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| Iraq | |||
| Iraqi details harsh treatment by U.S. interrogators | |||
| 2003-07-01 | |||
| An Iraqi businessman detained during a raid on his home says U.S. interrogators deprived him of sleep, forced him to kneel naked and kept him bound hand and foot with a bag over his head for eight days. Boo friggin' hoo, as somebody once said Khraisan al-Abally's story, told to an Associated Press correspondent, comes as an Amnesty International report released Monday harshly criticizes American interrogation techniques. A U.S. Army officer confirmed receiving a complaint from al-Abally, but coalition officials declined to discuss his account. The activist group Human Rights Watch said it was trying to corroborate his story. Seeking to quell a burgeoning uprising, U.S. soldiers have detained hundreds of Iraqis some of whom have endured days of strenuous interrogations, rights groups say. AP journalists have observed prisoners wearing only underwear and blindfolds, handcuffed and lying in the dirt 24 hours after their capture. The same folks who are firing grenade launchers at us. Yaaawwwn.
And we believe everything he says. Sure. The three men were all low-level members of Saddam's Baath Party, but al-Douri was not a family acquaintance, Al-Abally said. All-rightee then. Thanks for your input.
And what would Saddam's folks have done to you if THEY thought you were a bad guy??? ''I thought I was going to lose my mind,'' said al-Abally, a burly man whose wrists are still scarred from plastic cuffs more than a month after his release. ''They said, 'I want you on your knees.' After three or four days it's very painful. My knees were bleeding and swollen.'' Waaah. The U.S. military said it could not comment on the raid or its methods of interrogation, saying only that its soldiers adhere to the rule of law. Military and intelligence officials have said sleep deprivation, shackling prisoners in uncomfortable positions and noise abuse are considered legal methods. Thank you. ''This is democracy?'' asked al-Abally, whose family operates a shipping business in Lebanon. ''No Iraqi would have thought the Americans were capable of this.'' When people kill us, shit happens. His interrogation came before a June 26 pledge by the Bush administration that U.S. officials would not use cruel treatment to gain information from detainees. Several human rights groups including London-based Amnesty International and New York-based Human Rights Watch argue that current U.S. interrogation methods violate the pledge. ''When you talk of up to eight days' sleep deprivation, especially with hands and feet bound, that's already entering the realm of ill treatment,'' said Johanna Bjorken, a Human Rights Watch researcher in Iraq. ''When you combine it with loud music, strobe lights and hooding, it's very possible you've inflicted cruel treatment, which is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.'' She said her group is investigating al-Abally's allegations to see if the interrogation techniques he described can be corroborated. A U.S. Army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S. interrogators routinely used strobe lights. Bjorken said a U.S. military criminal investigator in Baghdad told her that loud music and sleep deprivation were acceptable interrogation techniques. What else do they want us to do—give them milk and cookies so maybe they'll talk? sheesh Amnesty International's report said the U.S. military appeared to subject Iraqi detainees to treatment that violates international law. The group said it was investigating the U.S. military's three-week detention of an 11-year-old boy and an incident in which U.S. shooting during a riot by detainees killed one and wounded seven. Sorry, but I don't buy the "victim" story. I'll start feeling sorry for them when we begin pulling off their fingernails.
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| Posted by:TJ |