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More Incidents of Torture, No Accountability

By Jeralyn, Section War In Iraq
Posted on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 07:04:15 PM EST
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The ACLU finds even more documents referencing incidents of torture in which soldiers have not been held accountable for the abuse.

One set of documents released today by the ACLU includes multiple accounts of abuse at Al-Azimiyah Palace in Baghdad. In sworn statements, private contractors report having witnessed numerous instances of abuse of male and female detainees, including forced sodomy, electric shocks, cigarette burns and beatings. According to one statement, Al-Azimiyah Palace was the site of at least "about 90 incidents" of abuse.

These newest documents can be viewed here. Also, don't miss this Los Angeles Times article describing this incredible case:

In one of the more detailed cases, Iraqi security troops arrested several members of a family accused of supplying arms and money to members of the fedayeen, paramilitaries who had been allied with Hussein's regime. A woman whose name was blacked out from the documents claimed in interviews with U.S. Army investigators that the bloody, bruised body of her brother had been tossed into her cell on top of her sister. Her brother died shortly afterward, according to her account.

Another brother, who is disabled, said guards pulled him around by his penis. The guards forced a water bottle up his rectum, he told investigators.

We wrote about this family's ordeal here,, when the woman, Huda Alazawi, was interviewed by The Guardian after being released from the prison.

Also check out Tom Tomorrow on torture in This Modern World.

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    More Incidents of Torture, No Accountability | 3 comments (3 topical)
    Re: More Incidents of Torture, No Accountability (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 07:43:37 PM EST
    If it not reported its illegal, if it is reported it's legal, insane but its the law.

    Re: More Incidents of Torture, No Accountability (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 07:50:38 PM EST
    Explain this to us, Jim. It sounds bad. Yet, I know they never had it so good.

    Re: More Incidents of Torture, No Accountability (none / 0) (#3)
    by soccerdad on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 02:40:53 AM EST
    From the LA times article
    Responding to the latest allegations, U.S. military officials maintained that a few low-level troops had committed the abuses, independent of senior commanders
    "This so-called ill treatment and torture in detention centers, stories of which were spread everywhere among the people, and later by the prisoners who were freed . were not, as some assumed, inflicted methodically, but were excesses committed by individual prison guards, their deputies, and men who laid violent hands on the detainees.": Rudolf Hoess, the SS commandant at Auschwitz.

    More Incidents of Torture, No Accountability | 3 comments (3 topical)