Gorilla’s Guides

More than seven years after the US- and UK-led invasion of their country, Iraqis continue to endure an occupation that has systematically violated their rights to life, dignity, self-determination and economic development. The occupation has been and continues to be so destructive and so violent that one in four Iraqis are estimated to be dead or displaced. One in five Iraqis has been made a refugee or an internally displaced person (IDP).

In particular, the role and situation of women and girls has declined precipitously compared to prior to the invasion. From torture to rape to assassination, from forced separation for mixed couples to women and their children enduring the death of their husbands and fathers, from a loss of educational rights to expulsion from the workplace and public life, and from sexual slavery to forced flight or enforced disappearance, for the past seven years Iraqi women and girls have endured the most terrifying of fates. They are living at the mercy of an occupation that both seeks to terrorize them into submission, and to use them as objects for the terrorization of the whole of Iraqi society.

No security

Dr. Souad al-Azzawi, who authored a study on Iraqi women entitled "Deterioration of Iraq women’s rights and living conditions under occupation," published in January 2008, told The Electronic Intifada: "The most significant loss that Iraqi women have suffered is a complete and total loss of security." She explained that the loss of security entails both the loss of physical security and "the economic, social and civil securities Iraqi women were so accustomed to prior to the occupation."

In fact, it appears that the loss of physical and other aspects of security have a Catch-22 effect on the lives of women. The lack of legal and institutional support for women by an Iraqi puppet government which is at best ineffective has meant that in the vast majority of cases the criminals, mafias, militias, death squads, US occupation forces and Iraqi police and army forces committing crimes against women are not held accountable for their actions. This has in turn encouraged the development of a situation characterized by lawlessness and criminality, in which women are prime targets. As such, many women have been forced to leave their jobs and quit their education, for fear that they may be the next victim of rape or assassination.

According to al-Azzawi, Iraqi women have had to resort to "the relative security of their homes," often taking their children out of school too if they were the only parent able to accompany them there and back.

Echoing al-Azzawi’s words, an Iraqi refugee speaking on condition of anonymity said that she was forced to leave Iraq precisely because of death threats issued against her by militias who had found out she was actively working as a journalist seeking to expose the injustices taking place against women. Had she stayed in Iraq, the threats likely would have been fulfilled.

"Not only was I being targeted, but I was also without protection, given that Iraq has no government to speak of," she explained. She added that "I could have been killed at any moment, and no one would have been held accountable for it. It was for one reason alone that I fled: because I had no choice."

Criminal levels of poverty

The figures speak for themselves. According to a dossier on Iraqi women published by the BRussells Tribunal, prior to the invasion 72 percent of working women were government employees. The dismantlement of state institutions immediately after the invasion meant that these women became unemployed. Instability and ineffective institutions in Iraq render it impossible to pinpoint the total rate of unemployment today, but estimates range from 15 percent to 70 percent. The few stable jobs that exist, according to the dossier, are usually given to men, though a growing number of female-headed households means that many women need to take extraordinary risks in order to try and cater for their children ("Iraqi Women Under Occupation" [PDF]).

The same economic insecurity affects Iraqi refugee families. Aseer al-Madaien, the Protection Officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) – Syria, says that out of 139,000 registered Iraqis in Syria, 28 percent are households headed by women. In total, estimates for the total number of displaced Iraqis, including both refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), range up to almost five million, according to the international organization Medecins Sans Frontieres, which believes that there are 2.5 million Iraqi IDPs and 2.3 million refugees.

IDPs suffer both extreme vulnerability and insecurity, as they seek refuge in the homes of relatives and friends, said Hana Al Bayaty, member of the Executive Committee of the BRussells Tribunal. Many of them are the victims of ethnic cleansing, whereby a country once free of sectarianism is increasingly witnessing the targeting of persons on the basis of their religion or ethnicity. Mixed marriages in these conditions are all too often broken up by force, according to a report published by the UN-affiliated IRIN humanitarian news agency ("Mixed Marriages confront Sectarian Violence," 6 April 2006).

The majority of Iraqi refugees have headed to neighboring countries Syria and Jordan, where they are not allowed to work, as they are legally considered "guests." In 2007, the UNHCR reported that an estimated 40 percent of Iraq’s middle class had fled the country. Not only have almost half of those with the qualifications and experience to help rebuild Iraq left the country, but they are also suffering from the most extreme form of disempowerment, according to Al Bayaty.

