WP: Iraqis Provide More Details of Abuse

Statements Describe Sexual Humiliation And Savage Beatings

Friday, May 21, 2004; Page A01

Previously secret sworn statements by detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq describe in raw detail abuse that goes well beyond what has been made public, adding allegations of prisoners being ridden like animals, sexually fondled by female soldiers and forced to retrieve their food from toilets.

The fresh allegations of prison abuse are contained in statements taken from 13 detainees shortly after a soldier reported the incidents to military investigators in mid-January. The detainees said they were savagely beaten and repeatedly humiliated sexually by American soldiers working on the night shift at Tier 1A in Abu Ghraib during the holy month of Ramadan, according to copies of the statements obtained by The Washington Post.

The statements provide the most detailed picture yet of what took place on the cellblock. Some of the detainees described being abused as punishment or discipline after they were caught fighting or with a prohibited item. Some said they were pressed to denounce Islam or were force-fed pork and liquor. Many provided graphic details of how they were sexually humiliated and assaulted, threatened with rape, and forced to masturbate in front of female soldiers.

"They forced us to walk like dogs on our hands and knees," said Hiadar Sabar Abed Miktub al-Aboodi, detainee No. 13077. "We had to bark like a dog, and if we didn't do that they started hitting us hard on our face and chest with no mercy. After that, they took us to our cells, took the mattresses out and dropped water on the floor and they made us sleep on our stomachs on the floor with the bags on our head and they took pictures of everything."

The prisoners also provided accounts of how some of the now-famous photographs were staged, including the pyramid of hooded, naked prisoners. Eight of the detainees identified by name one particular soldier at the center of the abuse investigation, Spec. Charles A. Graner Jr., a member of the 372nd Military Police Company from Cresaptown, Md. Five others described abuse at the hands of a solider who matches Graner's description.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43783-2004May20.html

Fuck this. These photos are... god... worse.

There's one of a prisoner who appears to be covered in excrement, striking a Christ-like pose.

And this one....

I don't know myself, but I imagine it will be fuel for the debate.

At any rate... these photos are sickening, and quite a bit different from the ones we've already seen, aren't they?

After their private viewing session, many Republican Members of Congress ensured the public that the photos were "of the same nature" as the ones previously viewed. Are these WP photos the same ones Congress has seen, or are they brand-new to the world??

If they are the same ones Congress has seen, and were somehow leaked to the WP, that's an entirely different angle and story altogether.

Personally, I don't remember any accounts of prisoners being made to stand in Christ-like poses while smeared in excrement.

I sometimes get the feeling that these photos are being released in a kind of ascending order of sickeningness. I don't know if it is on purpose, but if it is one can speculate that it is to inoculate the public to the extent possible from the next level of atrocity. It is like a horror movie, where the monster is revealed a bit at a time, until at the end you say "that wasn't so bad". I don't know it it will work that way, and I hope it won't - reality is still a lot different from the movies.

As for the jumpsuit, like you say, it was bound to come up, so I thought I might as well mention it.

It's a nightly horror movie. It doesn't go away. It eases up, for just a moment, and then it creeps back up on you, revealing more and more until you're scared half to death.

I, for one, have had enough of the horror show. This nation of ours is screaming for change.

...one of the anti-conspiracy apologists was going on and on about how the orange jumpsuits would NEVER EVER have long sleeves...

yeah, ok, whatever...

Our country sucks!

Some said they were pressed to denounce Islam or were force-fed pork and liquor. Many provided graphic details of how they were sexually humiliated and assaulted, threatened with rape, and forced to masturbate in front of female soldiers.

Fucking brilliant. That's going to go over great. Bush might even have to personally apologize to defuse the situation.

Or would you rather have his head?

I'm starting to get flashes of the end of the movie "Becket," with Peter O'Toole as Henry V being whipped by monks all the way to Canterbury. Or whichever Holy Roman Emperor it was who had to stand barefoot in the snow to apologize to some pope he'd offended.

Or maybe a little of that self-flagellation with chains like the Shi'ites get into every year.

We're into world-class violation of every known human norm here, people. It's going to take an equally world-class penance to even start to address that.

