Torture in Iraq’s Government Prisons: “The Americans know what is going on"

by Karen Button

When new photographs emerged from Abu Ghraib last week, the US administration, in typical fashion, attempted to sidestep the situation by downplaying their importance. They claim, after all, that there is nothing new in the photographs (untrue, as some depict never-before-seen homicides and forms of sexual abuse) and that those responsible have already been punished. Instead of laying blame on the actions themselves and with the officials who approved them, they blame those who’ve released the photos, warning that their release will only fuel more violence, especially toward Americans.

The United States, it seems, is fond of telling other nations what is right or wrong, but refuses to hold itself to the same principles.

Case in point are the ongoing allegations that prisons run by the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior are torturing people. This information first came to light about two months ago, and at the prodding of US officials the Iraqi government has recently announced an investigation into the matter. But, what about the United States? The Bush administration has refused to conduct an investigation that would genuinely examine how far up the chain of command abuse was condoned in Abu Ghraib and other US-run prisons.

Yet, we ought not stop even there. The question should not end with how high the approval goes, but also to ask how broad. It’s no secret that the US is training Iraqi security forces. But, how much knowledge do US officials have about Iraqi-run prisons—especially those run by the Ministry of the Interior—and are they also condoning the torture there?

Jamal (not his real name) is an Iraqi journalist from Baquba. I met him while interviewing a friend of his, in part about reports of torture in the secret prisons run by Iraq’s Ministry of Interior; he had heard me ask his friend if he thought American forces were aware of these prisons and the torture being conducted there.

After the initial interview, Jamal pulled me aside, “I want to tell you a story. It is the story of my being detained. I don’t want to tell you this because I need you to know in what ways I was also beaten, but because I want to prove to you that the Americans know what is going on in these government prisons.”

On the 10th of June last year Ministry of Interior forces raided Jamal’s house at night. “There were six children sleeping in the house, yet they burst through the door with all their weapons out. They raided my house because I am a journalist and I had written a story about the religious sheikh, Khudhair A-Dulaimy, who was tortured and murdered in their prison in the Diyala Police building.

“The sheikh was tortured and beaten very badly each night. Finally, one night he vomited blood. Neither the Iraqi Police nor the American Army took him to the hospital and he died.”

Continuing with his own story, he says, “These people who came for me are very ignorant. I am only in the media, but when they saw my computer they said I was the head of terrorism. They investigated everyone in the house, even my three-year-old boy. They stole all my money and my gold; these are criminals wearing military uniforms.”

In Baquba, “there are two police stations run by two brothers. One is the Mafrak Police Station, where I was first taken. Colonel Waleed runs this one. The other is a federal police station run by Major Ali. This man is afraid of no one—he even detained the local judge. In fact the Major stole about $1 billion, it was even published in al-Basaer news.”

No one can touch him though, Jamal says, because, “he enjoys close relations with the Americans.”

“This federal camp where the sheikh was killed is about one square kilometer big.” Though is is an Iraqi prison, he explains “On each corner is a tower controlled by the Americans, and at the main entrance there is an American tank.

“In this main entrance is a large corridor that is used by both the Iraqis and the Americans,” he explains as he draws a map. “I was thrown in this corridor at 1p and was there until midnight. I was blindfolded, but it was later removed. I saw the Americans using this entrance.”

He points to rooms whose back walls are the common wall of this corridor. “In these rooms is where they torture people. I know because this is where they took me. I ended up in the same cell where sheikh Khudhair had been killed about three months before. Because many of the prisoners had been at least a year, they knew the sheikh and told me of his torture.

“Can you believe,” he asks, jabbing at the paper, “that with only one wall between them, the Americans wouldn’t hear the screaming?”

Jamal then relates a story that indicates American forces not only know of the torture, but at higher levels are condoning it.

