Iraq's govt admits security forces use torture

In response to a story in Britain's The Observer (see entry on previous day) detailing allegations of death squads and torture chambers, Iraqi Government spokesperson Laith Kubba will admit that the incidents occur, but deny that the government is responsible for them.

"These things happen. We know that," Laith Kubba told a news briefing ... "It does not happen because the Government approves it or adopts it as policy," he added, saying ministers were worried.

Instead, Kubba will blame a culture of violence in Iraqi society, stretching back to the Hussein regime decades ago, when it enjoyed US support.

"At the end of the day, I'm sorry to say that we are living in a society where the culture now accepts these violations. I'm sorry to say the culture of violence has spread." ... Government spokesman Mr Kubba said the new authorities were training police and troops to respect human rights. "But theory is one thing and practice is another," he said, adding that decades of violence had brutalised Iraqi society.

Mr Kubba did not go into whether or not he included the allegation that US Marines were present during torture incidents as one of the ways in which Iraqi society had been brutalised.