Video shows torture of prisoners overseen by Saddam's half brother
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
July 1, 2003
By Paul Martin
(with thanks to W. Scott Malone)
BAGHDAD - A graphic video to be broadcast today shows Saddam Hussein's
half brother, ousted Interior Minister Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti,
exhorting his police officers as they beat and torture prisoners.
"Go on, go on," Hasan tells his khaki-clad ministry police as they
repeatedly slash prisoners with sticks, electric cables and metal bars at a
Baghdad detention center. The police kick the prisoners again and again.
At one point, one of Hasan's own security guards is beaten with wooden
poles, sticks and cables after pleading for mercy.
Hasan was captured April 13 as he apparently attempted to flee to Syria
and is being held in a coalition prison for "high-value detainees."
A Ba'ath Party official who has the same mother as Saddam and is one of
Saddam's three half brothers, Hasan was the five of spades in the deck of 55
cards distributed to coalition soldiers in the search for the most-wanted
Iraqi officials.
A reporter for The Washington Times has seen the video pictures in their
entirety. Excerpts will be shown today by the Al Arabiya satellite
television channel, which obtained them from an undisclosed Iraqi source.
The gruesome pictures, with testimony by one of the beaten prisoners,
are expected to be of value in building a criminal prosecution against
Hasan.
The U.S.-led coalition or its successor will seek to prove that the
interior minister ran a systematic reign of terror, coalition legal experts
said.
The video shows prisoners held in a small fenced courtyard. They at
first move from side to side as blows rain down.
Then, as their bodies and heads become increasingly bloodied and their
flesh torn, most topple to the ground and curl up in a fetal position.
As some try to stagger to their feet when blows are being inflicted on
other prisoners, the police officers return, knocking them down again until
many lie helplessly on their backs, motionless and apparently unconscious.
Each of two VHS tapes, in perfect color, runs continuously for about an
hour. They appear to have been recorded professionally.
At one point, the interior minister becomes angry that a car apparently
belonging to Uday Hussein, elder son of Saddam, gets precedence over his own
vehicle in entering a security area.
One of two guards at the gate begs forgiveness from Hasan, pleading:
"Sir, I did not realize that you were with Mr. Uday. ... I didn't realize.
Please, please, in the name of Saddam Hussein, please."
The guard, continuing wherever possible with his appeals, is stripped of
his epaulet, then his shirt and his beret, and the beatings begin - with
wooden poles, sticks and cables.
After about 15 minutes, as he lies prone, the attention of the police
officers and the cameraman switches to another victim.
The officers regularly turn from their victims toward some authority
figure off camera, presumably the interior minister, then quickly resume the
torture.
One of the men whose assault was filmed took the Al Arabiya satellite
television team back to where beatings had occurred.
The man, who gave his name as Ali, said, "We were beaten everyday like
this for a month."
Typical charges involved buying stolen or unregistered goods, or were
related to quarrels with neighbors or their wives.
Police, Ali said, would show films of the beatings to Hasan, and if he
thought a prisoner had escaped too lightly, that man would be pulled out of
his crowded cell and beaten again.
Hasan had a reputation for brutality, but this is the first time such
actions have been displayed publicly on video.
Documents showing the regime's illegal trading activities, coupled with
the increasing evidence of state-organized mass killings and widespread
repression, are expected to form the basis for trials.
The likelihood is that Saddam's former officials will be arraigned only
when a new constitution is approved and an Iraqi-led government is in place.
Coalition officials say it's important to provide the basis for such
trials through the painstaking collection of evidence.
They say it will help solidify support for a new Iraqi government by
exposing the previous rulers as corrupt and vicious criminals rather than as
tough patriots.
