The USA execution of Saddam andf his sons is a sorry note on our history.What happened to exile for our once favorite tyrants? Farouk- British, etc. Welcome to Bonnie and Beatty.
On Oct 11, 3:47�am, "[ a patriotic Republican ]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Revealed: "Secret" Executions Being Carried Out in Saddam's Old > Intelligence Headquartershttp://www.alternet.org/rights/101952/ > Hundreds of "insurgents" have been executed since 2003, victims of the > same summary justice they mete out to their own > captives. > Like all wars, the dark, untold stories of the Iraqi conflict drain > from its shattered landscape like the filthy waters of the Tigris. And > still the revelations come. > > The Independent has learned that secret executions are being carried > out in the prisons run by Nouri al-Maliki's "democratic" government. > > The hangings are carried out regularly -- from a wooden gallows in a > small, cramped cell -- in Saddam Hussein's old intelligence > headquarters at Kazimiyah. There is no public record of these killings > in what is now called Baghdad's "high-security detention facility" but > most of the victims -- there have been hundreds since America > introduced "democracy" to Iraq -- are said to be insurgents, given the > same summary justice they mete out to their own captives. > > The secrets of Iraq's death chambers lie mostly hidden from foreign > eyes but a few brave Western souls have come forward to tell of this > prison horror. The accounts provide only a glimpse into the Iraqi > story, at times tantalizingly cut short, at others gloomily > predictable. Those who tell it are as depressed as they are filled > with hopelessness. > > "Most of the executions are of supposed insurgents of one kind or > another," a Westerner who has seen the execution chamber at Kazimiyah > told me. "But hanging isn't easy." As always, the devil is in the > detail. > > "There's a cell with a bar below the ceiling with a rope over it and a > bench on which the victim stands with his hands tied," a former > British official, told me last week. "I've been in the cell, though it > was always empty. But not long before I visited, they'd taken this guy > there to hang him. They made him stand on the bench, put the rope > round his neck and pushed him off. But he jumped on to the floor. He > could stand up. So they shortened the length of the rope and got him > back on the bench and pushed him off again. It didn't work." > > There's nothing new in savage executions in the Middle East -- in the > Lebanese city of Sidon 10 years ago, a policeman had to hang on to the > legs of a condemned man to throttle him after he failed to die on the > noose -- but in Baghdad, cruel death seems a specialty. > > "They started digging into the floor beneath the bench so that the guy > would drop far enough to snap his neck," the official said. "They dug > up the tiles and the cement underneath. But that didn't work. He could > still stand up when they pushed him off the bench. So they just took > him to a corner of the cell and shot him in the head." > > The condemned prisoners in Kazimiyah, a Shia district of Baghdad, are > said to include rapists and murderers as well as insurgents. One > prisoner, a Chechen, managed to escape from the jail with another man > after a gun was smuggled to them. They shot two guards dead. The > authorities had to call in the Americans to help them recapture the > two. The Americans killed one and shot the Chechen in the leg. He > refused medical assistance so his wound went gangrenous. In the end, > the Iraqis had to operate and took all the bones out of his leg. By > the time he met one Western visitor to the prison, "he was walking > around on crutches with his boneless right leg slung over his > shoulder." > > In many cases, it seems, the Iraqis neither keep nor release any > record of the true names of their captives or of the hanged prisoners. > For years the Americans -- in charge of the notorious Abu Ghraib > prison outside Baghdad -- did not know the identity of their > prisoners. Here, for example, is new testimony given to The > Independent by a former Western official to the Anglo-U.S. Iraq Survey > Group, which searched for the infamous but mythical weapons of mass > destruction: "We would go to the interrogation rooms at Abu Ghraib and > ask for a particular prisoner. After about 40 minutes, the Americans > brought in this hooded guy, shuffling along, shackled hands and feet. > > "They sat him on a chair in front of us and took off his hood. He had > a big beard. We asked where he received his education. He repeatedly > said 'Mosul.' Then he said he'd left school at 14 -- remember, this > guy is supposed to be a missile scientist. We said: 'We know you've > got a PhD and went to the Sorbonne -- we'd like you to help us with > information about Saddam's missile project.' But I said to myself: > 'This guy doesn't know anything 'bout fucking missiles.' Then it > turned out he had a different name from the man we'd asked for, he'd > been picked up on the road by the Americans four months earlier, he > didn't know why. So we said to the Americans: 'Wrong gentleman!' So > they put the shackles on him and took him back to his cell and after > 20 or 30 minutes, they'd bring someone else. We'd ask him where he > went to school and he told us he had never been to school. > > 12Next page � --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
