NGOs present argument in US District Court for release of documents

NGOs present their arguments for the release of documents under the FOIA to Judge Hellerstein in US District Court. The Court subsequently directs the US government to release the requested documents.

Media: Minister of Interior proudly announces large numbers of individuals captured

The Minister of Interior Al-Naqib proudly announces that "in Najaf, the Iraqi National Guard and Iraqi police who were supported by the air force of the multinational forces ... have captured about 1,200 individuals". This operation will feature strongly in a report entitled The New Iraq? Torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Iraqi custody, which will be released by Human Rights Watch in five month's time.

Incident: Group of 4 Iraqi men arrested, beaten, tortured

A group of four Iraqi men are arrested in al-Najaf taken to the headquarters of the Emergency Response Units where Iraqi police, Iraqi National Guard, and US Marines are present. They were accused of being members of the Mahdi Army. Their stories will be included in a report entitled The New Iraq? Torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Iraqi custody, which will be released by Human Rights Watch in five month's time.

One identified only as Ali claims that the following incidents occurred.

• He was beaten severely with wood, cable and hose-pipes while US Marines stood by and watched.
• He observed that one of the other prisoners had had his fingernails removed and his arms broken.
• He was forced to insult the Shia holy places.
• Children between 15 and 17 years old were also detained with him.

All four men will present investigators with clear evidence of recent external trauma including bruising and lacerations.

Memo: observations at GTMO

Today, an email with the subject-line RE GTMO was written between unknown parties in the FBI. The following is the body of the text.

As requested, here is a brief summary of what I observed at GTMO.

On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand a foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food, or water. Most times they had urinated or defacated (sic) on themselves and had been left there for 18 24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. When I asked the MP what was going on, I was told that interrogators from the day prior had ordered this treatment, and the detainee was not to be moved. On another occasion, the A/C had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room probably well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his own hair out throughout the night. On another occassion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.

This document will form part of the documentation released by various US Government Departments in response to an FOIA court order.

Incident: Shahid detained by police at al-Najaf, interrogated, beaten

In early August, Dhia Fawzi Shahid is stopped by the police and army at a checkpoint. He is subsequently blindfolded and taken to al-Najaf Police Directorate. His story will be included in a report entitled The New Iraq? Torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Iraqi custody, which will be released by Human Rights Watch in five month's time.

Shahid claims that the following incidents occurred:

• He was beaten with cables
• He was suspended by his arms with his arms behind his back. This "Palestinian Hanging" resulted in the dislocation of one of his shoulders (c.f. the "Palestinian Hanging" of Abu Ghraib prisoner implicated in his death, entry on 17 February 2005).
• He observed police treading on prisoner's heads while they lay bound.