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bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
=== News Update ===
This is the daily life story in Iraq
Faiza Al-Arji
A Family in Baghdad - December 9, 2006
Good evening
during my work with Iraqi NGOs , dealing with human rights issues, I met
this man, he was released recently from an Iraqi prison, and I asked him
to write me his testimony
now, you all can read it, and recognize what a kind of new government we
have in Iraq these days
Mr Bush trying always to support this government , and telling the world
that this is unity government, doing its best to make iraqis more happy
and celebrate democracy
this is the daily life story in Iraq, besides the kidnapping and
bloodshed everywhere
may be the idea is : give it an iraqi face
means, let some of iraqis accomplish our mission
our mission is to stay in iraq for decades
so, we will terrify them , or kill them, to accomplish the mission
sorry , its a long testimony, but want you to see what is the
alternative of Saddam Hussain , we gain
faiza
On the 28th of August 2005, and after 10p.m. a combined force of
American forces and national guards launched a raid on my brother's
home; that force consisted of four American Humvees filled with American
soldiers and twelve truck loaded with Iraqi soldiers, more than 15
American and Iraqi persons entered the house in a terrifying and
irritating manner.
My nephews came crying for my help considering the absence of my brother
that night; so I went to my brother's house and welcomed them and
introduced my self as the chief engineer in the science and technology
ministry, and told them that my brother is not available for the time
being and that I'm ready for and questions. So they told my that they're
searching the house for anything, and when not finding anything illegal
in the house; their commander turned to a table in the living room that
was used for studying by my nephews, some holy books was lying on that
table, he began to search the table and asked : ( why so many holy
books? It's just too many?), I told him that every one in the family has
his own book, afterwards he began to look at papers in which was
articles downloaded from the internet from various sites, some talks
about the violence in Iraq and it's future and anti violence methods,
some about the political situation in Iraq and talks about some well
known political figures like Ahmed Al-Jalaby, so he asked : (What is
this? ) and since I didn't know the contents of those papers; I took a
quick look at them and told him what's in it, so he said : (I'll take
them and show them to my superiors) he took them with five holy books
and left the house, and the front door one of his force members
whispered something in his ears so he came back and asked me : ( what
kind of a car is your brother's ? And where is it now? ) so I told him
that it is a Opel – Omega / station and it's in our father's garage, so
he said : (I want to search it !!) so we moved with some of his force
members to my father's house, they searched it and found nothing, ?( it
was just out from the workshop), so he turned at me and asked ( what
about that car in the back? ) and it was my car, he said: ( so you're
coming with us for some question about your brother, so they took me and
the two cars.
They hand-cuffed me and threw me in the back of a small lorry and I was
transferred to Al-Muthanna brigade HQ. they blind folded my eyes before
reaching the HQ, after stepping out of the vehicle, some one came to me
and said (with a familiar voice which I couldn't recognize) that I'm not
the one and that I'll be out by tomorrow and that it was just (routine
work), afterwards I was transferred to a room and was questioned about
my brother only in a friendly manner. In the end I was told that I will
be released by tomorrow right after my papers was shown to the brigade
commander probably by noon. He untied my hands from the back and cuffed
my from the front and he also made the cuffs very flexible so I could
move my hand however I wanted and he asked the guards at the rooms door
to take good care of me, and I was left waiting for my release.
Next day's morning they brought me some good breakfast, water and tea;
they untied me and told me: (you can take of the fold around your eyes
while you're eating). I waited until the night came and nothing
happened, then the situation changed completely, some guys came and
talked to me in a vary harsh way and they started to kick me and hit me
and spit on me and they took me to someone to investigate with me and
they called him (Sir), he started to ask me questions about people I
don't know, and every time I said I don't know I got hit. Afterwards I
was asked to speak about the working terrorists in my neighborhood that
I live in, my answer was that I know none of them, and the one that I
got to see accidentally is unrecognizable. They asked me to talk about
the terrorist attacks conducted in my neighborhood ( conducted against
the American and National forces), and because I don't know anything
except what I hear, I had nothing to tell them, so they started to kick
me and hit me and then to electrify me more than once combined with
threatening me that I will be shot, and they started to ask me about
things and materials they claim was found in my brother's house, and my
answer was I don't know anything about those things, and that I've never
seen such thing in my brother's house when I got arrested, the Americans
attended some of the investigations and watched my torture, not only
that but once one of the American brought some beers to the
investigator, I heard them talking about that beer because they didn't
know I can speak English.
