Britain's captured soldiers allegedly spying on Iraqi prison torturer

[Barrett808]

LONDON (AFP) - Two British soldiers captured briefly by Iraqis last month had beeen spying on a senior police commander who was allegedly torturing prisoners with an electric drill, a British newspaper reported.

The Sunday Telegraph also gave a vivid account of how the elite pair were detained in the southern Iraqi city of Basra and their subsequent rescue by British forces, who raided a police station and then a nearby house.

The drama triggered a rift between the local authorities and the British army, which has been deployed in the region since the March 2003 invasion.

The newspaper said Britain's Special Air Service (SAS) had been staking out several members of the Iraqi police, who were suspected of torturing prisoners at the notorious Jamiyat prison in Basra.

The operation was ordered after the body of an Iraqi, who had been arrested by the police, was found on the outskirts of the city in April.

An examination of the corpse showed that his skull, hands and legs had been penetrated with an electric drill, the Telegraph said. The army learnt, from Iraqi sources, that a senior police officer was behind the abuse.

Citing military sources, the weekly said hundreds of people arrested by the local police might have been tortured at the prison.

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051016/wl_mideast_afp/britainiraqbasra

[McKenzie]

1. in a word...

PROPAGANDA!

[EuroObserver]

13. Big pinch of salt, yeah. n/t

[thebigidea]

2. an elite pair of bearded black ops carrying bombs?

ah, they were secretely investigating tortures by being captured and possibly tortured. Sure, sounds plausible.

So why were they rescued so quickly? They could have been doing more secret investigations.

lying sacks of shit. Why didn't they bawl this nonsense last month if it was true?

bwaahahaha.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. That's not actually what they're claiming

On September 19, the two SAS soldiers were just about to end a surveillance mission as part of the investigation when they became involved in a shoot-out with four plain-clothed police officers, the Telegraph revealed.

One soldier opened fire as the pair drove off in a car.

The Iraqis gave chase. The British soldiers decided to ditch their vehicle, thinking they had a better chance on foot.

They were en route to an emergency meeting point after having made contact with their base when a uniformed Iraqi police unit stopped them.

So there wasn't any plan to get captured, according to this story. Whether it's believable is another matter - as you say, a month is a long time to wait to say "they were doing surveillance on X".

[thebigidea]

15. so hard to keep current on shifting, amorphous storylines

Its also hard to believe anything at all concerning this incident, seeing as it is in everyone's best interest to lie furiously.

[louis-t]

3. Gee, we better stop the Iraqis from torturing people.

Saddam tortured his own people and we despise him for that. Damn dead-enders. Why do they hate freedom. All this torture must stop now. * would never torture people. That's what sets us apart from the.........oh, wait.

[anotherdrew]

14. yep, we'll have to stay until we have complete control of evey moment

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

4. Oh, yeah, since we're so opposed to torture, that shrub threatens veto

of the whole defense spending bill for DENYING his "right" to torture people!

Very believable...

[chenGOD]

5. Inconceivable....

I thought all the torture stopped when the glorious allied forces ousted Evil Saddam and the population threw flowers in the streets for their new dictat^H^H^H^leaders.

:eyes:

[pretzel4gore]

6. and that brazilian, he was trying to blow up the island

that justifies 5 in the noggin, eh john?

[mrfrapp]

8. Seven Times in the Head, Not Five

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/17/nmenez17.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/08/17/ixnewstop.html

http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1794292005

[SillyGoose]

7. This doesn't make sense to me.

I can believe the part about them investigating torture, but how do planting bombs figure in to this scenario? The article ignores the part about them planting bombs.

Can't these smarty-pants propogandists do a better job with their cover stories? Sheesh.

[democrank]

9. Sometimes I can not fathom

the amount of evil in this world. An electirc drill?????

[formercia]

10. I think they learned that from the IRA

especially kneecaps.

[Barrett808]

11. BBC reported on drill torture back in July

Here's the elbow / knee drilling report from BBC
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1838454&mesg_id=1838557

[Roy]

16. This is conceivable isn't it??

This is why they needed the explosives and detonators right?

I'm sure their orders were, if these Iraqis' are abusing Iraqis, blow them all up and put an end to this reprehensible behavior.
Yep, that sounds about right.

After taking this long, it seems they could have come up with something a little more credible than this.


"On September 19, the two SAS soldiers were just about to end a surveillance mission as part of the investigation when they became involved in a shoot-out with four plain-clothed police officers, the Telegraph revealed.

One soldier opened fire as the pair drove off in a car."

[malaise]

22. The only problem

is that there is more than enough evidence of British soldiers involved in torture themselves. More bullspit.

[Briar]

17. There are a lot of minor wars

being waged on the Iran/Iraq border. Iran regularly complains (you may recognise the words) of British interference in these conflicts. And hearing about this, I immediately thought of those SAS spies.

[Warren Stupidity]

18. 30 days to concoct this bullshit? not impressed. eom.

[IChing]

19. Funny the chief British military investigator was found dead

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4347950.stm



The MoD said in a statement: "On Saturday 15 October 2005, the body of Captain Ken Masters was discovered in his accommodation in Waterloo Lines, Basra.

"He was Officer Commanding 61 Section, Special Investigation Branch, Royal Military Police.

"He had been responsible for the investigation of all in-theatre serious incidents, plus investigations conducted by the General Police Duties element of the Theatre Investigation Group.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1853586

[Barrett808]

21. Coincidence, surely. Coincidence.

And Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, murdered President Kennedy.

[daleo]

20. More likely, they were delivering him fresh drill bits.

The Telegraph is the neo-cons favorite propaganda organ. I believe little I read from it, but it is a useful organ for monitoring neo-con trial balloons.

[HuffleClaw]

23. hahahahahaha

nice 'cover story', pretty lame. all its missing is the 'sex slaves' angle or maybe the 'sweatshop children enslaved and working to make liberal bumper stickers' bit.

[Barrett808]

24. Clearly, Iranian agents assassinated him

On their way to plant IEDs around Basra. Then it's off to pick up some yellowcake from Niger.

[Nostradamus]

25. You can rely on the Telegraph to support atrocity and warcrime

committed by the British Army and intelligence services...