The team had already recorded testimony from over 50 former detainees, detailing severe abuse, rape, torture, humiliation, and religious degradation allegedly committed throughout the network of US-run detention centers and prisons in Iraq. In August, Akeel and his investigative partner, Mohammed Alomari, also revealed what appears to be the systematic targeting of religious inmates, as well as the rape of a 15-year-old boy by his captors as late as July 2004.

After two more rounds of interviews with former detainees, one in October and another earlier this month, the team has at least doubled the number of abuse cases their office is officially handling. The growing chaos in Iraq kept Akeel’s team out of the country, so Iraqis were bussed into Jordan and put up in a hotel, giving them a brief respite from the war even as they were asked to show their prison-issued documentation, including release papers, and to tell their horrific stories.

The interviewees are released prisoners who were never charged with a crime.

"We’re only speaking with people who have been released. They were released without charges. They were held without charges," stressed Akeel. "One day you get a form -- your time is up and you’re served with a blanket release."

[hat tip to reader Jerry D.]