The Americans used to come to the jail and never spoke with us, and we
were warned by the guards not to speak with any of them or even answer
their questions. And the weirdest thing that happened, a force from Al-
Muthanna brigade detained an Iraqi family living in Al-Hurria city in
Baghdad, and they were questioned right in front of our eyes and they
confessed to bombing two cars and a number of weapons and explosives was
found in their house. The Americans came one day later and released this
family.
Adding to all that, my cousin was detained with me three days after my
capture and he was forced to sign a false testimony against me so
they'll have a proving witness, and he was released 18 days later after
a deal was made that he will be an information source to the Brigade.
In the tents right in front of my I saw how some detainees were
manipulated to convince other detainees to speak and sometimes accuse
them with very serious charges.
The investigation repeated four times during the first two days, each
one took not less than three hours, after which I was left in a solitary
prison for at least four weeks, and after each investigation and torture
festival I was forced to sign and seal with my finger print on papers in
which I don’t know the contents because at that time I'm almost passed
out.
Four weeks later a force came to the brigade HQ, which turned out to be
a Bader organization force which supervise Al-Jaderiah shelter, they
took me and seven other detainees, they are :
1. Hameed Kameel Shared
2. Taha Hussain
3. Readh Mustafa
4. rabah mahmood
5. basim hammed khalaf
6. fauzi kareem
7. muhanned eesaa
We were transferred in twos, each couple in a deferent car, in the way
they continuously spit and talk to us in bad language and beat us until
we reached Al-Jaderiah shelter, when there, a man said : ( don't hit
them cause the master (Saeed) doesn't except!! )
I was almost pleased to hear that but that only lasted five minutes,
they made us sit fronting a wall with our eyes folded and hands cuffed
behind our back and a new cycle of pain started.
This cycle started by: getting kicked by every one who pass that way
saying: (kicking and torturing us will make them closer to God). And any
one wants to put down his cigarette, our bodies were their favorite ash
tray, and every (10-15) minutes a person will come out from a near by
room, his name was (captain suhail ) he claimed he was from (Al-Zaobaee
tribe) and he used to have this thick cudgel to hit us with on the head
and shoulders many times.
This person lives in (Al-Dahab Al-Abead) village in (Abu-Ghareeb) and
he's actually from (Al-Sadaa Al-Tewaal) tribe from Al-Dewaniah, and he
works as an inelegance officer in Al-Muthana brigade, and represents the
liaison officer in the minister of interior office, he is responsible of
bringing any detained person how live in (Abu-Ghareeb) and put him in
Al-Jaderiah shelter, he brought only from (Abu-Ghareeb) about 37
detainee, from a number of 168 detainee in Al-Jaderiah shelter when
cracked by the American forces.
With all the hitting he threatens us to talk like he wants and like the
prison's administration wants. As turned out he was well aware of the
previous investigation in the past locations. And he had many human
resources supporting him with information using mobile phones, paying
them about 300 dollars a month and he knows every little thing about us
and there's no use of what he called "denial" .
The first detainee entered the investigation room and immediately
started to yell and squeal and we heard the beating and the torture and
the swearing clearly, the investigation lasted almost 2 hours. Then he
was dragged out of the room and thrown hand cuffed and blind folded and
bloody. They lifted the eye folds from our eyes just to see him, and
they told him to advice us! He asked us to sign whatever they want and
warned us that our fate will be worst than his, the captain told us it's
only the first round and there's still more to come, now it's my turn.
I was dragged into the room, and more than ten persons started to hit me
with various hitting instruments like cables, thick wooden cudgels,
metal pipes, and others, afterwards they lifted me and hung me to the
wall (hand cuffed from behind) and started to hit me again, this time
asking me about terrorists working in my neighborhood, and because I
never heard of any of them, my answer always was that I don't know them,
and their reaction was more hitting and torture for long hours, I was
saved by losing conscious, I woke up getting kicked in the pathway and
dragged again in the torture room ( after my torture session I don't
know what happened to the group I'm with) so they started to torture me
again by pinning me to the ground and hitting me with all the bats and
cables by the hands of 10 or more persons, to get hit anywhere I like!
and however I like!, this hitting caused several wounds in my body and
covered the floor with blood, I knew that when their superior asks them
to untie me and drag me on the floor to clean the blood with my cloths.
This lasted many hours and I was saved again by loosing conscious. So I
was dragged once again in the room and was left hanging from the wall
with weights hanging from my penis!!! That made me lose the sense in
that area and then losing conscious because of the pain, then get awaken
by throwing cold water on me.
This scene was repeated thoroughly and more often, the torture consisted
of:
1. hitting with various tools ( thick cudgels, cables, metal pipes,
metal ribbons)
2. electric shocks in various parts of the body and especially the penis
3. forcing me to drink allot of water mixed with diuretic solution, and
tie my penis with a rubber band to forbid me from urinating
4. Hanging me from the wall while hanging weights from my penis for long
hours.
