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<p>By RALPH PETERS May 1, 2004 -- THE United States just experienced its first true disaster in Iraq. As news of the disgraceful mistreatment of prisoners by American soldiers sweeps the world, our enemies celebrate a major propaganda gift. Even our friends cannot defend the indefensible. On the battlefield, we must be fierce. But once an enemy becomes a prisoner of our military, he must be treated justly and humanely. Strictness, yes. Abuse, no.</p>

Military report details abuse at Army prison in Iraq, magazine says May 1, 2004, 7:45 AM EDT NEW YORK -- Iraqi detainees were subject to "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, according to a U.S. Army report obtained by The New Yorker magazine. The internal report detailed such abuses as pouring phosphoric liquid from chemical lights on detainees, pouring cold water on naked detainees and threats of rape, the magazine says in an article for its May 10 issue. Other mistreatment of prisoners included "beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair"...

U.S. soldiers stacked Iraqi prisoners in a human pyramid, and attached wires to one detainee to convince him he might be electrocuted, according to photographs obtained by CBS News which led to criminal charges against six Americans. CBS said the photos, to be shown Wednesday night on "60 Minutes II," were taken late last year at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, where American soldiers were holding hundreds of prisoners captured during the invasion and occupation of Iraq. In March, the U.S. Army announced that six members of the 800th Military Police Brigade faced court martial for allegedly abusing about 20...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Kidnappers have released up to 12 foreigners taken hostage in Iraq (news - web sites), a member of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council said Monday Meanwhile, two U.S. troops and seven employees of American contractor Kellogg, Brown & Root were missing following an attack "two days ago" on a convoy near Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said Monday. He refused to say whether they had been abducted. In an interview with the Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera, Governing Council member Mohsen Abdul-Hamid did not identify the nationalities of the hostages or where they were. "Twelve foreign...

The Iraqi rebels show me their latest victim: a German in a pool of blood By Lee Gordon (Filed: 11/04/2004) A young Iraqi mujahideen fighter poses in triumph by the smouldering wreck, his face obscured by a red and white kaffiyeh scarf, his high-powered sniper's rifle ready for action. It is only minutes since a white Japanese 4x4 vehicle was forced off the road and its two occupants, both German, killed in a firefight and their bodies dragged from the vehicle when it burst into flames. Now, a mile away, I have been brought to the scene of their deaths...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 4/12/04 - Abu Ghraib, Fallujah, Mosul BREAKING: Abu Gharib - military convoy attacked BREAKING: Fallujah - Terrorists DO NOT respect truce (again) BREAKING: Kerbala, Kirkuk, Mosul QFN ==== QUAGMIRE-FREE NEWS Exclusive to FReerepublic PICTURES YOU MAY NEVER SEE IN THE GENERAL MEDIA =========== Baghdad =========== In Baghdad, American heroes with weapons hot, near the Adhamiya police station. In Baghdad, convoy terrorist attack on US army oil tankers by rocket-propelled grenades. Where was the instant retaliation? Much too later. U.S Army vehicle attacked on Baghdad's highway, April 10, 2004. In Baghdad, an Army...

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq (Reuters) - Insurgents in Iraq said they had seized four Italians and two Americans on the western outskirts of Baghdad on Friday. A Reuters journalist saw two captive foreigners, said by the insurgents to be Italians, in a mosque in a village in the Abu Ghraib district. One had been wounded in the shoulder. Both were weeping.

U.S. Troops Fight Insurgents on No-Man's Highway By Michael Georgy ABU GHRAIB, Iraq (Reuters) - Cocksure teenagers stand at the edge of Abu Ghraib, waiting to dart out and fire rocket-propelled grenades at an American convoy and then melt back into the town's gritty alleyways. It's a cat-and-mouse game that often leaves U.S. soldiers dead and their vehicles in flames along the highway leading to Baghdad, a key trade route that's now a no-man's land. Abu Ghraib, a hard-bitten town surrounded by lush farmland, is one of the trouble spots for American soldiers facing fierce challenges from both Sunni Muslim...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 4/8/04 - Fallujah, Abu Ghraib, Sadr City, Nasiriyah, Kirkuk, Mosul, Najaf BREAKING: Fallujah - US Marine heroes in Liberated Iraq BREAKING: Abu Ghraib - Behind enemy lines and MISSED OPPORTUNITY BREAKING: Nasiriyah - Italian heroes protect Freedom BREAKING: South Korean and Japanese hostages BREAKING: Sadr City, Kirkuk, Mosul, Najaf ========= Fallujah ========= BREAKING: HEROES IN FALLUJAH In Fallujah, US Marine heroes on patrol and watch as they guard Freedom in Liberated Iraq, this morning, Thursday April 8 2004. In Fallujah, with the Iraqi special forces, here heroes of a unit formed by...

The missing people-shredderThe horror of one of Saddam's execution methods made a powerful pro-war rallying cry - but the evidence suggests it never existed Brendan O'Neill Wednesday February 25, 2004 The Guardian Forget the no-show of Saddam Hussein's WMD. Ask instead what happened to Saddam's "people shredder", into which his son Qusay reportedly fed opponents of the Ba'athist regime. Ann Clwyd, the Labour MP who chairs Indict, a group that has been campaigning since 1996 for an international criminal tribunal to try the Ba'athists, wrote of the shredder in the Times on March 18 last year - the day of...

