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Saturday, May 31, 2003

Incident: Operation Ali Baba

Today Killy Tilford, a shop assistant at a photography shop, will describe for the BBC photographs that were brought into her shop by Fusilier Gary Bartlam for development. The photographs depict British soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees. In one year and 9 month's time, two British soldiers will be convicted, and the abuses will revealed.

A group of Iraqis caught looting from an aid camp known as Camp Breadbasket were detained by British soldiers. The photographs show that they were hung from forklifts, beaten, stood on, and forced to simulate sex acts with one another.

Major Dan Taylor, who was in charge of Camp Breadbasket and the detention, will deny that he told soldiers to "beast" looters - a military term meaning to work someone hard. He will also deny that he permitted "trophy photographs" to be taken.

Incident: Mohammed Surur abducted, tortured

According to a statement (Section 4) given to Amnesty International, today Mohammed Ahmed Surur will be abducted by Kenyan authorities in Mombasa and detained and interrogated for three days. During that time, he claims that he was:
  • hooded and taken to unknown locations;
  • beaten for trying to call his wife;
  • beaten for not signing a false confession, which included bashing his head against a table; and
  • tortured with electricity to the point of losing consciousness when he refused to sign a second document.
Upon release, he received threats to his life if there should ever be an investigation what happened to him. Surur suffers from insomnia, lack of concentration, severe headaches and his eyesight was affected.

Friday, May 30, 2003

Document: Electronic communication (EC) from the Behavioural Analysis Unit of the FBI to FBI headquarters

This document is referred to in several other documents that were released to the public after a court order compelled various government departments to respect a FOIA request. Apparently it describes some controversy between departments regarding DODs interrogation techniques.