5. Threaten to sexually assault me.
6. play with my sexual organs
7. frightening me by shooting gun round near and above my head
8. Threaten to sexually abuse my women! After bringing them to the
shelter
9. Cut off all food or drinks (except the water I was forced to drink
with the diuretic solution) during the investigation period.
10. Finger nails extraction
11. hanging me to the wall for long hours until I fade out, knowing that
the hanging method is by handcuffing my hands to the back and hang me by
them so my shoulder get dislocated.
12. Hang me to the wall and hit me with several tools of torture until
the cuffs breaks, and that happened many times.
In the end, and after six days of continues torture, I turned into a
hallow body with nothing working except breathing! I was forced to sign
on a testimony without reading or knowing what's in it, and then thrown
in the pathway for long hours and then was moved to a small room ( 2.5m
* 2.5m) which I found about 30 other detainees, then after three days I
was moved to a near by room (7m * 3.5m) and there were about 70
detainees there ( the numbers increased afterwards and reached about 115
in that room), and I've seen many unbelievable things in that room and
as follows :
1. There's no enough room for everybody, so the detainees were sitting
and sleeping over each other and most of them suffered from burns and
fractions and severe wounds, some of them was infected with contagious
diseases like TB and scabies.
2. everybody used to urinate in plastic bottles near the room's door and
there were more than 20 bottles there, visits to the water circle is
made every 4 days, we were separated in groups, each group is 15
detainee they go and come under severe hitting and language, the
detainee is allowed to only 1 minute in the WC and then he had to leave
to let another one in. and in case any of them needed to go during these
four days he would do it in a plastic bag (right in front of everybody)
and put the bag near the plastic bottles. Those bottles and bags are
empties every four days when going to the WC.
3. Seduce and convince some of the detainees to report about all what
they know or hear or think and they sometimes make up stories about
their fellow detainees so they will be dragged and questioned and forced
to confess the new information.
4. yell at the detainees who's names are Sunni like ( Omar, Baker,
marwan) and call them the worst names like ( sun of a b..ch, bastard,
and much more).
5. no medical care was available at all, the detainee was left to die
from his injuries caused by torture, knowing that the prison's
environment is ideal for bacteria and viruses, a group of detainees died
for these reasons, like :
a. Alaa Khareeb Hassan
b. Mohammed Khadim
c. Thameer Mansour Hammed
d. Husham Abaas
e. Omar Ali Mohammed
f. Khalid Younis Muhseen
g. Ali Farhan Mohammed
h. Waheed Mahmmod Abdulah
i. Haitham Radhi
6. Allot of contagious skin diseases was spread like scabies and lice,
with no action taken by the management.
7. The unavailability of water, each group of five was given a 2ltr
bottle to use in 2-3 days, some of the detainees drunk from the urine
bottles in the room.
8. taking off the detainees shoes and underwear
9. Forcing some of the detainees to make sex with other inmates.
10. Convince some of the detainees to give them cigarettes in exchange
for information.
11. Finger nails extraction
12. drilling
13. cutting pieces from the body using a grinding machine
14. Burning area from the body, especially the penis using melted nylon.
15. Inserting solid objects in the rectum, like thick wooden or metal
pipes or a vacuum cleaner stick! Noticing the enjoyment of the person
doing this action.
16. forcing the detainee to stand on his feet for long hours
17. Leaving the near dead detainees to die without any medical care! And
kick their bodies after they die and spit on them.
18. Negotiate the release of some of the detainees in exchange for a big
amount of money, then kill them outside the prison.
19. punish and hit the detainees on a daily basis inside the room, after
2-3 guards comes in and push every one to one corner and start hitting
them.
On the 13th November 2005 an American force came to the shelter ( note
that the Americans used to come to the shelter frequently, and they know
about the detainees, they came more than once and we could hear the
guards talking about them saying that the Americans are here), this
force opened the building and all the doors and archived all the torture
in photos and brought allot of food and moved some of the detainees to
the hospital in a hurry. Then we were moved to Abu-Ghareeb prison, to
stay only 19 days with proper medical care and good food. The Americans
questioned every one of us alone for at least five times. The
questioning involved writing personal information and asking about
things that happened and asking about lost American soldiers in Iraq,
usually the investigation is made by a team of three persons, one of
them was an interpreter the other is just watching and the third is the
one doing the questioning. The prison management brought a group of
judges, which turned out to be from the central court to monitor and
take an idea about the torture the detainees suffered, the judges was
not welcomed by the detainees, and they even throw rocks at them,
because one of the judges was the same judges who used to investigate
with them in the shelter after the torture session end and always use to
say : ( why do you bring him walking, care him with a blanket) that
judge provoked the detainees by saying they were lying and there wasn't
any torture.
