HRW report on Iraqi torture: what the MSM isn't telling you

HRW report on Iraqi torture: what the MSM isn't telling you
Tue Jan 25th, 2005 at 08:35:11 PST

First, the Reuters report via Yahoo:

Iraqi authorities routinely torture prisoners, a leading human rights group said on Tuesday, citing examples of abuse which will sound all too familiar to those who suffered under Saddam Hussein. Prisoners have been beaten with cables and hose pipes, and suffered electric shocks to their earlobes and genitals, the U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch said. Some have been starved of food and water and crammed into standing-room only cells.

As many people have said, remind me exactly why the U.S. invaded Iraq again? Except for the sole benefit of having Saddam Hussein, the individual, and his two sons removed from power, it seems little has changed. Iraq of course still has the same number of WMDs today as it did in 2003.

Saddam Hussein was a terrible man but it took a whole cadre of people to execute his orders, people who have been returned to power, including in the police and security departments. So now HRW is reporting that Saddam-like behavior has continued... who could've foreseen it?

And of course let's not forget the interim "president" of Iraq, Iyad Allawi, is a former Saddam cadre who seems to be running the place just like Saddam did using a combination of brutal violence and awarding favors to loyal sheikhs. Great...

But back to the HRW report, it's even worse than the Reuters article suggests. Here is the link to the entire thing but I want to focus on the section dealing with the "Major Crime" division. As many of you know, I spent many years working for an American "Major Crime" division but I can promise you we never acted like this:

At least twenty detainees seen by Human Rights Watch in the Major Crimes Room were blindfolded, and remained so until police led them before the investigative judge's door, and removed the blindfolds. Police officials assigned to the court told Human Rights Watch that this was to prevent suspected members of criminal gangs from identifying the officers responsible for their arrest and to protect them from retaliatory attacks in the future. In two such cases, the detainees were allowed to remove the blindfolds prior to being interviewed by Human Rights Watch, provided they remained facing the wall. They said that the police had blindfolded them continuously since their arrest several days earlier.

The majority of the detainees to whom Human Rights Watch spoke said that torture and ill-treatment under interrogation was routine. Some also said that the police also used violence against them at the time of arrest. The accounts of their treatment at the hands of the police were consistent to a high degree. Typically, detainees reported being blindfolded with their hands tied behind their back while undergoing interrogation. They said their interrogators or guards kicked, slapped and punched them, and beat them all over the body using hosepipes, wooden sticks, iron rods, and cables. Some of them bore visible traces of external trauma to the head, neck, arms, legs, and back when examined by Human Rights Watch. These traces appeared consistent with their accounts of having been repeatedly beaten. Several bore fresh bruises and lacerations, while others had scarring that appeared recent. In some cases, detainees also reported that their interrogators had subjected them to electric shocks, most commonly by having electric wires attached to their ears or genitals.

One detainee who was tried on an abduction charge and acquitted showed Human Rights Watch his dislocated shoulder, consistent with his account of interrogators suspending him for prolonged periods from a door handle by his hands, which they tied together behind his back.102 Another detainee, one of five people brought to court on a murder charge, appeared unable to walk unassisted. Two of his co-defendants brought him to the door of the holding cell at the Central Criminal Court, where Human Rights Watch spoke to him. He said he had sustained a strong blow to the head while being held at al-Bayya' police station following his arrest on August 13, 2003, affecting his central nervous system. He had lost partial use of his legs, and his speech was partially impaired. He said detaining officials took him to the Neurosurgical Center Hospital in the Bab al-Shaikh district of Baghdad on one occasion. He also showed Human Rights Watch a broken front tooth, which he said had resulted from a punch in the face.

The majority of detainees held in the custody of the Criminal Intelligence Directorate and the Major Crimes Directorate spoke of dire conditions of detention when interviewed by Human Rights Watch. In particular, they complained of severe overcrowding with no room to lie down to sleep at night. Some detainees said they took turns sleeping, while others said they sometimes slept while standing, as there was standing room only in the cell. Not surprisingly, under such conditions, hygiene was extremely poor - as attested by the physical appearance of most detainees Human Rights Watch saw in court. Such detainees complained of lack of washing and toilet facilities, a constant and overpowering stench of urine in the cells, and lack of basic medical care, including for a range of skin afflictions such as lice. Another complaint was lack of food or water. Most detainees reported that police officials in charge of these detention facilities rarely provided food, which detainees had to buy themselves if they happened to be carrying cash when arrested and if police did not take this money from them upon searching them.

