The Iraq Our Soldiers Are Dying For (Excerpt)

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The Iraq Our Soldiers Are Dying For

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 15:04:42 -0500 (EST)

 

 

 

New Iraqi government under US occupation has reverted to death squads

and torture chambers. No one believes any longer that the war is to

defend freedom.

 

 

 

http://www.thenewamerican.com/artman/publish/article_2922.shtml

 

The Iraq Our Soldiers Are Dying For (Excerpt)

by Thomas R. Eddlem

January 9, 2006

 

 

The new Iraqi government has a network of torture chambers and death

squads run by a secret police network of Shi'ite militias loyal to

" axis of evil " nation Iran.

 

In just over two-and-a-half years, the Iraqi people have made

incredible progress on the road to lasting freedom. Iraqis have gone

from living under the boot of a brutal tyrant, to liberation, free

elections, and a democratic constitution.

 

-- President George W. Bush, in remarks before cadets at the U.S.

Naval Academy, November 30, 2005

 

Let us take a closer look at this government of supposed " lasting

freedom " President Bush has established in Iraq -- at what would

happen if the Bush/Cheney policy succeeds and we " win " in Iraq by

upholding the new government.

 

The new Iraqi Constitution contains few of the categorical rights

protected in the U.S. Constitution. For example, in the Iraqi

Constitution there are no unqualified guarantees for freedom of

religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, trial by jury, or

the right to keep and bear arms.

 

Ironically, one of the few rights categorically protected under the

new Iraqi Constitution is the prohibition against torture. Unlike most

provisions of the Iraqi Constitution's bill of rights, which contain

exceptions clauses nullifying the supposed guarantee of individual

rights, the prohibition against torture contains no exceptions: " All

forms of torture, mental or physical, and inhuman treatment are

forbidden. "

 

Yet recent revelations have documented that the prohibition against

torture has been routinely ignored by the new Iraqi government.

Interior Minister Bayan Jabr has been running a network of secret

torture prisons throughout Iraq, with one right under the nose of the

American encampment in Baghdad.

 

According to the December 11 Washington Times, Jabr's ministry had

been running a torture camp " in Baghdad's Jadriya district, a

predominantly Shi'ite neighborhood directly across the Tigris River

from the U.S.-protected green zone in downtown Baghdad. " After

American forces raided the prison on November 17, U.S. Army spokesman

General Rick Lynch noted that U.S. leaders " saw 169 individuals that

had been detained. Some of those individuals looked like they had been

abused, malnourished and mistreated. " Even Alisha Ryu of the U.S.

government-funded Voice of America was forced to admit that many of

the 169 prisoners looked " like concentration camp victims " and that

about a third had cuts or bruises on their faces. The December 11

Times story relayed that one prisoner -- released by an Iraqi judge --

described " Jadriya's cell walls as being covered with blood, with

prisoners sitting on the ground and groaning after torture sessions. "

 

The Washington Times concluded on November 18, a day after the initial

raid: " The discovery of a secret Iraqi Interior Ministry torture

chamber confirms what has been an open secret in Baghdad for months:

Pro-Iranian militia have deeply infiltrated the ministry and are

acting as a law unto themselves. " The Times even quoted an Iraqi

police officer, who told the newspaper on condition of anonymity: " I

am more scared of the Ministry of Interior than I am of the

insurgents. " Meanwhile, Jabr was busy denying -- and later minimizing

-- the findings. " Okay, there were signs of torture, " Jabr admitted

after the U.S. raid on the Jadriya prison, " but there were no killings

or beheadings. " Even that may not prove true. Photos purporting to

show torture at Jadriya show both torture-swollen bodies and corpses.

If these photos should prove authentic, Jabr -- who initially denied

the existence of torture chambers -- would be proven wrong again.

 

By December 11, word of additional torture chambers had leaked into

even the compliant U.S. press, as Iraqi forces searched a second

torture chamber in Baghdad, which held 625 prisoners. Thirteen of the

detainees had to be hospitalized as a result of the beatings they

endured under captivity. The December 12 Washington Post summarized

conditions in the prison: " An Iraqi official with firsthand knowledge

of the search said that at least 12 of the 13 prisoners had been

subjected to 'severe torture,' including sessions of electric shock

and episodes that left them with broken bones. 'Two of them showed me

their nails, and they were gone,' the official said on condition of

anonymity because of security concerns. " The December 11 Washington

Times identified four additional torture prisons in Baghdad alone, at

least one of which housed more than 1,000 prisoners.

 

Post-Saddam Terror

 

The Washington Post notes that the prisons are only one symptom of a

Shi'ite terrorist regime gone wild:....To continue reading the

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