Monday, December 14, 2015

Iraq's Secret Prisons

Human Rights Watch revealed about the inhumane treatment of Iraqi detainees in secret prisons. (AFP)

Reuters: Torture by Iraqi militias: the report Washington did not want you to see

Two unpublished investigations show that the United States has consistently overlooked killings and torture by Iraqi government-sponsored Shi'ite militias.

ERBIL, Iraq – It was one of the most shocking events in one of the most brutal periods in Iraq’s history. In late 2005, two years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, U.S. soldiers raided a police building in Baghdad and found 168 prisoners in horrific conditions.

Many were malnourished. Some had been beaten.

The discovery of the secret prison exposed a world of kidnappings and assassinations. Behind these operations was an unofficial Interior Ministry organisation called the Special Investigations Directorate, according to U.S. and Iraqi security officials at the time.

The body was run by militia commanders from the Badr Organisation, a pro-Iran, Shi’ite political movement that today plays a major role in Baghdad’s war against Islamic State, the Sunni militant group.

WNU Editor: The history of secret prisons in Iraq goes back to the times of Saddam Husssein. Unfortunately .... it is a practice that is going to continue for an even longer time.

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