By Jacqueline Frank

Washington - Hundreds of new images and sworn statements from Iraqis held at Abu Ghraib prison depict harrowing sexual humiliation and religious intimidation at the hands of American soldiers well beyond abuses reported previously, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

The 13 previously secret sworn statements by detainees obtained by the Post added an overt anti-Islamic dimension to the abuses, with prisoners forced to renounce their religion, eat pork and drink liquor in contravention of Islamic religious tenets.

One detainee said he was told during the holy month of Ramadan he would be released if he co-operated and was ordered to curse Islam. "Because they started to hit my broken leg, I curse my religion. They ordered me to thank Jesus I am alive."

http://iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=qw1085155380676B262&set_id=1


100F tomorrow in Basrah. Do you know why your children are dying?
http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/IZXX0002.html

Unbelievable. I'm only halfway through this article, and I'm just blown away.

Chalabi, this, the courts martial, Rumsfeld, Bush looking weak and desperate on the Hill today, June 30th...

""Do you pray to Allah?" one asked. "I said yes. They said, ' you. And him.' One of them said, 'You are not getting out of here health, you are getting out of here handicapped. And he said to me, 'Are you married?' I said, 'Yes.' They said, 'If your wife saw you like this, she will be disappointed.' One of them said, 'But if I saw her now she would not be disappointed now because I would rape her.'"

"He said the soldiers told him that if he cooperated with interrogators they would release him in time for Ramadan. He said he did, but still was not released. He said one soldier continued to abuse him by striking his broken leg and ordered him to curse Islam. "Because they started to hit my broken leg, I curse my religion," he said. "They ordered me to thank Jesus I'm alive.""

These people must have listened to Ann Coulter.

Why do they hate us? Oh, yeah. Freedom.

Bush set the tone for the war, those who are against us are evil-doers. As Coulter said, their leaders should be killed and their followers should be given the choice of endorsing Christianity or dying. This administration will go down as the sickest in American history. In the last days evil will be known as good, and good known as evil. Coultor's whorist ramblings have nothing to do with Christianity.

And we'll torture you.



"Oh, please don't kill me."

Smirk.

Smirk.

Smirk.

I am beginning to believe it is all going to come out. The tap has been turned on and they can't shut it off.

"Hilas also said he witnessed an Army translator having sex with a boy at the prison. He said the boy was between 15 and 18 years old. Someone hung sheets to block the view, but Hilas said he heard the boy's screams and climbed a door to get a better look. Hilas said he watched the assault and told investigators that it was documented by a female soldier taking pictures"

"Do you pray to Allah?" one asked. "I said yes. They said, ' you. And him.' One of them said, 'You are not getting out of here health, you are getting out of here handicapped. And he said to me, 'Are you married?' I said, 'Yes.' They said, 'If your wife saw you like this, she will be disappointed.' One of them said, 'But if I saw her now she would not be disappointed now because I would rape her.' "

This is unbelievable

I was born in 1960. I have felt horror at the behavior of my country men and women at times in my life, but this is the worst moment I have ever experienced.

At this moment I am ashamed and horrified to be an American.

:shrug:

Me? I feel like puking.

Inhofe is a Motherfucker....sorry...I couldn't think of any other word...What a contrast - Nancy Pelosi to Inhofe...

:puke: I am so nauseated by all this and you realize, we still haven't seen the worst...

He said the soldiers told him that if he cooperated with interrogators they would release him in time for Ramadan. He said he did, but still was not released. He said one soldier continued to abuse him by striking his broken leg and ordered him to curse Islam. "Because they started to hit my broken leg, I curse my religion," he said. "They ordered me to thank Jesus I'm alive."

The detainee said the soldiers handcuffed him to a bed.

"Do you believe in anything?" he said the soldier asked. "I said to him, 'I believe in Allah.' So he said, "But I believe in torture and I will torture you.' "

------snip------

Sounds like the crew at Free Republic. Disgusting.

REAL PEOPLE! These are REAL PEOPLE with lives, and homes, and cares, just like you! JUST LIKE YOU!. What kind of fucking Nazi dehumanization is going on? What the fuck is this!?!