Al-Azzawi explained that "For the educated middle class, this situation is shattering as everything we have worked so hard to earn and build up over decades of war and sanctions is being brought down by military force before our very eyes."

Unable to work legally, it is often refugee women who take upon themselves the burden and the risk of working as they are less likely to be asked for documentation on the streets of Amman, Damascus and beyond, and they thereby hope to be less likely to be deported.

Unemployment levels in Syria and Jordan, however, mean that even illegal work is hard to come by. It is because of this that the phenomenon of forced prostitution is becoming increasingly rife. The growing problem of sex trafficking is partly caused by poverty.

According to al-Azzawi, the lack of work permits, qualifications and opportunities "leads some women to prostitution in order to feed their children and their families." In other cases, the sheer lack of protection faced by some women push them into prostitution. Problems in such cases include threats of kidnapping issued against women should they not accept to prostitute themselves. These threats are issued especially against women whose husbands are dead or missing. "The women of Iraq live in a very fragile situation as a result of the American occupation’s crimes," al-Azzawi said.

Death, torture and enforced disappearance

No statistical reference can adequately convey the sheer suffering experienced by the people of Iraq, as a whole, from the genocidal sanctions period through the invasion and ensuing occupation. Current estimates place the number of dead at anywhere between 1.5 million and 2.5 million.

According to Iraqi human rights analyst and advocate Asma al-Haidari, "Up to one million Iraqis have been forcibly disappeared." Behind the enforced disappearances are the US army, Iraqi government forces including the army and police, and al-Qaeda and other militias that operate freely across the country, according to a presentation given by Dirk Adriaensens, member of the BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee, at a London conference organized by the International Committee Against Disappearances on 9-12 December 2010. According to calculations by Adriaensens, based on UNHCR statistics, 20 percent of internally displaced Iraqi families have reported cases of missing children ("Enforced Disappearance. The Missing Persons of Iraq" [PDF]).

It is also understood that, given that there is a very real and justified fear of retaliation against families who report the disappearances of their loved ones, many others suffer in silence. Thousands of detainees, some of them in secret, illegal prisons, according to al-Azzawi, are women. Estimates published in 2008 by the Iraqi Parliamentary Women’s Committee and the Iraqi Ministry of Women’s Affairs indicate that between one and two million Iraqi women are widows.

Inside Iraq’s jails, legal or not, cases of torture and sexual abuse have been widely reported. Revelations by WikiLeaks published on 22 October 2010 were described by Iraqi activists such as Sabah al-Mukhtar, president of the Arab Lawyers’ Union, as just "the tip of the iceberg," as he said on an Al-Jazeera English interview on 24 October. According to al-Azzawi, women are usually jailed on trumped-up charges of terrorism, where there is no proof and while there is no adequate legal system to ensure their right to a fair trial. "Many are awaiting execution," al-Azzawi added.

Further, when it is the man who disappears, whether he is dead or missing, women and their families have to fend for themselves in a hellish situation. Out of this horror comes forth one of the more obtuse trends, inexistent in Iraq up until 2003, of families giving their daughters away in early marriage for fear of being unable to adequately support them.

One immediate effect of this phenomenon is the fact that girls aged 13, 14 and 15 sold into early marriage lose their right to education. As figures currently stand, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report published on 1 September 2010, for every 100 boys in school, there are only 89 girls ("Girls Education in Iraq 2010" [PDF]).

"Lots of those little girls are very bright and are willing to finish their education if they are allowed to," said al-Azzawi.

Worse still is the flourishing of what are known as "pleasure marriages." These are short-term marriages conducted out of court, whereby separation is also very simple. It is a practice that Iraqi women’s rights advocates describe as linked to prostitution, because of the wrongful abuse of the practice by men in power, often blackmailing fathers into giving their daughters away in a "pleasure marriage," and also because once a girl or a woman has married in this way and has received alimony for her short-term commitment, she will find it very difficult to reintegrate back into her family.

"Many girls are forced into prostitution and ultimately sex trafficking this way," al-Azzawi added.

