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BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iraqi journalist who stayed in Fallujah to report on the battle for his hometown says he and hundreds of other civilians who eventually turned themselves in to escape the violence suffered tough, sometimes humiliating, treatment from American and Iraqi guards. Abdul-Qader Saadi said he was subjected to multiple searches and interrogations; went unfed the first two days; was blindfolded and handcuffed; and had to sleep for days in a wooden cage buffeted by cold winds at a desert detention camp. Saadi, who has reported part-time for The Associated Press since early in the year, also complained...

<p>Soldiers photographed apparently abusing Iraqi prisoners will invoke the "just following orders" defense when courts-martial convene this summer and fall.</p> <p>Military prosecutors already got a glimpse of that strategy this week at a pre-trial hearing in Baghdad. Defense attorneys for two accused military policemen said they were ordered to abuse Iraqi detainees by military intelligence officers who conducted interrogations at Abu Ghraib prison.</p>

Israeli Agents Believed Involved in Abu Ghraib Diplomatic sources in Washington tell NewsMax's U.N. correspondent Stew Stogel that Israeli nationals are believed to be involved in the Iraq prison controversy. "Israelis have been to Abu Ghraib and other prisons [in Iraq]," says one source familiar with the U.S. operations. It was explained that the Israelis involved have been assigned as "civilian contractors" to work with Coalition forces in interrogating Iraqi POWs. The "contractors" are said to be veterans of Israel's domestic intelligence unit, Shin Bet, as well as the more famous international intelligence agency, the Mossad. "Who has better experience...

Not all Arabs are appalled at the lurid pictures from Abu Ghraib. "The abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of U.S. soldiers draws intense reactions from some who left Iraq to find freedom in Washington state, but prolonged outrage isn't one of them," the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports from Everett: Imad al-Turfy . . . shows no sympathy for the prisoners, saying their treatment paled when compared with the horrors inflicted under Saddam Hussein's regime. "They raped our women. They killed our kids. So there's hatred between us, the people here, and the people in Iraq," he said, referring to...

Freepers, David Horowize picked up a piece I first posted here under the title, "Did the Arab Street Get a Message We Did Not Intend to Send?" Thanks to many Freepers who provided references and links contained within. Iraqi Abuse and the "Arab Street" By Larry Schweikart FrontPageMagazine.com | May 10, 2004 Amidst all the apologies, I want to suggest we all (Hillary Clinton here) take a deep breath and consider something that no one in the administration or Congress has (publicly) considered: The POW photos are having an unintended effect on the Arab "Street" and the "resistance." By now,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The independent Army Times newspaper, read widely in the U.S. military, on Monday suggested Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top Pentagon civilian and military leaders should be removed over the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal. "This was not just a failure of leadership at the local command level. This was a failure that ran straight to the top. Accountability here is essential -- even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war," the private weekly newspaper said in an editorial. Army Times is one of four such publications owned by the Gannett...

Sunday, May 9, 2004 1st Cavalry detention facility takes pride in its reputation By Terry Boyd, Stars and StripesEuropean edition, Saturday, May 8, 2004 Terry Boyd / S&S Sgt. 1st Class Douglas Bawden. Terry Boyd / S&S Spc. Craig Kois. CAMP BLACK JACK, Iraq — Just after Sgt. 1st Class Douglas Bawden took over as warden of 29 Palms — a 1st Cavalry Division detention facility — he found himself processing four Iraqis arrested in connection with a rocket-propelled grenade attack.The April 6 attack in Ashula, outside Baghdad, killed Sgt. Gerardo Moreno, 23, of Terrell, Texas.Moreno wasn’t just any soldier....

Kerry's Belated Condemnation Focuses on Process Kerry Lacks Moral Authority to Condemn Content NEW virtual john kerry can bore + snowboard at the same time series by Mia T, 5.07.04  "CRY BUSH" + Iraqi-Prisoner "Abuse"What are the Dems up to? by Mia T, 5.06.04   (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) johnkerryisdangerousforamerica.blogspot.com ohn Kerry, self-professed war criminal, needed the Iraqi prisoner "abuse" scandal about as much as bill clinton, documented rapist, needed the Saddam rape rooms or the marauding Milosevic rapist-guerrillas. For this reason, Kerry did not respond for a full week to this latest leftist-fulminated Bush-bashing...

Here it is, the SpinMeister Award of the Year. Why it isn't a picture of Saddam's statue being pulled down can be explained only by those who bestow the "honor." "World Press Photo of the year 2003 by French photographer Jean-Marc Bouju of the Associated Press shows a detained Iraqi man comforting his 4-year-old-son at a regroupment center for POW's near Najaf, Iraq. Picture was taken on 31 March, 2003. Jean-Marc Bouju/Associated Press REUTERS/Jean-Marc Bouju. "

French photographer wins World Press Photo 13 February 2004 AMSTERDAM — French photographer Jean-Marc Bouju was named on Friday as the winner of the World Press Photo competition. The international jury of the 47th annual World Press Photo, which is run from Amsterdam in the Netherlands, chose a colour image from Bouju that shows an Iraqi man comforting his 4-year-old-son at a Prisoner of War centre near Najaf, Iraq.The picture was taken on 31 March 2003 and can be viewed at http://www.worldpressphoto.nl/index.jsp. Some 4,176 professional photographers from 124 countries participated in this year’s contest, the premier annual international competition...