So we've got overcrowding, clear and consistent reports of torture and the fact that prisoners are blindfolded or otherwise prevented from seeing the identity of the officers who arrested them.

On top of that, the Major Crimes division isn't even doing a good job of actually arresting real criminals:

Starting in late June 2004 the Iraqi Interim Government carried out several large-scale and high-profile raids on districts of Baghdad said to be strongholds of a number of organized criminal gangs. This report highlights two such raids conducted in late June and early July 2004 by Ministry of Interior personnel, with backup provided by Multinational Force personnel. Immediately after the raids, Ministry of Interior officials publicly claimed that they had broken up a number of criminal gangs as a result, and that they had carried out the arrests on the basis of good intelligence and weeks of surveillance of the targeted suspects. They invited selected international, local, and Arab journalists to photograph the detainees and observe them being interrogated, portraying the raid as a successful police operation. Local newspapers amply covered the raids in the ensuing days, creating the impression that the Iraqi authorities were making significant inroads in their fight against organized crime. In both examples detailed below, the police released the majority of the suspects within a day or two after the raids, though that received little press attention. Human Rights Watch followed the remaining cases through the court system, and found that in many of those, investigative judges ordered the suspects released because of insufficient evidence once they were brought before them. The police appear to have arrested a large number of them randomly during the operations, either because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or on the basis of unverified tip-offs from locals. By the time of the release of these detainees, the police had held them for weeks or months without bringing them to court, and in some cases certainly tortured or otherwise ill-treated them.

While Americans and other outsiders are clearly focused on the insurgents/resistance fighters/dead-enders/terrorists (whatever the name is), the average Iraqi is probably more affected by regular "street crime" including kidnappings and robberies. Yet the above paragraph shows that not only are the Iraqi police using torture, they're not even making valid arrests. They are failing the first job of all law enforcement divisions which is to provide public order. They're just rounding up people essentially for the "PR value" of having people in handcuffs on the news and then letting them go. The HRW report lists other incidents of a similar nature as well.

But yet it gets even worse. As mentioned in the above excerpt, these raids and other actions by the Iraqi police are backed up by "coalition" or "99.4% American" forces as I like to call them.

So are the "coalition" troops unaware of what the Iraqi police force are doing?

By mid-September 2004, the Multinational Force deployed 465 international police advisers, most from the United States, in thirty-seven locations across Iraq, with their numbers set to rise to 500 in the near future. With regard to their role in the monitoring of possible abuse of detainees by police officers, Brigadier General Mackay told Human Rights Watch:

It is their job to enter police stations and advise and check on detainees. They have discovered instances in police stations where detainees were clearly beaten up. In such situations, they prepare a report, with photographs where possible, and present it to the police chief to determine why this is so. I have not personally kept records of where this has happened. These cases emerge depending on the reaction of the international police advisers where they feel strongly about it. No one underestimates the difficulties we are facing, and the situation is exacerbated by a brutal insurgency campaign, which has to be beaten in order to bring stability to the country.

General Mackay used some extremely poor judgment in his choice of words. Nonetheless you can see that he establishes that the "coalition" forces are mandated to supervise the Iraqis and make sure they do not mistreat prisoners, although he has no records of where they've ever done it.

But wait, it gets even worse:

Human Rights Watch believes that the system currently in place for the reporting of police abuses remains woefully inadequate and is given low priority, judging by the apparent lack of follow-up and even knowledge of such abuses. Among the locations where international police advisers are deployed is the Major Crimes Directorate facility in al-`Amiriyya, where many of the allegations of torture or ill-treatment of detainees received by Human Rights Watch emanated. Brigadier General Mackay told Human Rights Watch that none of the international police advisers "had alerted me to any prisoner abuse" there. Yet one of investigative judges at the Central Criminal Court, who visited the al-`Amiriyya facility on a number of occasions, said he had fully apprised the chief police adviser there of the detainee abuse taking place, but that the adviser apparently took no action. With regard to torture allegations emanating from the Criminal Intelligence Directorate, Brigadier General Mackay said that to his knowledge, there were no advisers placed within the intelligence agencies. Human Rights Watch also raised with him the issue of general conditions of detention in such facilities, giving as one of several examples the failure to provide food to the detainees, who were obliged to buy their own. "I won't deny that this is occurring. Until we get proper security and stability to the country, we cannot tackle that issue," he responded.

