"“We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried.” "


Chinese premier Wen Jiabao 12th March 2009


""We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we'd like to do our best to preserve that system."


Timothy Geithner US Secretary of the Treasury, previously President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.1/3/2009

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Iraqi prisons / Torture The tip of an iceberg

The Washington Post yesterday carried a report ...

Abuse Cited In 2nd Jail Operated by Iraqi Ministry

"Investigators said they found 625 prisoners at the center but declined to give details about them. Most of the detainees found at the secret prison last month were Sunni Arabs who had been picked up by forces of the Shiite Muslim-dominated Interior Ministry." (The BBC reports the bunker was beneath an interior ministry building)



.. and a little throwaway line finishes the article.

"Authorities have identified more than 1,000 detention centers across Iraq."

That's an awful lot of prisoners in Iraq.

Meanwhile Meanwhile Agence France Press report Major General Muntazar al-Samarrai saying that he witnessed horrific scenes of torture while he worked in Iraqi-run prisons. He showed the news agency videotapes recorded inside the prison. Men were seen with whip marks and acid burns. One prisoner had lost an eye. Another prisoner had nails driven into his body. The general said at least three people died as a result of torture at the prison, The general - who is a Sunni now living in Jordan - said the abuse is being carried out at nine secret prisons run by pro-Iranian Shiite militias who work for the Interior Ministry.

* Report RAND Corporation April 16th 2005 The police official in charge of the special forces of the security adviser at the Interior Ministry, Major General Muntazar Jasim al-Samarrai, survived an assassination attempt when gunmen opened fire on his car as he was on his way to the interior ministry. The attackers conducted their attack both from a car and a nearby house. Al-Samarrai's driver was injured in the attack as was one of his escorts. One attacker was wounded and arrested.

Recent blogs on same topic here

1 comment:

Adfero Affero said...

Like you folowing ll this with interest but who is gdoing what totyiring to whom for hat is so muddied we will never be able to tease this all out. For example, I feel we can be sure that sub-sections of torturing is actauly being done by Saddamites while possing as something else.
Add to this policemen who are affiliated to one or other "warlord2 or another and we have Afghan.

The trure inc. or course starts way back in Northern irleand and Vietnam. I did a bit of net research on this way back in baghdadskies (1 02 2 can't remeber) it was under the heading RSI (resistance to interrogation) and basically tried to show the methods the British used were borrowed (UK trained others) by the Americans
We have already forgotten the dirty war in S. America in the 70s/80s where even murdering nuns was seens as par for the course and did not cause much of a stir in the corridors of power in washington...)

(C) Very Seriously Disorganised Criminals 2002/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 - copy anything you wish