Iraqi tells how he was stripped, beaten and sexually abused by US military

Hayder Sabbar Abd is the man in the hood. He was one of the Iraqi prisoners stripped, humiliated, beaten and abused by American reservists and interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison in what is arguably the worst scandal to engulf the United States military since the massacre of Vietnamese villagers at My Lai in 1968.

Having been freed from prison without charge several months ago, the slightly built father of five is now talking about his abuse and, with the help of the photographs that have shocked the world, identifying those who carried it out.

In an extraordinary interview published yesterday, Mr Abd detailed a catalogue of abuse and sexual humiliation inflicted by captors at the sprawling prison complex west of Baghdad, which for decades was notorious as the location of Saddam Hussein's torture and execution rooms.

The irony is not lost on Mr Abd. "Americans did not mistreat me in general," he said. "But these people must be tried. I can't tell you my feelings. The Americans got rid of Saddam Hussein. They told us about democracy and freedom. We are happy about that. Then did this to the seven of us. I am asking 'Is that democracy, is that freedom?'."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=518621