Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Iraqi Police Torturing Iraqis. posted by Richard Seymour
The good old days are here again - no longer need Iraqis be tortured by American or British troops. Now, courtesy of the coalition, we have a national, nay patriotic, police force dishing out the rough stuff. According to Human Rights Watch :[U]nlawful arrest, long-term incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment of detainees (including children) by Iraqi authorities have become routine and commonplace. Human Rights Watch conducted interviews in Iraq with 90 detainees, 72 of whom alleged having been tortured or ill-treated, particularly under interrogation.
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Methods of torture cited by detainees include routine beatings to the body using cables, hosepipes and other implements. Detainees report kicking, slapping and punching; prolonged suspension from the wrists with the hands tied behind the back; electric shocks to sensitive parts of the body, including the earlobes and genitals; and being kept blindfolded and/or handcuffed continuously for several days. In several cases, the detainees suffered what may be permanent physical disability.
Detainees also reported being deprived by Iraqi security forces of food and water, and being crammed into small cells with standing room only. Numerous detainees described how Iraqi police sought bribes in return for release, access to family members or food and water.
Electro-shock therapy! Starvation! Beatings that leave one disabled! You don't suppose, do you, that while they have Saddam in custody they might be probing him for clues about how to control these people?
John Negroponte: "Come on, you old bastard, you murdered and tortured these fuckers for years, you've gotta have some idea how we can do it!"
Saddam: "Well, this is why I made sure to get the electricity running again properly last time."
Negroponte: "We're listening..."
Is there anything more that they can add to make it just how obvious and hollow the lie about 'humanitarian intervention' is? The answer is yes, because records were made to be broken. Bear in mind that the Iraqi police force that now operate are being trained by the American forces to wield the monopoly of violence when the troops finally withdraw. Coalition-imposed Iraqi democracy is looking more and more like Axl Rose's planned album, Chinese Democracy: It's taking ages, looks like its going to be shit anyway, and no one's buying it.