I'm sorry... but the multiple claims of rape by glowstick, while being held down, a sheet held up to guard your "privacy..." Screams heard throughout the prison. Father and son, in a cell, stripped naked, ashamed...

What in the living hell...? What kind of nightmare horror show is unfolding before my eyes?

Bush's world and new tone he set for the treatment of evil-doers. It is sick beyond belief.

before I felt dizzy,...seriously faint.

No wonder "they" are so desperate to cover all this up.

We look like monsters.

Horrible. Horrible shit.

The freakin' neoconfascists have brought hell to this earth.

Oh, God.

and today I'm truly ashamed to be an American for the first time. These bastards have taken our country.

No need to route people to Drudge.

:mad:

What's up with this dude?

Bush set the tone for this. Repukes should hide their heads in shame for putting this guy in office. I am so glad I didn't vote for that ass!

They are blabbering about phony newsmax polls.

Creeps.

things like this. Unless it's to pout about the liberal evil America hating media, and how they're making up these lies so we'll lose the war. Freepers are too busy fantasizing about all the country clubs and ice cream parlors in Iraq, and wondering when everyone else will realize that "liberated" Iraq is a garden spot, and not a dangerous hell hole like the liberal media keeps telling us.

I am completely stunned by the article and photographs.

This is what our nation has come to stand for?

Remember how, those of us who marched against this War, cried out "Not in Our Name"?

Look at what has been done by George Bush in America's name.

Too sad to be angry and too angry to be sad.

We all need to see what was done in our name.

I'm thoroughly and totally ashamed of our country. Ashamed we have people in the administration who not only set the stage and rules for it, but we also have people in congress who are condoning it by saying "we don't have time to spend with this". Don't they have any brains??? This is even more important than handing over the government to the Iraqis..it will not work until this is settled. We can't "Pontius Pilate" this.

Congress has not done its job. This administration has been allowed to work in secret for almost 4 years.

americans have short memories and will always "rally" round the president, even if he is an idiot and starts war based upon lies.

It is disturbing to hear but I am glad the information is coming out. Meanwhile Bushco is more interested in covering up these atrocities than actually dealing with the problem. It is completely unacceptable for the US military to become nothing more than brutal, hateful thugs. But with a CiC who is nothing more than a brutal, hateful, thug, what else can we expect?

...about the amount of time he has had to spend dealing with this issue. He back-pedaled a bit near the end of his rant and said that he dealt with the issue because it was an issue that needed to be dealt with, but the tone was essentially that his services were needed on more pressing matters.

That, of course, was before the latest batch of photos was released.

My apologies, I can't find a link for this...if I do, I'll update my post later.

Fuck his "flexibility" re: Geneva conventions.

Fuck Miller, Wolfowitz, Fast, Cambone, Boykin, Sanchez, Abizaid, All the creeps down the line to Graner/England/etc.

No wonder they don't want to be eligible for war crimes! That's what they're doing!

Limbaugh is probably licking pills off his oily palm after masturbating to these new horrors...

position (2nd photo of the 6) is wearing red bikini underwear (possibly women's, but very likely *not* a typical Iraqi man's undergarment) I also read somewhere that they made some of them wear sanitary pads.

Sick fuckers.

...by an army translator...

excerpt from Washington Post:

"Hilas also said he witnessed an Army translator having sex with a boy at the prison. He said the boy was between 15 and 18 years old. Someone hung sheets to block the view, but Hilas said he heard the boy's screams and climbed a door to get a better look. Hilas said he watched the assault and told investigators that it was documented by a female soldier taking pictures"

Wonder if Inhofe and the rest of Congress got to see those yet...I personally think the whole world needs to see the truth, just like the world needed to see the holocaust photos of what the nazis did and to "never forget"....

I just never thought it would be my country doing those things to people....

I am so ashamed of my country....Bush and the Repukes have soiled this Nation....

I have read that many Iraqis want the perps of these prison camps beheaded in public. If any of these people were tried by an Iraqi court I think that's what would happen.

Bushco, the Military, CIA and Congress are doing everything they can to bury the real story of their torture prisons in Iraq, GETMO and Afghanistan. I truely believe that all of this was sanctioned by the whole lot of them.

that the higher-ups know and sanction all of this. It must be why * doesn't want to recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

I'm an American woman whose father was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force. I was always proud of my father and always thought we were the good guys. If I feel this much horror, disgust, and hatred, can you imagine how people in other countries must feel?