Two Iraqi police officials attached to the Major Crimes Directorate, to whom Human Rights Watch spoke on a confidential basis in August and September 2004, freely admitted that Iraqi police used torture to extract information from detainees under interrogation. One said that until such time as adequate means for "normal criminal investigation" became available, including having a sufficient number of cells to hold suspects in the same case separately so that they did not concoct a story together, torture will continue to be used as the only sure means to obtain the necessary information from detainees. He commented that the presence of international police advisers had not changed anything: "We were using these interrogation methods long before the Americans came, and we will continue to use them long after the Americans are gone."

This whole thing is sick. It's sick that many of the same Iraqi thugs and henchman that Saddam Hussein used were re-hired and are back in their old jobs where it's business as usual. It's sick that all of this was done with the tacit approval of both American and Iraqi commanders.

It's even sicker that the people supposed to be watching to prevent this kind of thing, the "coalition" or "99.4% American" forces, aren't even doing that job either. And then General McKay, when confronted with this information, says essentially "oh well, we've got other fish to fry".

McKay is describing something not even Joseph Heller, god bless his soul, could ever imagine: the "coalition" is focused on providing "proper security and stability" to a country at a time when the same thugs that terrorized the country are in power, the police are mistreating and further alienating the people, the jails are overcrowded hellholes, torture is used - and all of this is going on and the Iraqi police can't even catch real criminals! It might occur to General McKay and his superiors in Washington one day that the innocent people being herded through these urine-soaked jails and being tortured might be returning to the streets to add to that insecurity and instability.

Saddam Hussein's goons used torture but they also provided public order. It sounds like I'm defending Saddam here but I'm not. As horrific and atrocious as his methods were, Iraq was not a country teeming with "street crime" such as kidnapping, robberies, prostitution, carjackings and drug trafficking. Under Allawi/Coalition, they're employing the same sadistic methods as Saddam Hussein without the corresponding "benefit" of providing public order.

Another horrific excerpt:

When Human Rights Watch gave examples of the instances of torture and ill-treatment it had recorded with regard to detainees held at the Major Crimes Directorate facility in al-`Amiriyya, one adviser replied that international advisers at the detention facility "don't meet with the detainees, and therefore don't see any abuse." Detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch confirmed the absence of direct contact between them and advisers. When asked, none said they had had any such contact, which the organization believes raises questions about the effectiveness of the role of advisers aiming, according to their own statements, to bring law enforcement in Iraq up to standards that comply with international human rights protections.

As bad as the Abu Ghraib Graner/Englund/etc abuse was, this seems to be far worse because it is all going on under American supervision and is not just "a few bad apples". Let me say this again: the world considers that what Iraqi officials do is de facto being done by America too.

I remind you once again that this report is talking about Iraqi police abuse of "criminal" prisoners not insurgents/terrorists/resistance fighters.

A very tragic coda to the HRW report:

During the course of its research for this report, Human Rights Watch was hard pressed to find evidence suggesting that Iraqi officials had conducted serious investigations into the abuse of detainees by the police, taken adequate disciplinary action or criminal proceedings against those found guilty of such abuse, or appropriately conveyed that message to act as a deterrent for others.

There was only one positive note in the entire report for the conduct of the American troops, which was well-documented on the internet but given short shrift on the mainstream media. I am referring to the outstanding conduct of the Oregon Army National Guard's 2nd Battallion, 162nd Infantry regiment:

On June 29, the third day after the police carried out the arrests, U.S. soldiers from an Oregon Army National Guard unit on patrol in the area close to the Ministry of Interior's compound witnessed Iraqi police abusing the detainees and made a decision to intervene. It was the only known case in which U.S. forces intervened to stop detainee abuse following the official transfer of sovereignty from the CPA to the Iraqi Interim Government. One of the battalion's scouts took photographs of the scene through his rifle scope, showing at least two dozen detainees sitting on the ground, with their hands tied behind their back and blindfolded. Several of them were semi-clad, bearing what appeared to be "fresh welts and bruises" on their backs and legs. One was thought to be aged fourteen.

