| Group: U.S. military urged abuse in Iraq [message #228613] |
So, 23 Juli 2006 18:40 |
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060723/ap_on_re_us/detainee_abu se
By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jul 23, 7:23 AM ET
NEW YORK - The group Human Rights Watch said in a report released
Sunday that U.S. military commanders encouraged abusive interrogations
of detainees in Iraq, even after the Abu Ghraib prison
scandal called attention to the issue in 2004.
Between 2003 and 2005, prisoners were routinely physically mistreated,
deprived of sleep and exposed to extreme temperatures as part of the
interrogation process, the report said.
"Soldiers were told that the Geneva Conventions did not apply, and that
interrogators could use abusive techniques to get detainees to talk,"
wrote John Sifton, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.
The organization said it based its conclusion on interviews with
military personnel and sworn statements in declassified documents.
A Pentagon spokesman, Cmdr. Greg Hicks, said he wasn't aware of
the report, but noted the military is reviewing its procedures
regarding detainees following a Supreme Court ruling that the Geneva
Conventions should apply in the conflict with al-Qaida.
The Bush administration had previously held that certain enemies,
including terrorists, were illegal combatants and not protected by
those rules.
The conventions prohibit "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular
humiliating and degrading treatment."
Human Rights Watch focused much of its report on a detention facility
called Camp Nama at Baghdad International Airport.
One soldier, whose name was withheld from the report, described a
suspected insurgent being stripped naked, thrown in the mud, sprayed
with water and then exposed to frigid temperatures in an attempt to
soften him up for interrogators.
Commanders, the soldier said, seemed confident that their treatment of
prisoners was legal.
He described computerized authorization forms that had to be filled out
before subjecting detainees to strobe lights, loud music, extreme heat
or cold, or intimidation by barking dogs.
The allegations of abuse at the camp were first reported in March by
The New York Times.
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