This entry was posted on
Wednesday, November 16th, 2005 at
4:18 pm and is filed
under It’s War! It’s Legal! It’s Lovely!.

BBC – Iraq detainees ‘found starving’

Guardian – 173 prisoners found beaten and starved in Iraq government bunker: The Iraqi government has begun an investigation into the alleged abuse of more than 170 prisoners who were found locked in an interior ministry bunker in Baghdad, many of them beaten and malnourished and some apparently brutally tortured.

One can only wonder where those responsible for this outrage got the idea that it would be tolerated.

Meanwhile…

Washington Post – Abuse Included Use of Lions, Iraqis Allege: (Ex-Detainees Say Troops Also Used Mock Executions) – Two Iraqi men who were arrested in Iraq in 2003 but never charged with crimes say that U.S. troops put them in a cage with lions, pretended to execute them in a firing line and humiliated them during interrogations at multiple detention facilities.

Telegraph – Prisoners ‘faced lion torture’: The American military is examining allegations by two former Iraqi detainees that they were thrust into a cage of lions in a Baghdad palace in 2003 as part of a terrifying interrogation.

Today Online – Rumsfeld: No lions were used on detainees: U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed a report yesterday that US troops used lions on two Iraq detainees arrested in 2003. “It seems quite far-fetched,” Mr Rumsfeld told reporters but he added that every allegation is investigated. Mr Rumsfeld also said that terrorists are trained to lie about their treatment while in custody. “They do it consistently and it always works,” he said.

Did you receive that important message?

Everyone detained in Iraq is a terrorist (including family members who are held hostage). All insurgents are terrorists. All suspected militants are terrorists.

The U.S. does this consistently and it always works.