al-Marsad al-Iraqi website - Secret U.S. intelligence detention, in south of Baghdad
Former detainees released by the U.S. forces revealed that they spent about a month in a secret detention facility south of Baghdad run by U.S. intelligence. Their stories matched other detainees' held in another prison in Balad, north of Baghdad, during the same period, last year. A former detainee, who preferred to be identified as Abu Manal, who is a Shiite from southern Baghdad, revealed the process of being transferred to the above mentioned prison after U.S. forces captured him in a raid operation on his home village last year on charges of belonging to Jaish al-Mahdi (JAM). He said: "In the beginning, us four were blindfolded and handcuffed; we were transferred to a camp in al-A'dwaniya area, or Arab Jabour, inside a luxury house that belonged to one of Saddam's men before he fled to Syria. "The four of us plus others that were there, were crammed inside the pool of the house before we were taken in armored vehicles to a nearby camp, where we stayed for hours before we were all spread over Humvees. "We were then taken on a route through my village, as I was able to recognize it because of the guard in charge of watching me got busy flirting with his colleague in the car, I realized we were heading towards Babil province, south of Baghdad. "I spent two weeks in a U.S. forces camp, which was formerly used for transmitting an Iraqi television channel, before April 2003, in an area called al-Mashroua'a or Mashroua'a al-Musayab, 40 kilometers south of Baghdad. "I along with my friends were subjected to harsh rounds of interrogations, with the use of various kinds of psychological and physical tortures. We were thrown in low temperature cells in a severe situation, semi-naked, except for undershorts, with cameras set up in one corner of the cell to monitor our actions. "Throughout this time, we were prevented from sleeping while lying down, rather we were forced to sit cross-legged, and in any other position, we would be subjected to severe punishments, including simulated drowning in semi-frozen waters or severe beatings." Abu Manal described the detention center as: "A closed hall divided into three parts, of which the center part was the prison administration and bathrooms, and along its two sides were sets of cells, each of which consists of five partitions each one with five steel cells, which means 25 cells on each side, or 50 cells in each hall, where one inmate was to each cell. "The cells were like a metal box less than 2-meters in length, width and height, with one installed bed that rises about ½ a meter from the ground. "The cells did not include any furniture and the inmate served his time without a mattress or blanket and under 0-Celsius temperature." Abu Manal revealed the way he knew these details, was during interrogation by an intelligence officer, as he (detainee) mastered the English language, he stated: "A relationship with some kind of flexibility in dealing with me as a prisoner was formed, he tried to win my heart through some of the facilities provided for me, such as increasing the number of bathroom visits and not to be bothered by the guards; I exploited these facilitations as I started out of curiosity to get around inside the place, and just look around." Ahmad al-Shimmery, 27 years-old, who was detained at a location in Balad, north of Baghdad revealed to al-Hayat newspaper other types of torture he and other detainees suffered, he said, "I was exposed to severe psychological torture, where prisoners were put in a helicopter, blindfolded and with tied hands and after their flight takes off, the door would open and the translator would tell the detainee to watch himself die, and then throw him to the ground for a surprise that he would fall on a large piece of sponge and then the investigator would say, next time the sponge will not be there." Other forms of tortures told by al-Shimmery was that U.S. intelligence were using dogs trained on boxing to torture the detainee, and noted that: "The second method of torture used on me during the investigation was being tortured by a dog trained to box, where the detainee is placed in a small cell to fit one person only with a large size dog, who would burly and forcefully punch the detainee with both hands, and if you try to resist the prisoner would be bitten by the dog until he bleeds and then would go back to a normal sitting position in his blood. This form of torture would continue until the dog feels that his victim had surrendered, and then the dog would go back to the door. "The third way of torture was to strip the detainees naked and place them in a steel chamber with freezing temperature, through the translator he would be told that he will be thrown in the river, blindfolded and with hands tied behind his back, and actually the detainee would be thrown into a deep basin for a short period then he would be lifted and sent for interrogations." He reported on the use of unethical methods of tortures with women in the prison, he said: "The female prisoners that were considered not cooperative, they would be detained in quarries alone for several days without food or water and then one of the prisoners would be forced to take food for them while completely naked and the female detainee will be compelled to look at the man's body, otherwise she will be exposed to tougher means of torture." Al-Hayat newspaper, made an attempt to contact a senior official in the U.S. military Corps in Iraq, who asked for anonymity, he was asked to respond to the reality of the secret prisons in Balad and Mashroua'a al-Musayab, he said: "This is a complex and political interrelated issue, we will not comment on it now." CAROLINE AESHO http://www.baghdadtimes.net/Arabic/index.php?sid=53069 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