“Witnesses have seen prisoners at Mafrak handcuffed behind their back, hung from a crane by their arms, then tortured. The officers do this at night when they are drunk—they call it a party—telling the prisoners to bark like a dog or bray like a donkey. One of these prisoners was called Mustafa. Colonel Waleed took Mustafa to the airport, where the Americans have a prison. From Mafrak, the prisoners can see the airport and the American tanks there. When they arrived, the American officer saw signs of abuse and asked Mustafa if he had been tortured. Colonel Waleed answered no, but Mustafa nodded his head. That same night an American came to Mafrak and found a person from Khalass City (about 10k from Baquba) hanging from a crane and took a picture of him. There was an investigation and the Americans kicked Colonel Waleed out. Yet because of the relationship he has with the Americans, he was back in three days.

“I have so many stories I could tell you,” he continues. “A sheikh from Balad Rooz, 40k east of Baquba, whose name I swore I wouldn’t reveal, told me this story. A Sunni man was arrested by the Iraqi Police (IP) and taken to this prison. He was accused of resisting the Americans. They tortured him for two days and couldn’t get any information from him, so they arrested his wife and brought her in. The sheikh was brought into the room and found both of them crying.”

At this point Jamal stops. “Please,” he said. “this is very bad. It would be very difficult to say this to you, as a woman. I will write it instead.”

He bends over a piece of paper and begins writing furiously. After he finishes the third page, he hands it to my friend to translate and looks away as she begins reading.

“The IP told the sheikh to have sex with the woman and left. The couple begged the sheikh, saying, ‘please our honor is in your hands.’ The sheikh answered, ‘Please, I won’t do anything against my belief and my religion.’

At this point, Jamal clarifies later, the couple did not know the man was a sheikh. “The IP returned to the room demanding to know if they’d had sex. When they answered no, he told the sheikh, ‘You have a beautiful wife. We will bring her if you don't have sex with this man’s wife and we will all rape her, in front of you.’

“Waleed then told the sheikh, who is Sunni, that his name should now be Haydir, which is a Shi’a name. ‘Because of this pressure,’ the sheikh told [Jamal], ‘I agreed to go into the next room where I found the wife naked and crying.’

“The sheikh asked the man, ‘is this your real wife?’ ‘Yes,’ the man answered. ‘Then we are in big trouble,’ said the sheikh. ‘They will perform some test to see if we’ve done this. Please, you two have sex and I won’t look. I’ll have sex with myself and in this way we can all save our honor.’

“It worked. Afterwards, the IP made the test and then the soldiers began dancing and singing, ‘Haydir did it, Haydir did it.’

“The next day the IP came and told the man to take his wife home. They still did not know this man was a religious sheikh. But, before he left, they told him, ‘the other man is a sheikh.’ Meaning that they were trying to get these two men to hate one another based on religious difference.

“Now I will tell you a Kurdish Peshmerga story from Al-Udhaim, about 90k north from Baquba. There used to be a camp there for the mujahadin group Halak. The Peshmerga captured a man from there; he used to be an officer in the Iraqi Army, but had become a merchant in order to survive after the war started. He was accused of fighting against the Shi’a in 1991, even though he graduated from the military in 1995.

“A number of us were together in what we called ‘the coffin room’ because they would come at 1am each night; we were very afraid wondering who would be tortured tonight. One night they brought in a man who was wearing only his underwear. We couldn’t tell the color of his skin due to the level of his torture. We were ordered not to talk with him. But after three days, he told us his story.

“The Peshmerga put a water pipe in his ass and then opened it. In this way it filled his body and then his chest. One of the prisoners was a nurse and told us, ‘he won’t live.’ And I don’t know what happened to this man because I left the prison.

Again he asks me, “With the Americans just on the other side of these walls, how could they not hear the screams?

“As you can see from these stories, the Americans clearly know what is going on in these prisons,” concludes Jamal.

“After thirteen days they released me. At the end of detention, if they can’t prove anything, they bring a list of four crimes and you are told to choose one.”

“What are the crimes?” I asked.

“Attacked an American convoy, these types of things,” he replies.

“And what did you choose?”

He just smiles sadly at me.