Forced Islamization of society

It is deeply telling that Iraqi society is becoming forcibly Islamized by militias tied to the Iraqi puppet government, which is dependent upon the United States for its survival. Meanwhile, Washington claims to be fighting a war on Islamic terrorism. The reality, as is frequently the case, is the precise opposite. Previously a secular state, Iraqi society is becoming forcibly transformed into a theocracy. In such systems, women and girls inevitably lose.

The results of the proliferation of fundamentalist militias are varied. While reports of Christian women veiling in order to avoid attacks are troubling in the Iraqi context, what is potentially much worse is that the notion of an Iraqi state for all its citizens is fast disappearing. Not only does this mean that Iraqi girls are no longer safe on the streets; it also means that if the occupation fulfills its goals, Iraqi "career women" may be a thing of the past.

Al-Azzawi notes that "Economically the country has lost a huge, skilled working force, which is exactly what the occupation planned to do, and the lives of millions of working women and families were shattered."

Considering that there is not a single right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that the US occupation has not violated — as the International Initiative to Prosecute US Genocide in Iraq team found when working in 2009 to bring a legal case for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against four US presidents and four UK prime ministers — it is amazing yet encouraging that the US occupation’s goals have failed.

Not only is the US administration under President Barack Obama still battling to maintain control over a country whose people resist in the name of their dignity and their love for Iraq, but many of the most outspoken and brilliant advocates for Iraqis’ rights in general are in fact women.

"I have much hope for Iraq," said human rights advocate Asma al-Haidari, "Nothing will make me lose hope."

The Day In Quotes:

• 35 year old man on the experience of being tortured by British troops in Basrah:

  “The main problem is that my reputation is ruined. The people in our area, when they hear I have been arrested by the British Army, assumed I had been abused by British soldiers. People associate the British Army with sexual abuse.” 

  Source: Britain faces payout shame as hundreds of detainees claim soldiers abused them – Times Online:

• Qassim al-Abbudi, an official with the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), to reporters:

  "We will count 600 boxes today,"

  Source: Al Arabiya.net | Middle East News | Baghdad begins vote recount requested by PM:  

Human Rights:

Reporters Sans Frontières – Forty predators of press freedom:

In Iraq, journalists who do their job face real dangers from the conflicts that keep erupting but the situation is slowly improving and the violence is affecting the general population more than journalists in particular. That is why Reporters Without Borders has withdrawn Islamist groups from the ranks of the predators.

Britain faces payout shame as hundreds of detainees claim soldiers abused them – Times Online:

The cash-strapped Ministry of Defence faces the prospect of further compensation payouts as hundreds of Iraqis held in British custody file complaints of abuse, described to The Times by former detainees.

snip

The family of Baha Musa, an Iraqi who died in British custody in 2003, shared a £2.83 million MoD settlement with nine others. An inquiry into his death saw evidence suggesting that the illegal treatment of prisoners, such as hooding and sleep deprivation, was widespread.

Substantial out-of-court settlements have also been reached with nine men who made allegations of violence and sexual abuse at the hands of British soldiers in 2003 at a base known as Camp Breadbasket.

The MoD admitted in 2008 that Iraqis were unlawfully assaulted at the base in Basra.
Leigh Day solicitors, who represented the nine men, said that a further 14 have since come forward. The law firm also represents about 100 other Iraqi citizens in claims against the MoD for alleged maltreatment by British forces, mainly relating to arrest and detention. “Fresh allegations continue to come forward, so the number of cases will undoubtedly rise,” a spokesman for the firm said.

snip

He said: “The main problem is that my reputation is ruined. The people in our area, when they hear I have been arrested by the British Army, assumed I had been abused by British soldiers. People associate the British Army with sexual abuse.”

Military court hears Graner’s Abu Ghraib appeal | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com:

The U.S. military’s highest court is considering whether a "Catch-22" prevented the alleged ringleader of detainee abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq from getting a fair trial in 2005.

In arguments today in Washington, Army Spc. Charles Graner’s lawyer told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces that the defense was wrongly denied access to classified documents indicating that some of the harsh treatment of detainees reflected "enhanced interrogation techniques" approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

One of the five justices questioned whether the secret nature of the documents made it impossible for the defense to request specific memos — a situation he called a Catch-22.

