Is Bush and Co any better than ...

all the other terrorists? This article made me wonder how anyone could vote for him now in any good conscience.


By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer

GENEVA - U.S. military personnel singled out senior officials of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime for special abuse in coalition prison, including solitary confinement for months on end, The Associated Press has learned.


The Iraqi officials were identified only as "high-value detainees" in a confidential report by the International Committee of the Red Cross.


The report did not specify who the detainees were, but an official who has discussed the document with ICRC officials told The Associated Press that they include many from the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s 55 most-wanted suspects in a "deck of cards" the U.S. military released during the war that ousted Saddam last year.


"Since June 2003 over a hundred 'high-value detainees' have been held for nearly 23 hours a day in strict solitary confinement in small concrete cells devoid of daylight," said the report, which was given to coalition forces in February.


"Their continued internment several months after their arrest in strict solitary confinement constituted a serious violation of the third and fourth Geneva Conventions," said the 24-page report, confirmed by the ICRC as authentic after it was published by The Wall Street Journal Monday.


ICRC officials refused to comment on the contents of the report or identify the prisoners, but the official who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity said that detainees being held at Baghdad International Airport include many of the 44 "deck of cards" suspects already captured.


It was not clear whether Saddam, who is the Ace of Spades in the "deck of cards," was himself at the airport, but the ICRC has disclosed that it visited him in coalition detention somewhere in Iraq (news - web sites) last month.


"This regime of complete isolation strictly prohibited any contact with other persons deprived of their liberty, guards, family members (except through Red Cross messages) and the rest of the outside world," the report said. "Even spouses and members of the same family were subject to this regime."


"High-value detainees" whose investigations were near an end were said to be allowed to exercise together outside the cells for 20 minutes twice a day or go to the showers or toilets together.


The ICRC report said the agency was told that in general that the prisoner abuse in Iraq by U.S. military personnel is "part of the process" during interrogation.


The report said ICRC delegates saw U.S. military intelligence officers mistreating prisoners under interrogation at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad and collected allegations of abuse at more than 10 other detention facilities, including the military intelligence section at Camp Cropper at the Baghdad airport and the Tikrit holding area.


The report cites abuses — some "tantamount to torture" — including brutality, hooding, humiliation and threats of "imminent execution."


"These methods of physical and psychological coercion were used by the military intelligence in a systematic way to gain confessions and extract information and other forms of cooperation from person who had been arrested in connection with suspected security offenses or deemed to have an 'intelligence value.'"


It said some coalition military intelligence officers estimated that "between 70 percent and 90 percent of the persons deprived of their liberty in Iraq had been arrested by mistake. They also attributed the brutality of some arrests to the lack of proper supervision of battle group units."


The agency said arrests allegedly tended to follow a pattern.


"Arresting authorities entered houses usually after dark, breaking down doors, waking up residents roughly, yelling orders, forcing family members into one room under military guard while searching the rest of the house and further breaking doors, cabinets and other property," the report said.
"Sometimes they arrested all adult males present in a house, including elderly, handicapped or sick people," it said. "Treatment often included pushing people around, insulting, taking aim with rifles, punching and kicking and striking with rifles."

The report also cited widespread abuse of power and ill-treatment by Iraqi law enforcement officers under the coalition, including extorting money from people in their custody by threatening to hand them over to coalition authorities. Under the Geneva Conventions, the coalition is responsible for the Iraqi officers' behavior, the report said.

U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) said the mistreatment "was the wrongdoing of a few," but the Red Cross report backs up with detail the neutral agency's contention that the abuse was broad and part of a system, "not individual acts."

"ICRC delegates directly witnessed and documented a variety of methods used to secure the cooperation of the persons deprived of their liberty with their interrogators," said the report. The delegates saw how detainees were kept "completely naked in totally empty concrete cells and in total darkness," the report said. "Upon witnessing such cases, the ICRC interrupted its visits and requested an explanation from the authorities," the report said. "The military intelligence officer in charge of the interrogation explained that this practice was 'part of the process.'"