The judges came again and the interview went naturally, the judges
listened to the detainees and promised them good.
The judges came for the third time with the detainees case files and
called each one alone, as it turned out that all the detainees were
accused with suspicion of terrorism under subject 194, afterwards the
detainees asked the prison management to arrange protection by the
ministry of interior, and most of them asked for …. To the united states
of America, and filed a written request.
Depending on which, the American officer responsible of running the
prison came; and after listening to our demands and fears from going
back under the control of the ministry of defense and avenge us, so he
answered that he will take our demands to the US representative. Two
days later the American officer came back to tell us that there is no
problem with our ….. To the US but after finalizing our cases with the
Iraqi courts. And didn't set any dates.
By the 4th of December 2005 we were moved to Al-Ressaffah jail compound
near the ministry of defense, that compound is run by the ministry of
justice, and all the guards and management are members in Al-Mahdi Army
militia – so said the guards- . What is interesting here is that the
Abu-Ghareb jail management ( the Americans) lied to the detainees by
telling them that they are moving for their release in the next morning,
they even told Al-Ressaffah prison compound management that those
detainees are very dangerous Arab terrorists.
In this compound, they started to write down our statements and we were
brought forward in front of the central court in groups and most of the
cases were referred to a medical committee to prove the torture marks,
this statement writing took about three weeks, going to the committee
took about four months, and some of the detainees wasn't referred to the
committee until now.
Everything stopped since and started to move in a very slow way, it's
like the Al-Jadereah shelter detainees case were lost ? There's no
answer from the American or the compound management.
An American named Mr. Apple used to come weekly, he was the supervisor
and the follow-up person for the compound management performance , he
promised us in his first and second visit with a glamorous and beautiful
hopes, but it turned out to be all lies and deception, he even said :
( I know you know I'm lying but what can I do? It's not in my hands!).
once an important person from the American foreign affairs came and we
were told about his presence by the prison's management, we prepared a
few demands regarding speeding up the process and to identify the one's
responsible, we didn't mention how bad it was in the prison or anything
from the side that we were suffering from, but when he came he didn't
speak with any of the detainee, and when we wanted to talk to him we
were stopped by his bodyguards. And more of that he refused to take our
written demands, all what he did was taking a quick glance at the WC and
went out without saying a word.
The prison's management belonged to Al-Mahdi army militia and they
started the first day we were in to ask question about our cases and
tried to recruit some of the detainees to be like informers especially
the ones belongs to the same region they are (Shiaa) the relation
between us and the management got a little tense, and they started to
bother the detainees parents and visitors and they forbid anything from
reaching the prisoners, they even killed two of one of the detainees
brothers, and then it was the biggest crime, they killed one of the
detainees his name was ( Ali Sulaiman) , they took him from the compound
to an unknown location and his parents found him dead with torture marks
on his body.
This situation lasted, and the prison's management started to rise the
harassing, the detainee will now go to the solitary for the smallest
thing, and they separated the brothers in deferent room, or the father
and the son.
By the 29th of August 2006, all the detainees were moved to (Al-Baladyat
prison) in Baghdad which is one of the central prison belongs to the
ministry of justice, the detainees were surprised that the services in
the prison is very bad, there is no medical care of any kind, the
prison's management told us to ask our parents to bring medications!!
This prison is in an area controlled by Al-Mahdi army militia, so all
the detainees were worried about their lives.
On the 5th of September 2006 I was brought forward to court, and the
judge decided to set me free for the lack of evidence.
I remained under the pressure and blackmail of the prison's management
until I was released on the 2nd of October 2006 with three of my
inmates, one of them was Syrian. At the prison's gate my brother was
waiting for me in his car and he hired a group of police officers to
secure me and to reach home safe, I asked my inmates to come with us but
they refused, two car followed us, a BMW and a Toyota Crown both with
black windows. But after running fast and ending the chase in a movie
like way, we reached our home safe, three days later I found out that
the inmates who were released with me were killed and buried in (Al-
Najaf) symmetry and their parents took their bodies by paying a lot of
money to move the bodies from Najaf to Baghdad.
I stayed about an hour in my house and moved to another house to stay
for a few days and then left the country hoping to see it again.
source:
http://afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com/2006_12_03_afamilyinbaghdad_archive.html#116543274900524897
===
-muslim voice-
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BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW
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