The court is expected to rule by August on Graner’s request for a new trial.

SEAL accused of assault in Iraq goes to trial in Norfolk | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com:

The last of three U.S. Navy SEALs to face court-martial in connection with the alleged abuse of a suspected terrorist in Iraq is scheduled to stand trial this week at Norfolk Naval Station.

snip

The SEAL who will stand trial beginning today, Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe, is the only one who is accused of physically harming Abed. The charges against him include assault for allegedly punching Abed in the midsection; dereliction of duty for not protecting Abed; and making a false statement to an investigator who later interviewed him about the matter.

Military defends prosecution of SEAL – Washington Times:

The U.S. military is issuing an extensive defense of its decision to prosecute three Navy SEALs on charges of abusing a terrorism suspect they had captured in Iraq, after two of the servicemen were found not guilty during courts-martial.

Politics and Security

Monday: 6 Iraqis Killed, 16 Wounded — Antiwar.com:

At least six Iraqis were killed and 16 more were wounded as a manual recount of ballots begin today in Baghdad. The contentious recount was not without its own controversy as the prime minister’s party found fault with the procedures that could help them win more seats in the new parliament.

كونا : Three explosions kill three Iraqis, injured 13 – الدفاع والأمن – 03/05/2010:

BAGHDAD, May 3 (KUNA) — Three Iraqi civilians wer killed and 13 others injured by explosions at Al-Zafarania, New Baghdad and Al-Kesra, Iraqi military sources said on Monday.
The first explosion took place near Al-Kbaisi cafe at the main road of Al-Zafarania town. The booby-trapped car blast resulted in the wounding of four Iraqis, as well as the destruction of the cafe.
The second explosion occured in Al-Darwesh Bakery in New Baghdad resulted in the death of one Iraqi civilian and the injurey of six others.
At Al-Kesra town, northern Baghdad, an explosive device attached to a parked car killed two civilians, and injured three others.

Three killed in two separate attacks in Iraq – Monsters and Critics:

An unidentified group of gunmen attacked two employees of the court of first instance in Toz, just south of the city Kirkuk, leaving one dead and the other injured.

In a separate incident, an Iraqi soldier and a police officer were killed while walking along a road when a remotely controlled bomb exploded in a parked car in the province of Salah al-Din, security forces said.

كونا : Iraqi electoral commission: manual re-counting starts officially in Baghdad – الشؤون السياسية – 03/05/2010:

The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) announced launch of the manual re-counting and sorting of ballots at Al-Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad, IHEC Spokesman Qassim Al-Abodi said on Monday.

It is expected that recount and sorting of 600 ballot stations would be done today and that 800 ballot boxes a day would be counted within the upcoming few days, he told reporters.

Recount process is expected to last between 11 to 15 days, he said.

Al-Maliki’s coalition calls for halt to vote recount (1st Lead) – Monsters and Critics

Baghdad – Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s State of law Coalition Monday called for halting the recount of votes cast in Baghdad, saying ‘it does not comply with the court’s decision’.

Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission started earlier on Monday recounting votes of the March parliamentary elections in the capital, as ordered by a court last month.

The coalition said it filed a new complaint to the court to say that the ‘commission insists that the results would not reflect the true will of the voters.’

snip

Al-Shahristani said that the process should have started by comparing the number of voters with the number of votes, and if they match, then they would start the manual recount.

Iraq locked in two-man power struggle after vote : The Peninsula On-line: Qatar:

BAGHDAD: Two months after a general election that produced no outright winner, Iraq has become locked in a battle between two men fighting for power that threatens its fragile security and hopes for stability.

Whether or not Shia Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki and ex-Prime Minister Iyad Allawi are putting personal ambition ahead of the nation’s good, their battle could stoke sectarian tensions and invite foreign interference, analysts say. “The battle in many ways boils down to the personal antipathy between the two, something which is now threatening political stability,” IHS Global Insight Middle East analyst Gala Riani said.

Election Victories Help Kurds in Iraq Push for More Sovereignty – NYTimes.com:

As the deadlock in Baghdad has deepened with the recent disqualification of some winning Sunni candidates and the coming vote recount in the capital, important bloc leaders like the Kurdish president, Massoud Barzani, have been heavily courted for support in forming coalitions.

