U.S. closes controversial detention camp; Iraqi lawyers win concessions

[Judi Lynn]

U.S. closes controversial detention camp; Iraqi lawyers win concessions

CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent Sunday, October 5, 2003



(10-05) 22:33 PDT BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) --

The U.S. military has shut down Camp Cropper, an increasingly notorious makeshift prison where hundreds of Iraqis were crowded into tents through Baghdad's scorching summer, a U.S. official reported. The detainees were scattered to other facilities.

The Iraqi Lawyers League, pressing a rights campaign under an ex-political prisoner of the Baath regime, has won another concession from the Americans as well: accelerated hearings, with lawyers, for some of at least 5,500 detained Iraqis.

That newly elected league president, Malik Dohan al-Hassan, met with U.S. occupation chief L. Paul Bremer a month ago to register complaints about the internment of thousands of Iraqis without charge since a U.S.-British invasion force toppled Saddam Hussein's Baath government in April. (snip)

(snip) Journalists were barred from Camp Cropper, but released detainees this summer told of overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, and they alleged physical abuse by guards. The human rights group Amnesty International protested it "may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, banned by international law."
(snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/10/05/international1344EDT0495.DTL

[Paschall]

1. See, it's working

We're spreading democracy throughout the Middle East. "The detainees were scattered to other facilities." :eyes:

[No Passaran]

2. I just wanna laugh about this..

wrong thread

[revcarol]

3. One step at a time?

At least one step has been taken, but the slowness is INFURIATING. At least the one step has been taken.I saw some smuggled out pictures and the people were covered with filth.I wish I could remember where I saw them on the net, so we could link. Anyone?

[ConcernedCanuk]

4. The Ugly Truth of Camp Cropper

The Ugly Truth of Camp Cropper

A Torture Story to Shame Us All



"Only "selected" prisoners are beaten during interrogation. Again, I repeat, the source is impeccable, and Western.

Qais Al-Salman was given no water to wash in, and after trying to explain his innocence to a second interrogator, he went on hunger strike. No formal charges were made against him. There were no rules for the American jailers.

"Some soldiers drove me back to Baghdad after 33 days in that camp," Qais al-Salman says. "They dropped me in Rashid Street and gave me back my documents and Danish passport and they said, Sorry'."

Feckadee - this article is from JULY !!

- more links from the above link

- Shamefull indeed

- the Murikkkan War Machine at work -

_ Why do I keep thinking of Hitler - ???

Just a Canadian Rant - -

[Judi Lynn]

6. This guy was lucky. He finally got to go home!

Can you imagine what has happened to the ones who were less well-placed, socially, and easier to keep indefinately?

(snip) Qais al-Salman went home to his grief-stricken mother who had long believed her son was dead. No American had contacted her despite her desperate requests to the US authorities for help. Not one of the Americans had bothered to tell the Danish government they had imprisoned one of its citizens. Just as in Saddam's day, a man had simply been "disappeared" off the streets of Baghdad. (snip)

Maybe this experience is going to cause Americans to rethink their views of the German citizens who knew what was happening in concentration camps and "did nothing," as we were taught. This might challenge some of our national smugness before it's over.

[Say_What]

5. Related: Briton held as terror suspect says CIA threatened torture

<clips>

A British businessman arrested as a suspected terrorist has told the Guardian that US agents threatened him with beatings and rape in an attempt to break him.

Wahab al-Rawi, 38, was denied a lawyer, held incommunicado for four weeks in Gambia, and repeatedly questioned by CIA agents before being released without charge. His account is the first from any Briton about their treatment by the US while held as a suspect in the two year "war on terror".

The account also challenges US denials of the use of torture or the threat of torture on terrorist suspects, thousands of whom have been detained and interrogated across the world.

The Guardian revealed in July that Mr Rawi's business partners, including his brother, Bisher, and Jamil al-Banna, who were arrested with him, have been incarcerated in the US camp at Guantanamo Bay without charge.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1055663,00.html