The discoveries have fueled accusations by Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority that Iraq's new Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry forces have engaged in kidnappings, killings, torture and unwarranted detentions.

After last month’s revelations of torture in Iraqi prisons, Interior Minister Bayan Jabr claimed the reports were exaggerated. Not so.

The latest cases of abuse appeared more severe than those of beaten, emaciated prisoners found in the basement of another Baghdad Interior Ministry facility last month.

Iraq’s Interior Ministry will continue to deny that torture is widespread, but there are more than a thousand prisons in Iraq, and evidence to date suggests that torture is widespread.

In Baghdad, Saleh Mutlak, a Sunni politician, said Monday that torture was common in Iraq's prisons. "The problem is that people think this is the only one, that it's a surprise thing for the government," he said. "Any prison now in Iraq you will find the same."

Those who are being tortured are unlikely to agree that life in Iraq is any better now than it was under Saddam Hussein, President Bush’s assurances to the contrary notwithstanding.