who served with the unit or were briefed on its operations.

.......

The story of detainee abuse in Iraq is a familiar one. But the following account of Task Force 6-26, based on documents and interviews with more than a dozen people, offers the first detailed description of how the military's most highly trained counterterrorism unit committed serious abuses.

It adds to the picture of harsh interrogation practices at American military prisons in Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as well as at secret Central Intelligence Agency detention centers around the world.

The new account reveals the extent to which the unit members mistreated prisoners months before and after the photographs of abuse from Abu Ghraib were made public in April 2004, and it helps belie the original Pentagon assertions that abuse was confined to a small number of rogue reservists at Abu Ghraib.

The abuses at Camp Nama continued despite warnings beginning in August 2003 from an Army investigator and American intelligence and law enforcement officials in Iraq. The C.I.A. was concerned enough to bar its personnel from Camp Nama that August.

[cripplecreek]

Dear Slimes.

Prove it.

Sincerely Cripplecreek.

[SandRat]

[Dog Gone]

Oh good. More assistance to the enemy from our friends in New York.

[gate2wire]

You beat me to it.

[Ramius]

So what?

Seems the only relevant question is: Are we getting good information?

[billorites]

In the black room with white curtains near the station?

[Jim Noble]

Where the shadows run from themselves...

[SandRat]

Sad thing is that these turd job urinalists don't have any sense of realism at all if some soldiers beat prisoners with rifle butts the prisoners would be dead! You don't survive those kinds of beating except in a hollyweird movie.

[p23185]

Oh good. More assistance to the enemy from our friends in New York.

What? Are they out of Top Secret stories for their front page? Running scared under threats from the DOJ?

[JRios1968]

SSSSHHHH, It's a secret!!!

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[Jim Noble]

In the windowless, jet-black garage-size room, some soldiers beat prisoners with rifle butts, yelled and spit in their faces and, in a nearby area, used detainees for target practice in a game of jailer paintball. Their intention was to extract information to help hunt down Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to Defense Department personnel who served with the unit or were briefed on its operations.

Fine by me.

Good huntin' boys.

[LonePalm]

Welcome to Free Republic. Were you going to comment on the NY Slimes story? What is your take?

Did any of these 'people' who issued warnings bother to pick up the phone and call the IG? (Inspector General)

This smells like another drive-by media piece.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[redpoll]

How about this story: "Crazed madmen cut off the heads of innocent men and women in secret lairs using rusty knives." No, the problem is the United States under the direction of evil Republicans. You betcha.

[ohioWfan]

If the NYTimes says it, it isn't so.

You DO know that, don't you, Crackingham??

[W04Man]

SO WHAT!! NOW YOU CAN ADD CIA TO THIS LIST.

[cardinal4]

In the black room with white curtains near the station?

Listening to "Tale of Brave Ullyses"?

[don-o]

Paging Mr. Bauer. Mr Jack Bauer.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Too bad the RINO's won't allow the "white flag" ad to be run again on TV

Pass this "white flag" ad from Dec 2005 around on the internet, it's from gop.com

http://www.gop.com/Media/120905.wmv

At least gop.com has not been taken over by the RINO's!

---

Time for the real conservatives on FR,
be it Republicans, Independents or Democrats
(like Zell Miller and John O'Neill) to band together
and oust the looney left and RINO's

---

The "Politically Correct RINO's" on FR are the same group
who "swore"
klintoon, hitlery, hanoi kerry, sanbdi ber(bur)glar, al bore, jane beno,
would be prosecuted for
pardongate, chinagate, the bribes in upstate NY in the 2000 NY Senate race, waco, etc, etc,
"when" the "time was right".

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