<p>A general will decide if they will face court-martial in the death of an Iraqi POW.</p> <p>CAMP PENDLETON – They went to Iraq to do their duty. They returned accused of war crimes.</p> <p>Inside a cramped courtroom on the sprawling military base, a career officer and two part-time Marines are the latest members from a Worcester, Mass., reserve unit to face charges of brutalizing Iraqi captives in June at a makeshift camp near Nasiriyah.</p>

The 19-year-old Army supply clerk rescued in Iraq shot several Iraqi soldiers during the March 23 ambush that resulted in her capture, newspaper reported Thursday. She kept firing even after she had several gunshot wounds, finally running out of ammunition, the newspaper said, citing unidentified U.S. officials. Spirited but hungry, Pfc. Jessica Lynch arrived in Germany for treatment of two broken legs and bullet wounds reportedly suffered in a fierce gun battle she waged against her Iraqi captors. "She was fighting to the death," the Washington Post quoted an official as saying. "She did not want to be taken alive."...

UMM QASR, Iraq (AP) - The U.S. military opened a hearing Wednesday into allegations that four U.S. Army reservists abused Iraqi prisoners of war at a camp in this southern port city. Possible charges include dereliction of duty, assault and maltreatment of prisoners. Three of the soldiers also could be charged with making a false official statement and one faces possible obstruction of justice counts. The hearing, being held at Camp Bucca, is the equivalent of a civilian grand jury investigation that will produce a nonbinding recommendation to be forwarded to senior military officials for a final judgment. The four...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Four US soldiers serving in Iraq have been charged with abuse of Iraqi prisoners of war and are awaiting a decision on whether they will face a court-martial, a defense official said. The charges mark the first time US personnel have been formally accused of mistreating Iraqi prisoners since the beginning of the US-led invasion of Iraq on March 20. The names of the soldiers have not been released, but they are reported to belong to a military police unit that helped guard prisoners at Camp Bucca, in southern Iraq, last May. "They have been charged with...

AMMAN, Jordan -- Twenty Jordanians arrived home Sunday after spending up to nine months in a U.S.-British detention camp in Iraq. "I'm happy to return home and to reunite with my family," Raed Abdullah Abul-Saqer told The Associated Press at Amman airport after alighting from an aircraft owned by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Abul-Saqer, 22, a trader, was released Saturday from a detention camp outside the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. He said he was arrested in Baghdad on April 10 on suspicion of links with President Saddam Hussein's guerrillas who were fighting the U.S.-led coalition...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi officials expressed fears Saturday that a Pentagon decision to declare Saddam Hussein a prisoner of war will prevent them from putting the ousted dictator on trial. The international Red Cross, however, said POW status does not preclude a war crimes prosecution. U.S. officials in Baghdad sought to assure Iraqis that no deal was made to keep them from trying the ousted dictator for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Iraq will have a "substantial leadership role" when the former Saddam faces justice, said Dan Senor, a spokesman for the U.S.-led occupation authority. "There is no...

<p>Pentagon lawyers have determined that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been a prisoner of war since American forces captured him Dec. 13, a Defense Department spokesman said yesterday.</p> <p>Despite that determination, top press aides to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld were grappling with what to say publicly about the issue. A senior defense official who insisted he not be named said Saddam's legal status was still under review.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pentagon lawyers have determined that Saddam Hussein has been a prisoner of war since American forces captured him on Dec. 13, a Defense Department spokesman said Friday. Despite that determination, Secretary of State Colin Powell told CBS News: "I don't know that he has been formally declared a prisoner of war." That decision was up to the Pentagon, Powell said. Whether or not Saddam is a prisoner of war could be key to how he is treated in captivity and eventually put on trial. The Geneva Conventions on treatment of prisoners of war forbid any kind of...

US officials say the ousted Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, is being treated as an "enemy prisoner of war". A Pentagon spokesman said he was given the status as he was the leader of the "old regime's military forces". The spokesman, Major Michael Shavers, said Saddam, captured by US troops in December, was entitled to all the rights under the Geneva Conventions. But the spokesman did not give further details about Saddam Hussein's conditions of detention. Earlier on Friday, a senior British official said Saddam - who is being held at an undisclosed location and interrogated by the CIA -...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Hundreds of Iraqis waited for hours outside a Baghdad prison Thursday in hopes their relatives would be included in a much-publicized release. About 80 men were freed, but U.S. officials said they weren't part of the amnesty, and most Iraqi families left disappointed and angry at America. "Liars! Liars! They won't let them out!" one woman screamed in dismay before fainting. A coalition spokesman insisted the prisoner release was on track, but would be done quietly for reasons of "security and privacy." U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer announced Wednesday that U.S. occupation forces would free 506...