The following is an extract from a written account made available to Human Rights Watch by Captain Jarrell Southall, a U.S. soldier serving with the Oregon Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry Regiment, of what he witnessed on that day:

As we entered the compound basically un-challenged I could see apparent prisoners bound by nylon ropes and rags. The prisoners were mostly all sitting, some writhing in pain as we approached the questioning or holding area. This holding area was completely outdoors and there was a desk with an IP [Iraqi Police] sitting by the desk overlooking this holding area. The prisoners tried to explain that they have had very little water and no food for three days. Many of these prisoners had bruises and cuts and belt or hose marks all over ...

We passed out water bottles to them and staged the prisoners near the back wall of this compound to relieve them from direct sunlight. At the same time CPT [Captain] Seth Morgulas, an Armor Officer, who is assigned as a company commander of a MP [Military Police] company, arrived and commenced to disarm and segregate the Iraqi Policemen.

According to Captain Southall's account, his battalion commander, Lt. Colonel Hendrickson, then asked to speak to the person in charge. One Iraqi official told him "that there was no prisoner abuse and that everything was under control and they were trying to conduct about 150 investigations as soon as possible." Another Iraqi police official "made sure to place blame for any misdoings to those who worked inside this facility. Whereas, he was only in charge of the `outer security'!":

All the while soldiers were applying aid to those prisoners who seemed that they would expire and started distributing water to those in need and carting the non-ambulatory patients away by stretcher. I witnessed prisoners who were barely able to walk and many of those wore soiled clothes.

Upon searching the premises, U.S. soldiers found some seventy-eight other detainees in a room measuring about 20 x 20 sq. feet. Captain Southall said most were Sudanese, arrested "because they had no identification." According to his account:

When we entered the office space adjacent to the crowded room there were several men in civilian clothes sitting around a conference room table. There was a tightly bound and gagged prisoner crumpled at the foot of these men sitting around this conference table smoking cigarettes... This room was heavily air-conditioned, which was a stark contrast to the rooms that contained prisoners. The IPs told me that these prisoners were all dangerous criminals and most were thieves, users of marijuana, and other types of bad people. No IPs there admitted to beating or abusing the prisoners. However, the abuse and neglect was quite apparent. As we traveled from room to room prisoners were bound, blinded, and gagged. Many had terrible bruises and burns. One room contained hoses, broken lamps (electric shock), and chemicals of some variety.

Accounts by other U.S. soldiers who were present at the Ministry of Interior compound at the time have since been made public. They included that of Staff Sergeant Kevin Maries who, according to The Oregonian:

reported that one prisoner lying facedown on the ground was struck repeatedly on the back with a rubber hose. Later, Marines watched another extended beating of a prisoner and took pictures through his spotting scope. A uniformed Iraqi policeman and civilian delivered a beating that was "more vicious and prolonged than previously observed," Maries' statement said. At one point, the prisoner's bare feet were tied to a bar and elevated, and the guards beat his bare feet with a rubber hose.

According to press reports based on interviews with several of the U.S. soldiers on the scene, Lieutenant Colonel Dan Hendrickson, the battalion commander, then "radioed up the chain of command in the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, relaying what he had seen and asking for instructions ... It wasn't long before the order came: Stand Down. Return the prisoners to the Iraqi authorities and leave the detention yard."

Pictures of what those Oregonian soldiers saw that day can be found here but I warn you that some of them are quite disgusting and graphic. They include the picture of a young boy (minus a shirt) who is being held prisoner with adults in those squalid conditions.

I am reminded once again of my article Why I Write in which I contrasted how the State Department and Bush administration regularly label themselves as being in the "forefront of the defense and promotion of human rights" around the world. Clearly this is not so and the HRW report issued today further confirms this.

I know in my heart that most Americans would never support these kinds of actions, all being done in our name. It's time for the people to speak up and make their leaders know that this is not the American way, this is not what our values are about and that we will not stand for it for even one more day.

This is cross-posted from my blog, where you are humbly invited to visit

Pax