Abu Ghraib prison
Template:Stub Abu Ghraib prison, located 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Baghdad, Iraq, was a notorious prison under Saddam Hussein's regime. According to Capt. Mark Doggett of the Australian army out of 7,800 prisoners being held in 2004 approximately 120 foreign jihadists entered to attack Iraqi civilians and coalition allies.
- "We have people in custody who have been involved in killing Americans and others from the coalition forces. I really cannot think of a worse crime than that: murder." Doggett added, "The most common things people are being detained for include attacking coalition forces or the Iraqi people, likewise for financing attacks on forces or the Iraqi people," or being "involved in the planning of attacks." Likewise "the manufacture of improvised explosive devices. That could mean everything from procuring the necessary materials for explosive devices, through to actually manufacturing the devices, to planting them." [1]
During the occupation by the U.S.-led coalition, accounts of abuse of prisoners by U. S. forces emerged and led to courts martial of several individuals, including Lynndie England. Several of the accused soldiers claimed they were acting under orders. In 2004 Arundhati Roy told a meeting of the American Sociological Association in Berkeley broadcast on Democracy Now,
- Each of the Iraqi children killed by the United States was our child. Each prisoner tortured in Abu Ghraib was our comrade.[2]
Capt. Doggett reported that only one journalists inquired about the nature of the actions that that led to internment for prisoners being held.
Abu Ghraib under Saddam Hussein
During Saddam Hussein’s rule in Iraq, countless reports of torture and execution at Abu Ghraib emerged. The US State Department records incidents at Abu Ghraib involving the amputation of prisoners’ limbs for the crime of conducting business in United States currency in 1994[3] and the 2001 execution of 28 political prisoners in a wave of “prison cleansing.” [4] Additionally, in a report detailing conditions in Iraq under Hussein, the White House records the execution of over 4,000 prisoners at Abu Ghraib in 1984 alone. [5]
Reference
- ↑ *Abu Ghraib inmates aren't 'helpless' - they're lethal, Deroy Murdock, The Daily Oakland Press, May 24, 2004.
- ↑ Transcript of Arundhati Roy Speaking to American Sociological Association, from Democracy Now
- ↑ “Iraqis Dismembered by Saddam Received Artificial Limbs in U.S.” US State Department, 28 May 2004, http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2004&m=May&x=20040528165245cpataruK3.368777e-02
- ↑ Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - Iraq 2001,” US State Department, March 4, 2002. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/nea/8257.html
- ↑ “Life Under Saddam,” http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/04/20030404-1.html
