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.
What makes you say that we will go to war with them again so soon?
At least the torture chambers aren't being run by the evil American military, under direct supervision by Rumsfeld and Bush! Things are so much better now that the real torturers are gone!
Mark
Looks like the poor prisoners of Abu G. are finally having the truth definition of the word "torture" explained to them.
I'll bet you won't see much RAT outrage over this. Where's dick turban when you need him?
Nice going, dumba$$ terrorists and your media buddies! What did you expect, the Iraqis were going to be NICER than the Americans? You are total morons.
There's an old saying. Maybe you have one like it in your Muslim history. "Out of the frying pan, into the fire."
Only in this case, if was, "Out of a LazyBoy recliner in front of the TV, into the fire."
Oh, this is so sweet! Tell the world how wonderful the Americans are compared to your fellow Muslims. We really ARE too nice. Ha, ha, ha!
Be careful what you ask for.
Could have fooled me. I thought they were fighting the terrorists on their own ground so they don't have to fight them here in America.
They are there so we can be safe here!
Let's send Lyndie England back to "torture" them some more. Just looking at her.
What makes me wanna hurl is the fact that we have some of our military in prison today for nothing more than HUMILIATION........not TORTURE! Free all of em' right now!
Not.
WHAT???!!!
I thought the Dems told us that American troops were worse than NAZI's, Stalin, and Pol Pot???(Dick Durbin)....
HOW COULD THIS BE!!???
I thought too cold Air-conditioning, and being humiliated by a WOMAN were the darkest, most heinous crimes on earth???
Well of course it has. They only look for alleged abuses by Americans.
These prisoners can thank a Liberal for caring. . .
Ten years away is not soon.
I hope I'm being pessimistic, but they will be a Shiite muslim controlled nation. Generally speaking, the West does not have a good history with them.
is-Slime seems to do well enough on its own in this matter. The Iraqi constitution is controlled by the queeranus/is-Slime.
So its not gonna be pretty. Untill the slaves of satanallahs "religion" renounce their slavery to satan, it never will be!
Yeah, afterall, wasn't it Kerry who said our soldiers shouldn't be making midnight house raids on innocent Iraqi women and children, that the Iraqi soldiers should be doing that.
Couldn't of happened to a nicer bunch of guys.
LOL! And all the convicts in the prisons I worked at over the years were all there because they were "framed." Poor babies.
Why don't you sign up, go over there, and see for yourself?
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