Posted on 09/09/2006 5:33:23 PM PDT by saquin
The notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad is at the centre of fresh abuse allegations just a week after it was handed over to Iraqi authorities, with claims that inmates are being tortured by their new captors.
Inside the 100-yard long cell block the smell of excrement was overpowering. Four to six prisoners shared each of the 12ft by 15ft cells along either side and the walls were smeared with filth. The cell block was patrolled by guards who carried long batons and shouted angrily at the prisoners to stand up.
Access to the part of the prison containing terrorism suspects was denied, but from that block came the sound of screaming. The screaming continued for a long time.
"I am sure someone was being beaten, they were screaming like they were being hit," the witness reported. "I felt scared, I was asking what was happening in the terrorist section.
"I heard shouting, like someone had a hot iron on their body, screams. The officer said they were just screaming by themselves. I was hearing the screams throughout the visit."
The witness said that even in the thieves' section prisoners were being treated badly. "Someone was shouting 'Please help us, we want the human rights officers, we want the Americans to come back'," he said.
Prisoners interviewed in the presence of their jailers said they were frightened for their safety. They complained that chicken and milk had been cut from their rations, leaving them on rice and water. They also complained about the oppressive heat.
Outside the prison, relatives of some of the inmates said they were being tortured by their captors. One woman, who gave her name as Omsaad, said: "My son Saad [who was arrested in Fallujah as a suspected insurgent] said he is being tortured by the Iraqis to confess the name of his leader. I met my son and he told me they were being treated badly by the Iraqis."
Haleem Aleulami, who was released from the jail last week, three weeks after being arrested in Ramadi for carrying a pistol in his car, said the Americans had treated him better when they ran the jail. He claimed that visits from the International Red Cross staff had dried up and accused local human rights workers of being members of Shia groups who turned a blind eye to problems in the jail.
"The people are Iraqis and they are members of the Sciri and al Dawa parties. They have a good relationship with the leaders of the jail and they keep quiet," he said. The guards swore at the ordinary prisoners, he said, but those in the terrorist section were treated more brutally.
"The guards were swearing at us, but in the terrorist section they were beating them. I heard it all the time. Everyone knows what is happening."
And Khalid Alaani, who was also picked up in Ramadi suspected of involvement in Sunni terrorism, said: "We preferred the Americans. We asked to move with them to Baghdad airport because we knew the treatment would be changed because we know what the Iraqis are. When the Americans left everything changed."
Staff at the jail said that the prisoners were allowed out from their cells for only 15 to 20 minutes a day because of the danger from the regular mortar attacks. They are no longer allowed access to the main hall where the Americans had allowed them to watch television and the room is now reserved for the use of officers and guards. Staff explained that the air conditioning in the cell blocks had broken, although it was working in their quarters.
One officer, Capt Ali Abdelzaher, said: "We have a problem with the financing for the food, not like the Americans, and there is a technical problem with the air conditioning."
Capt Abdelzaher also confirmed that a number of inmates had been transferred from the Jadriyah detention centre, along with their guards and interrogators.
Graphic stories of abuse at that previously secret facility emerged after US soldiers found 169 prisoners showing signs of torture last November.
Most of the prisoners held by the Americans at Abu Ghraib were either released in recent months or transferred to a new £32 million detention centre at Camp Cropper near Baghdad International Airport.
Yesterday, the International Red Cross confirmed that its visits to the prison had been suspended since January 2005 on security grounds.
We're never going to exit totally, in my opinion.
Oh, the horror of it all.
They should thank the swimmer for that.
We left per Kennedy and gave the prison back to the Iraqis. Now that the Democrats want the Iraqis to take charge, they cannot complain.
Don't forget, Saddam released about 50,000 hardened criminals just before we took control.
Very good point.
Sounds like a personal problem.
Doesn't really square with THIS post saying Abu Ghraib was empty, does it???
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1691075/posts
" Very good point."
Reported by the AP here on the FR as 100,000 hardened criminals. I just had to look it up.
LINK
I remember reading it. He knew he was done.
You mean....they actually 'want' the panties back on their heads? Geez. I wish they'd make up their feeble minds!
Do I have any pity now? Not on your life. The scenario is now turned back on them...and I'm not a bit sorry.
Sometimes this is the only way people can learn a lesson from life.
Maybe now when they think of Americans - they may have a different view point.
I'm having trouble working up any sympathy.
Same guy who wrote this classic:
US Soldiers Shoot First,
No Questions Asked
By Gethin Chamberlain
18 September 17, 2004
The Scotsman
BAGHDAD - His name was Ahmed Hameed and he was 36 years old. He had taken the wrong turning up to the checkpoint on the July 14 Bridge which spans the Tigris on the south-eastern edge of what used to be known in Baghdad as the Green Zone, but which has now been renamed the International Zone.
Now he lies in a body-bag a few yards away from the US army gun tower which opened fire on him as he tried to turn his moped around.
Soldiers from the US Airborne surround him, those at the back peering over the shoulders of the ones in front to get a better view as the bag is unzipped. In the tower, the heavy .240-calibre machine-gun hangs limply on its mount, pointing at the ground. The gunner is leaning on the parapet, looking out across the city.
-snip-
"Are you done here?" the US captain asks. "Can we open the checkpoint again?" Mahde nods. They can, he says. He has no authority over the US soldiers, but he will make a report.
He and Murphy start to walk back towards the police car. The US soldiers follow, grumbling among themselves. They do not understand what is happening. One can be heard complaining: "All the other bodies, they just put in the truck and took them away."
"The prisoners are TERRORISTS!"
Prove it. Am willing to bet those "insurgent sweeps" suck in a number of innocents. Sure THEIR support of this infant government - you know the one we've sacrificed billions of dollars and thousands of lives for - stays quite high after THIS experience (rolls eyes)
Okay - you're making your point. Don't be like a democRAT & just complain. You know - they always say they have a plan - but we never heard what the plan is!!
So- enlighten us!! What's YOUR plan?
"Prove it. Am willing to bet those "insurgent sweeps" suck in a number of innocents."
===
Sure, those poor "innocents" with a bomb in their cars.
I hope that Ted Kennedy has been alerted to this horror. Imagine cutting out the chicken in special prisoner diets! It's pretty darn brutal - inhuman, even. Oh well, I guess it's better than the Saddam-like dungeons of barbarism America ran.
Is anyone surprised? Many of the terrorists are responsible for the horrible deaths of dozens of their countrymen, gleefully using car bombs against children, attacking hospitals, beheading and torturing people.
Our only qualm should be that the Iraqi justice system hasn't been processing such villains fast enough. Their gallows are under-used. 27 hangings twice a week for a year would do much to improve Iraq in a single year.
They're probably cursing Ted Kennedy and Dick Durbin.
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.