<p>FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) Guerrillas shouting ''God is great'' launched a bold daylight assault Saturday on an Iraqi police station and a security compound west of Baghdad, meeting little resistance as they gunned down policemen and freed prisoners in a battle that killed 21 people, police said. Most of the dead were police.</p>

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 24 — Military officials retracted a report today that two American soldiers had been slashed in their throats in an attack Sunday in the northern city of Mosul. A military official here, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the two soldiers had died of gunshot wounds to the head and that their bodies had been pulled by Iraqis from their car and robbed of their personal belongings. The military official said that contrary to some reports, the men had not been beaten by rocks or mutilated in any way. The victims, both soldiers of the...

A standing-room-only crowd of 700 packed a gymnasium Friday for a funeral service to remember Army Pfc. Rachel Bosveld, who was the fifth Wisconsin soldier killed in Iraq. Bosveld, of Waupun, was killed Oct. 26 during a mortar attack on a police station in Abu Ghraib, Iraq. Before the eulogy, Gov. Jim Doyle spoke to the family at the service at the 332nd Support Center of the Wisconsin National Guard. Friday would have been her 20th birthday and her family received her second Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. "Please know that Rachel's death was not in vain," said...

CJTF-7 Public Affairs BAGHDAD, Iraq  Release #031101b   1AD soldiers, Iraqi police repel attack in Abu Ghraib market BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition soldiers were attacked at approximately 10:15 a.m., Oct. 31, while patrolling through the Abu Ghraib Market. A crowd soon formed, carrying banners of Saddam Hussein.  The crowd began lighting fires and throwing rocks at soldiers and Iraqi police officers.   Iraqi police began dispersing the crowd. Shortly after, the Abu Ghraib Police Station was attacked with mortars; no one in the police station was injured.  When the Coalition Forces returned to the market to evaluate the situation, they were...

Iraqi Rioters Battle U.S. Troops   Oct 31, 2:51 PM (ET) By SAMEER N. YACOUB (AP) U.S. troops stand guard in the street in a break in clashes with Iraqis in Baghdad's suburb of Abu...Full Image ABU GHRAIB, Iraq (AP) - U.S. troops battled Iraqi rioters when a dispute over a marketplace exploded into anti-American fury Friday. Leaflets and rumored warnings called for a "Day of Resistance" Saturday at the start of a three-day general strike to protest U.S. occupation. Two Iraqis were killed, and 17 others and two U.S. soldiers were reported wounded at the marketplace clashes outside...

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq - Amid burst of gunfire and prayer, Iraqi rioters waving portraits of Saddam Hussein battled U.S. troops and tanks on Friday, when a dispute over a marketplace outside Baghdad exploded into anti-American fury. Two Iraqis were killed, and 17 others and two U.S. soldiers were reported wounded. Farther west in Fallujah, a center of the anti-U.S. resistance, an explosion and fire struck the office of the mayor, who has cooperated with the U.S. occupation. In a melee that followed, one Iraqi was killed, and later Friday U.S. troops came under attack at the same spot. An Islamic...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three American soldiers were killed and four wounded in two separate attacks in Iraq, the U.S. military said Monday. Two soldiers were killed and two others wounded Sunday in Baghdad after their patrol was targeted by a roadside bomb. The soldiers belonged to the 1st Armored Division, a military statement said. In Abu Ghraib, on the western edge of Baghdad, one soldier was killed and two wounded Sunday after an attack on their Military Police unit, according to the statement. Since President Bush announced the end of major combat in Iraq on May 1st, 213 U.S. soldiers...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. soldiers detained an Associated Press photographer and driver on Tuesday, handcuffing them, forcing them to stand in the sun for three hours and denying them water or use of a telephone. Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 70th Armored Regiment, 1st Armored Division detained photographer Karim Kadim and driver Mohammed Abbas, both Iraqis, near Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, and kept their guns trained on them, despite repeated attempts to explain they were journalists. The troops were looking for explosives planted in the area. "We identified ourselves from the very beginning as press, even before we approached...

Mortars Kill 2 U.S. Soldiers, Wound 13 in Iraq BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two U.S. soldiers were killed and 13 were wounded in a mortar attack on a U.S.-run prison west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a military spokeswoman said on Sunday. The death of the troops, from the 800th Military Police Brigade, brings to 78 the number of U.S. soldiers killed by hostile fire since major combat in Iraq was officially declared over on May 1 following the war that ousted Saddam Hussein. Two mortar rounds struck the prison compound at 9:54 p.m. on Saturday evening, the spokeswoman said. "There...

I never imagined when I wrote in March about the plastic shredder used to kill in one of Saddam’s prisons that I would, some months later, read in a chillingly meticulous record book that one of the methods of execution was “mincing”. I had just finished a press conference in the still-shabby British Embassy in Baghdad, when a reporter from FoxTV told me that he had been handed for safekeeping by an Iraqi a 56-page record book from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. Later, at the Sheridan hotel, we scanned the horrific record of Saddam’s sadism and brutality....