Wtf...?

[nexusgroove]

what the hell is going on over there. People going overboard in Iraq/Iran,that shit ain't cool.

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Military Plans Sharp Reductions In Iraqi Prison Population Amid Worldwide Outrage Over Prisoner Abuse

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The new commander of U.S.-run prisons in Iraq said Tuesday he would cut in half the number of Iraqis in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison and quash some interrogation techniques considered humiliating, such as hooding prisoners.

The announcement came as Iraqis freed from coalition jails -- emboldened by photographs of abused prisoners -- stepped forward with new allegations of beatings, sleep deprivation and hours spent hooded and kneeling before interrogators.

Reeling from such claims, the U.S. military said it was ordering troops to use blindfolds instead of hoods, and requiring interrogators to get permission before depriving inmates of sleep -- one of the most common techniques reported by freed Iraqis.

Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, former commander of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, said his changes to interrogation techniques were aimed at getting "the maximum amount of intelligence" while treating prisoners in a humane manner. He said he would cut the number of inmates at Abu Ghraib to fewer than 2,000 from the current 3,800.

The U.S.-led coalition has about a dozen prisons around Iraq holding a total of 7,000 to 8,000 inmates. The Saddam Hussein-era Abu Ghraib, on the western edge of Baghdad, is at the center of reports that American guards abused Iraqi prisoners. Some officials have warned the prison is overcrowded.

Over the summer, Miller led a team of 30 specialists who investigated -- and changed -- interrogation methods used in U.S.-run prisons here.

One former prisoner, Muwaffaq Abbas, on Tuesday displayed scarred wrists, black eyes and a jagged gouge on his eyebrow that he said came from nine days in a U.S. lockup. Abbas, like many other former prisoners, said he was prevented from sleeping by booming rap music and sadistic guards.

"Sometimes we fell asleep despite the loud music. The soldier would put a bullhorn next to my ear and scream," said Abbas, a Baghdad lawyer arrested at his home in March along with five relatives. Abbas said he was asked a range of questions, including the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and whether he gave money to anti-U.S. guerrillas, which he denied.

Miller's investigation at Abu Ghraib is one of three ordered by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, in response to alleged abuses by U.S. Military Police, their commanders and interrogators. Six soldiers have been charged and six more received stiff reprimands.

The Army said 20 investigations into prisoner deaths and assaults were under way in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Miller took over as head of the prison last month after the previous chief, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, was suspended amid investigations into the claims of abuse.

An Iraqi human rights official, Mohammed al-Musawi, said he doesn't trust the U.S. military to police its own conduct.

His group, the Human Rights Organization in Iraq, demanded that its investigators and other rights advocates be allowed to visit Iraqi prisoners. Al-Musawi said U.S. soldiers who violate international human rights law should be handed over to Iraqi courts.

Although the military has been loath to discuss the methods it uses to convince -- or coerce -- prisoners to divulge information, a pattern of techniques has emerged from about 100 former Iraqi prisoners who spoke to al-Musawi's group.

Based on their descriptions, the military's chief aim appears to be to humiliate prisoners or make them physically uncomfortable in order to get information.

Methods allegedly include jolts from cattle prods or stun guns, described to al-Musawi by at least 10 Iraqi prisoners as "electric sticks." Beatings during arrest and interrogation were said to be routine.

Ex-prisoners said they were hooded for days and made to stand or sit in uncomfortable positions for hours or days. Some were left in the cold or sitting in the scorching sun.

Miller said U.S. interrogators are prohibited from hitting or even touching prisoners.

"There are interrogation techniques that increase anxiety," he said. "There is aggressive conversation, but we do not threaten. That is not something we do. There is no physical contact between the detainees authorized and the interrogator."

Many Iraqi prisoners retain permanent signs of their detention in the thin, shiny scars on their wrists from soldiers' sharp plastic cuffs. Ex-prisoners told al-Musawi and The Associated Press that their wrists were cuffed behind their backs for days. Al-Musawi said prisoners reported soiling themselves because they were unable to remove their trousers or clean themselves after urinating or defecating.

In Baghdad last summer, an AP reporter observed prisoners wearing only underwear and blindfolds, handcuffed and lying in the dirt 24 hours after their capture during a raid on a Sunni neighborhood.

An Amnesty International researcher told AP last year that a U.S. military investigator in Baghdad said loud music and sleep deprivation were acceptable interrogation techniques. A U.S. Army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AP that U.S. interrogators routinely used strobe lights.

Former prisoner Bashar al-Baldawi, 33, told AP his interrogators kept him awake for five or six days at a time. He said he was hooded for 11 days.

"One day I fell asleep because I was so tired and an American soldier opened my mouth and put Tabasco sauce in it," al-Baldawi told AP.

Another ex-prisoner, Khraisan al-Abally, told AP last year that 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.

"I thought I was going to lose my mind," al-Abally said. "They said, 'I want you on your knees.' After three or four days it's very painful. My knees were bleeding and swollen."

Some, like the Abu Ghraib prisoners seen in the infamous photos, were forced to strip naked. Suhaib al-Baz, 24, a cameraman for the Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera, said he was stripped, beaten, spat upon and deprived of sleep during his 74-day stint in Army custody.

Al-Baz said soldiers took "torture shots" with personal cameras. In one case, Al-Baz said he saw a soldier's computer screen saver showing a photograph of a hooded, handcuffed prisoner being attacked by a dog.

Iraq's U.S.-appointed human rights minister, Abdul-Basat al-Turki, said he had resigned to protest the alleged abuses, and the interior minister demanded that Iraqi officials be allowed to help run the prisons.

Some of the techniques cited by Iraqis are similar to those described by Palestinians interrogated by the Israeli military and Irish Catholic prisoners detained by British forces.

Britain put a stop to such procedures after a European court in 1982 found they violated human rights law; Israel scaled back its use of torture after its supreme court in 1999 banned the practice except in extreme situations.

However, U.S. interrogation techniques seem to have stiffened after the Sept. 11 attacks. A former CIA official, Cofer Black, told a U.S. Senate hearing in 2002 that "after 9/11, the gloves came off." (AP)

[Candy]

Had to be the Army

CUT 'EM ALL!!

[funketeer]

abusing prisoners of war is fucked up, if this shit is indeed true...how the fuck do they want to have us believe the american and british soldiers that supposedly did it, didn't know the geneva convention treatee...what does the government think we are...stupid ignorant overweight pot smokers?...no sir!

[funketeer]

Here I come to save the day!!!

[djkable]

...said he was prevented from sleeping by booming rap music...

TORTURE!!!

but in all seriousness.....this is fucked up.

stupidstupidstupidstupid.

further securing the fact that we don't have a leg to stand on with what the rest of the world thinks of us....

[majinbuu]

its even worse that these dunbasses took pictures...

[Candy]

its even worse that these dunbasses took pictures...

:laugh:

[mdamon7278]

Let the prisoners listen to house music 24-7, thats some fockin torture!!!