But no one has been more openly aggressive in the jockeying for position than Mr. Barzani, and he is being closely watched because the issues he seeks to influence all have stark ramifications for Iraq’s stability. In particular, his demands for a federalist approach to governing Iraq — a weakened national government and stronger regional control — have revived fears that his Iraqi Kurdistan region may eventually try to secede.

An unlikely Iraqi leader emerges – latimes.com:

Among all the candidates being touted for the prime minister’s job in the next Iraqi government, one stands out for his near-total lack of political experience.

snip

But Sadr’s heritage puts him in the ranks of aristocracy, at least by Iraqi Shiite Muslim standards. He is the only son of the revered Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir Sadr, who was executed by Saddam Hussein in 1980 and whose portrait looms large on billboards in almost every Shiite community across the country. And he is a second cousin and brother-in-law of the radical cleric Muqtada Sadr, who commands a vast following among poor Shiites.

Jaafar Sadr’s pedigree alone was enough to ensure that when he ran from Baghdad on Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s State of Law list, he received the slate’s most votes after Maliki — albeit with a huge gulf. That secured him a seat in parliament. He also came in second in an advisory referendum Muqtada Sadr supporters held on the prime minister’s post, and he was named one of their two candidates for the job.

Society and Economy:

Scania is back in Iraq | Business Wire:

Scania has a presence in Iraq again, including both production and sales. Trucks ordered by government customers are being assembled locally there, while an independent distributor is supplying the private sector market with imported vehicles. This distributor is also responsible for the reconstruction of Scania’s sales and service network in the country.

“If the situation in Iraq continues to stabilise, within a few years the country can regain its position as Scania’s most important market in the Middle East,” says Martin Lundstedt, Executive Vice President and responsible for the company’s sales and marketing.

In the early 1980s, Iraq was one of Scania’s largest markets. At the peak, sales totalled 3,900 trucks in one year (1981).

Late in 2009, Iraq’s State Company for Automotive Industry (SCAI) began production of the first of 500 trucks ordered under the terms of an agreement between Scania and Iraq’s Ministry of Industry & Minerals. Production is taking place at the government’s Iskandariyah industrial complex south of Baghdad.

“Creating jobs in the country’s industry has been an important aspect of the agreement between Scania and the Iraqi government,” Lundstedt says.

Today the SCAI facility in Iskandariyah employs about 300 people in its Scania operations, which not only includes final assembly of truck chassis but also bodywork for delivery of ready-to-drive trucks.

So far, SCAI has delivered some 150 fully equipped trucks to various public sector customers, for example tank trucks to the Ministry of Water Protection and Supply.

Dissent Magazine | Seven Years–And There’s Still No Labor Law in Iraq:

Seven years since the invasion and Iraq still does not have a labor law. Workers in the public sector are denied the right to organise and join trade unions and collective bargaining is almost impossible. It’s a disgrace. The good news that the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has set up an Iraqi Labour Campaign: For a Fair and Just Labour Law.  For a short history of the Iraqi unions before and after the invasion order this rather splendid pamphlet from the TUC.

Gulf Times – Qatar’s top-selling English daily newspaper – Qatar:

The Iraqi Cultural Week got under way on Saturday as part of the ‘Doha, Capital of Arab Culture 2010’ celebrations. The week, featuring exhibitions and folk performances, will run until Wednesday at the Qatar National Theatre.

Commentary and Analysis

Intimidating the Iraqis Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English):

It is not strange for al-Maliki to try to hold onto his position – for this is the case with most Arab rulers – but by doing so he is threatening the political process and putting all of Iraq in danger. Al-Maliki is today trying to scare the Iraqis with the prospect of UN interference; however the UN is the chief election monitor and observer, and Iraq remains under the purview of Chapter VII of the UN Chapter which gives the UN Security Council the final say in this matter. Al-Maliki is right that there is no need to involve the UN, but the problem is that by trying to change the announced election results he has caused the elector bloc that originally won the most number of seats to call for help from the authorities in charge of supervising the elections. Al-Maliki has also called for a recount without first guaranteeing that this will take place in a transparent atmosphere and under the supervision of a party that is acceptable to all electoral blocs, not just his own. We do not understand what has afflicted al-Maliki to cause him to raise all of these obstacles, especially as there is no clear victor that would be able to form a government on their own, and al-Maliki or Allawi or anybody else cannot form a government or become Prime Minister without first allying with other parties.

