EXCLUSIVE: Former Iraqi Detainees Allege Torture by U.S. Troops

[Judi Lynn]

EXCLUSIVE: Former Iraqi Detainees Allege Torture by U.S. Troops
Men Say Repeated Beatings, Mock Execution, Sexual Humiliation Were Prevalent
By JAKE TAPPER and GEORGE GRIFFIN

Nov. 14, 2005 — Two former Iraqi detainees tell ABC News in an exclusive interview that they were repeatedly tortured by U.S. forces seeking information about Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction.

Thahee Sabbar and Sherzad Khalid are two of eight men who, with help from the American Civil Liberties Union and the group Human Rights First, are suing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The men claim they were tortured for months, in violation of the U.S. Constitution and international law.

Torture has been the center of controversy lately. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. — himself a victim of torture during the Vietnam War — has sparked a heated debate after his proposed amendment to ban torture was reportedly the subject of intense lobbying by Vice President Dick Cheney, who sought an exemption for CIA officers.
(snip)

But after the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal — according to the Pentagon's own investigations — it is irrefutable that U.S. forces have tortured detainees, many of whom claim they had no involvement at all with al Qaeda or the insurgency in Iraq, but were nonetheless arrested by U.S. soldiers and physically abused.
(snip/...)

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1312282&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

[Tight_rope]

1. But of course...That's why Cheney wants to keep torturing.

[savemefromdumbya]

2. The guys knew too much?

maybe turn it round - they were tortured because they knew too much? To keep quiet? I thought bush said that he didn't torture?

[bullimiami]

3. george said we dont torture. this sort of baseless attack is a shame.

:puke:

[wordpix2]

7. yeah, it's all a bunch of baseless attacks, that's why Bush cabal wants

to have exceptions to the anti-torture laws.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. What would you be willing to do to Iraqi troops living in your

neighborhood if they had tortured your mother/father/sister/brother?

Would you be willing to be called a "terrorist" for taking action to do something to "even things out"?

[Disturbed]

5. Does anyone but the Bush Cultists believe his lie that

"We don't torture'?

[superconnected]

8. The rw believes it's justified so it's not torture.

Some Christians.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

14. Hush!

America is GREAT!

:patriot:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

16. Great AND desperate.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

17. Desperate AND folding like a cheap Wal-Mart deck chair.

:patriot:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

18. Yes... and rearranging the deck chairs in D.C. with this bunch is like

tying balloons to the side of the Titanic in hopes that it will keep it afloat.

[MisterP]

6. LIONS?!

so much for being "pro-Christian," eh, President Nero?

[leftchick]

11. yep, Nero...

this is OUTRAGEOUS! :grr:

<snip>

Khalid told ABC News that U.S. soldiers at one point threatened him with live lions.


"They took us to a cage — an animal cage that had lions in it within the Republican Palace," he said. "And they threatened us that if we did not confess, they would put us inside the cage with the lions in it. It scared me a lot when they got me close to the cage, and they threatened me. And they opened the door and they threatened that if I did not confess, that they were going to throw me inside the cage. And as the lion was coming closer, they would pull me back out and shut the door, and tell me, 'We will give you one more chance to confess.' And I would say, 'Confess to what?'"


Inside the Republican Palace — the site of Saddam's former office — Sabbar says troops taunted him with a mock execution.


"I found the other prisoners who had come before me there in the line beside me mocking, in a way as to make it a mock execution," he said. "They all stood up, those of us who could stand up. They directed their weapons towards us. And they shot, shot towards our heads and chests. And when the shots sounded, some of us lost consciousness. Some started to cry. Some lost control of their bladders. And they were laughing the whole time."


After a night in jail at the Republican Palace, Khalid says he was taken to the prison at the Baghdad airport where the torture continued.

[daleo]

20. It is like a cross between Dostoevsky and Kafka

Things have sunk so low.

[slaveplanet]

24. I'd say this

'We will give you one more chance to confess.' And I would say, 'Confess to what?'"

is pretty good evidence that this quote has a lot to do with why they want to veto the torture bill.

They don't want to torture for intel....they want to torture for confessions and then keep a warehouse full of patsys.

perfect if you're planning false flag ops...

[Jacobin]

9. It's 'deeply irresponsible' to claim that the U.S. tortured

these prisoners who were tortured.

Its just democrats trying to re-write history. I've said America doesn't torture and they just won't accept the truth.

We are sending mixed signals to our enemies when we debate the necessity of torture (not that we're doing it or anything).

:crazy:

When I try to write and think like a BushNazi, I get all loopy and lightheaded

[stevedeshazer]

10. Just a "prank"? Just "blowing off steam"? With wooden sticks and LIONS?

My God.

[leftchick]

12. OMG! "fog of war" excuse!

<snip>

"There's some serious allegations in there," said Ret. Lt .Col. Robert Maginnis, now an Army consultant. "If those, in fact, took place, investigations should ensue and the appropriate people should be punished. … I don't doubt that we made many mistakes. That's characteristic of the fog and the confusion of the battlefield."

