The Horror
Wed, May 5, 2004 at 8:30:26 am PDT
Iowahawk News Service has uncovered even more shocking evidence of “torture” at the Abu Ghraib prison: New Iraq Shocker: Prisoners Forced to Wear Beanies, Swallow Goldfish.
BAGHDAD - US CentCom braced for an international human rights backlash today, as it released another raft of photos detailing widespread inmate abuse and humiliation at the hands of US guards at the notorious Al Ghraib prison.
In the newly released photos, masked Iraqi prisoners are shown forming human pyramids, stuffing Volkswagens, eating live goldfish and pounding ‘beer bongs,’ all under the supervision of laughing US guards.
“The occupiers forced me go on a ‘snipe hunt’,” said a tearful Khalid al-Husseini, a former shredder operator under Saddam who was recently released from Al Ghraib after a three week incarceration. “Yet, I was not told for over three hours that there were no snipes to be found, as they were but a cruel invention of the occupiers!”
Another former prisoner, Hassan Atwah, said American prisoner abuses were widespread.
“Guards used interrogation methods including ‘Bong 99’, ‘Quarters’ and the fearsome ‘Jello shots,’” said the ex-Fedayeen commander. “later we we blindfolded and forced to feel Tupperware bowls filled with eyeballs and worms.”
Humilation was a common technique of guards, according to Abdul Abdullah. “Occupiers are make me to wear a beanie-hat and go on burqqa raid of woman prison,” he said, visibly shaken.
Abdullah, who spend over eight years in a Saddam torture cell, said his treatment under American captors was “much worse.”
“I am made to be like lowly woman, begging for woman clothing from lowly woman,” he explained. “For Iraq man, to be made to be as a woman is beneath even the animal, the insect. I would rather be shot in the head than be treated like stupid Iraq woman.”
CentCom investigators say the abuse probe will expand to cover rumors of short-sheeting, shoe polish on prison toilet seats, and routine sleep tortures involving shaving cream and warm glasses of water.
The recent revelations brought a harsh outcry from the international press. Under a giant banner reading “SHAME,” the Mirror newspaper of London ran a late edition featuring full-page photos of hooded Iraqi prisoners lighting flatulence and helplessly flailing at pinatas. The broadsheet Independent ran a related story implicating British troops in widespread prisoner-pantsing, charges that were denied by the Defence Ministry.
Promised disciplinary action by US Military officials also did little to placate human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, which immediately called for international sanctions against the US, including “double secret probation.”
The widening scandal has also attracted the attention of the United Nations. Secretary General Kofi Annan said he would refer the matter to the UN Human Rights Commission.
“Hopefully, we can schedule full hearings after the seating of its new Sudanese member,” said Annan.
US Senator Joseph Biden of the Senate Armed Service Committee also called for Congressional oversight, saying that “this scandal reaches all the way to the top.”
“It may be mere coincidence,” said Biden, “but these tortures are eerily similar to the Skull and Bones initiation.”
Frank says:
