Iraq Aid Diverted For Torture

"British and American aid intended for Iraq's hard-pressed police service is being diverted to paramilitary commando units accused of widespread human rights abuses, including torture and extra-judicial killings, The Observer can reveal.
Iraqi Police Service officers said that ammunition, weapons and vehicles earmarked for the IPS are being taken by shock troops at the forefront of Iraq's new dirty counter-insurgency war.....

......The investigation revealed:

· A 'ghost' network of secret detention centres across the country, inaccessible to human rights organisations, where torture is taking place.

· Compelling evidence of widespread use of violent interrogation methods including hanging by the arms, burnings, beatings, the use of electric shocks and sexual abuse.

· Claims that serious abuse has taken place within the walls of the Iraqi government's own Ministry of the Interior.

· Apparent co-operation between unofficial and official detention facilities, and evidence of extra-judicial executions by the police. "


http://observer.guardian.co.uk/inter...520186,00.html

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by andyl

"British and American aid intended for Iraq's hard-pressed police service is being diverted to paramilitary commando units accused of widespread human rights abuses, including torture and extra-judicial killings, The Observer can reveal.
Iraqi Police Service officers said that ammunition, weapons and vehicles earmarked for the IPS are being taken by shock troops at the forefront of Iraq's new dirty counter-insurgency war.....

......The investigation revealed:

· A 'ghost' network of secret detention centres across the country, inaccessible to human rights organisations, where torture is taking place.

· Compelling evidence of widespread use of violent interrogation methods including hanging by the arms, burnings, beatings, the use of electric shocks and sexual abuse.

· Claims that serious abuse has taken place within the walls of the Iraqi government's own Ministry of the Interior.

· Apparent co-operation between unofficial and official detention facilities, and evidence of extra-judicial executions by the police. "


http://observer.guardian.co.uk/inter...520186,00.html

That article is all hearsay and gossip as it stands..I'd need more real evidence before I can credit it..

Originally Posted by Incognitas

That article is all hearsay and gossip as it stands..I'd need more real evidence before I can credit it..

Well they are, as things stand, allegations but clearly worthy of investigation as the MoD suggests. other coverage here; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4645733.stm

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by andyl

Well they are, as things stand, allegations but clearly worthy of investigation as the MoD suggests. other coverage here; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4645733.stm

That is a rather better written article however..

Well the ball is now in the Iraq interim Government's court..

[Matt D]

No surprise, really

[BBKing]

I liked the story that suggested it would have been cheaper for us to pay Saddam and family $50bn to eff off out of the country and use the rest back home. Wouldn't have boosted Halliburton's share price, though.

Democracy is no protection against torture and inhumanity*, as the people in Abu Graibh have found out (and the guys in Guantanamo and the chaps snatched by US hit squads from the streets of Germany and Italy, where the judges are putting out arrest warrants for the Yanks). Fortunately every strand that unravels brings us closer to the final reckoning when the US people realise en masse that they've been had big style and the 'New American Century' gets the burial it richly deserves.

*Strong, dependable judicial and political institutions and a free press are, however. Democracy on its own is weak.