More than ever, I don't want my son to be drafted. I don't have a problem with the people of Iraq, but I don't want my son exposed to the Lyndie Englands of the world.

when they return.

I don't doubt some of them may be sick people who enjoy what they
are doing, but others are probably normal men and women who are
being brutalized by this experience. This is what happened to
many ordinary young German soldiers, and it happened again in
Vietnam, when regular people were forced to take part in horrors.

They come home, and they're never quite right again.

Bush's secret torture chambers.

And I stick to my sixth sense feeling, Bush was watching these tortures via live Web/satellite feeds.

24 hour live streaming video to the Intel agencies and possibly to the Pentagon.

Additionally, interrogrations are routinely filmed to be used for training purposes later. All films are classified as are all the interrogation courses, the more advanced the courses, the more classified they are.

People knew but just like the Nazis, now that they're caught and what was their proud work "for their country" is now being thrust in their face as their shame in front of the world, they're all running around wailing that they didn't know. Didn't see any smokestacks and didn't see any videos/photos.

A whole bunch of people following orders and nobody giving them.

Can't wait to see what comes out of that Top Secret Baghdad Prison run by Delta Force because those guys have absolutely NO moral limits.

===

New front in Iraq detainee abuse scandal?
NBC News exclusive: Delta Force subject of investigation; Pentagon official denies abuse
By Campbell Brown
Correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 8:10 p.m. ET May 20, 2004

BAGHDAD - With attention focused on the seven soldiers charged with abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, U.S. military and intelligence officials familiar with the situation tell NBC News the Army’s elite Delta Force is now the subject of a Pentagon inspector general investigation into abuse against detainees.

The target is a top-secret site near Baghdad’s airport. The battlefield interrogation facility known as the “BIF” is pictured in satellite photos.

According to two top U.S. government sources, it is the scene of the most egregious violations of the Geneva Conventions in all of Iraq’s prisons. A place where the normal rules of interrogation don’t apply, Delta Force’s BIF only holds Iraqi insurgents and suspected terrorists — but not the most wanted among Saddam’s lieutenants pictured on the deck of cards.

<snip>

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5024068



Satellite photo of Baghdad airport where the top-secret BIF is located. (China Daily/Digital Globe)

<snip>
But as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has made clear, the Geneva Conventions do apply in Iraq.

“Iraq's a nation. The United States is a nation. The Geneva Conventions applied. They have applied every single day from the outset," Rumsfeld has said.

So, does Rumfeld know about the BIF and what goes on there?

Several top U.S. military and intelligence sources say yes, and that he, through other top Pentagon officials, directed the U.S. head of intelligence in Iraq, Gen. Barbara Fast, and others to bring some of the methods used at the BIF to prisons like Abu Ghraib, in hopes of getting better intelligence from Iraqi detainees.



The Pentagon's top spokesman in Iraq says the military will not comment on the BIF or what goes on there. He was unwilling to even confirm or deny its existence. Gen. Fast declined our request for an interview due to the ongoing prison abuse investigation, one that has so far yielded charges against only the military's lowest ranks.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-05/21/content_1482498.htm

GENERAL BARBARA FAST! THAT'S THE WOMAN I WANT TO SEE DRAGGED IN FRONT OF A WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL. HER, SANCHEZ, MILLER, ABIZAID, RUMSFELD, BUSH- the lot of them.


Plenty about her complicity in this torture scandal here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=543196

Our "values" (meaning you think like us or you are dead)wont work anymore after these torture scenes. Spreading democracy is another which no longer works after the gestapo thugs ransacked Chalabi's house.

What blows my mind the most is that there are still many people out there who think they get what they deserve. How can ANYONE look at these pictures and not get sick?

thousands would go help Rape the IRAQI BOY because he is a RAGHEAD

America must get it's priorities in order. Clinton Got a Blowjob repeat after me ~ Clinton Got a Blowjob ~ Clinton got a Blowjob ~ Clinton got a Blowjob.