:puke:

[Mr_Spock]

13. I saw that report on ABC tonight. I didn't know it was exclusive

The charges are very serious - of course the USA doesn't have to answer to anyone, but if they did, they'd be in trouble...

[callady]

15. US "Crating prisoners?"

November 11, 2005 -- BREAKING NEWS  U.S. "crating" prisoners and flying them around Eastern Europe in C-130 prison planes. Although The Washington Post failed to report on the details of CIA (now Pentagon-run) "black" interrogation sites in eastern Europe, WMR is able to report on the particulars of the covert operation. According to a well-placed intelligence source who served in eastern Europe, prisoners from Iraq and elsewhere have been flown from airport to airport in eastern Europe on board C-130 planes. Placed in what were described as "dog-sized" cages, the covert operation became fully operational after the disclosures of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, Baghdad and Camp Bucca, Umm Qasr, Iraq. The "crated" prisoners were either removed from the C-130s for interrogation at Soviet-era detention centers that were in various states of repair or were kept on board the aircraft and subjected to brutal interrogation by U.S. and/or contractor personnel, who, in some cases, were ex-members of the Soviet KGB, Stasi, and other eastern European security services. C-130s are used because of their short take-off and landing capabilities on short air strips located in remote regions.

The source, who spoke on a condition of anonymity, witnessed the ground work being laid for the "black sites" in a number of countries and locations. These include the Taszar airbase in south-central Hungary, near the town of Pecs; Lv'iv, Ukraine; Szczynto-Szymany, Poland; Skopje, Macedonia; Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase in Romania; Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia; Shkoder, Albania; Burgas, Bulgaria; and the Markuleshti air base in Moldova.

Crating prisoners hearkens back to the Vietnam War when the U.S. used "tiger cages" installed by the French on Con Son island off Vietnam to hold political prisoners. The U.S. used the tiger cages to detain and torture suspected Viet Cong sympathizers. Many of the prisoners were merely innocent Buddhists and anti-war activists. The flying of caged prisoners from airport to airport on chartered C-130s is yet another indication of what military judge advocate general (JAG) lawyers have cited as the Bush administration's penchant for placing prisoners in "law free zones
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

Is this true? Not the most reliable source but putting prisoners in cages has precedence. Worthy of further investigation for corroboration

[countmyvote4real]

19. This all sounds like gay kink porn.

I don’t mean to cast aspersions on gay or kink people, but this is some crazy shit. What could possibly compel the * administration to toss out the US Constitution and Bill of Rights without a safe word?

The separation of Church and State needs to include the separation of Kink and State. My supposedly, freely elected government should not include dog leashes, humiliation and genital torture as tactics beyond the reaches of the Geneva Convention. Who are these people?

Pure and simple they are sadists and it doesn’t really matter what their sexual orientation might be, except that the * administration and their supporters demonize all things gay. Methinks they doth protest too much.

They really hate themselves for their yearnings beyond greed. That is a motivation in this for sure, but they are sick and beyond redemption.

[Judi Lynn]

21. Kick!

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[wakeme2008]

22. Iraqis Say Troops Caged Them With Lions

(I am not sure this is the same ppl as the other thread...)

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Iraqi-Detainees-Lions.html

November 15, 2005
Iraqis Say Troops Caged Them With Lions
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 3:59 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two Iraqi businessmen, who were imprisoned by U.S. forces in Iraq, claimed Monday that American soldiers threw them into a cage of lions in a Baghdad palace, as part of a terrifying interrogation in 2003.

''They took me behind the cage, they were screaming at me, scaring me and beating me a lot,'' Thahe Mohammed Sabbar said in an interview. ''One of the soldiers would open the door, and two soldiers would push me in. The lions came running toward me and they pulled me out and shut the door. I completely lost consciousness.''

..more at link...

[henslee]

23. I heard about that interrogation method. They called it the

Sigfried and Roy treatment. Not funny. Actually as awful as this is, I am not really too suprised. At least Tahe was pulled out before he became dinner.

[Julius Civitatus]

27. America using Imperial Rome's techniques. Not good.

What's next? Crucifixions?

Oops! That is happening as well:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2005_11_06_digbysblog_archive.html#113144239092086695

Why are we compelled to become the freakin' Roman Empire and its use of torture as a tool of state?

This shit is making me sick to my stomach. The Bush administration is turning us into a tyrannical regime. I'm seriously scared.

[0007]

25. bttft

[Igel]

26. How ... traditionally Babylonian of them.

Throwing prisoners into a lions' den.

[lostexpectation]

29. aclu/ torture photos

wheres the aclu update thread i can't search someone link it?

don't see it on their site?

[Julius Civitatus]

30. Yeah! Where are the photos?

[pushycat]

28. His faith in the American Justice System is tragic. He will have

a hard time receiving justice, IMHO. When Lindsey Graham amendments pass in the Sentate, it sure appears that no one will be held accountable, if at all possible.