The government wants to keep human rights abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan out of court by cutting legal aid. It won’t succeed

The period since the attacks of 9/11 represent another chapter in the UK’s long history of human rights abuses abroad. The interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq have been followed with clear evidence of UK complicity in torture by the US in Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib and the secret prisons at the heart of the extraordinary rendition scandal.

Iraq has been particularly problematic for those inhabiting the dark corridors of power within the MoD and intelligence services. The case establishing that the 1998 Human Rights Act did apply in UK facilities in Iraq led to the government being forced to concede the inquiry into the brutal murder of Baha Mousa by British soldiers.

The Baha Mousa inquiry will expose the systemic failings leading to the reintroduction of the five techniques banned from Northern Ireland in the early 1970s: hooding, stressing, sleep deprivation, food and water deprivation and the use of noise. It will further expose the complete strategic failure of civil servants and politicians to plan for the occupation and how that led directly to prisoner abuse.

The bad news got worse in July 2009 when the government was forced to concede another judicial inquiry, this one into the events following the battle of Danny Boy. Iraqis allege that UK soldiers executed a number of Iraqis and tortured nine survivors at a military base in May 2004. The case was conceded when it became clear that despite the government’s best efforts to cover up evidence, including by deliberately failing to disclose key documents, the armed forces minister knew a great deal more than previously admitted and had even written to Tony Blair about the incident. If anything untoward happened that night which was covered up then heads at the highest level will roll.

The bad news from Iraq gets worse: my law firm has 47 ongoing high-profile cases which include allegations of male rape, other serious sexual abuse including by females of male Muslims, every conceivable kind of coercive interrogation technique and abuse by the "secret army" of interrogators known as the Joint Forward Interrogation Team.

As for Afghanistan it is hardly surprising that what took place in Iraq was replicated there. My firm’s next case focuses on the UK’s detention policy in Afghanistan, where we routinely hand over Afghans to the Afghan authorities in full knowledge of the torture, summary executions and disappearances occurring within their facilities. One hardly needs to add the hugely embarrassing revelations from the Binyam Mohamed litigation to understand the serious challenges such litigation presents to those in power with most to hide.

Thus it is that I turn to this government’s disgraceful response to these challenges, namely, to make it impossible for such cases to ever see the light of day. The recent government consultation paper entitled "Legal Aid: Refocusing on Priority Cases" plans to remove legal aid for non-residents. Under the guise of saving £140,000 a year and the smokescreen of efficiency this proposal would remove the right of, say, Colonel Mousa to come to a UK court with a judicial review about the murder of his son, Baha. It is a barefaced political manoeuvre and will be challenged. Apart from any other reason it is unlawful because the proposal is racially discriminatory, employing an irrelevant distinction of nationality to exclude Iraqis and others who seek to alert our courts to these issues of huge constitutional significance. Our government knows no shame and the civil servants behind it are obviously desperate. Neither will succeed.

UK can’t cover up abuse forever | Phil Shiner | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

A secret army interrogation unit accused of being responsible for the widespread abuse of Iraqi prisoners is being investigated by the Ministry of Defence.

Fourteen fresh claims of torture against the British Army include detailed accounts of a shadowy team of military and MI5 interrogators who are alleged to have authorised the physical and sexual abuse of Iraqi detainees.

The new allegations bring the total number of cases being investigated by the Government to 47.

Many of the Iraqis allege they were abused after they were sent to a unit called the Joint Forward Intelligence Team (JFIT) based at the Army’s Shaibah Logistics Base, 13 miles from Basra, between 2004 and 2007. Nearly all the men say they were beaten, denied sleep and then dragged around the prison compound before facing multiple interrogations.

In one account the interrogators are accused of creating an image superimposing a suspect’s head on the body of a man who is sexually abusing a child, and then threatening to disseminate the image throughout Basra.

In another, a detainee, held in solitary confinement for 36 days, alleges that interrogators threatened to rape his wife and kill his children.

Many of the detainees’ witness statements appear to corroborate each other by referring to named soldiers responsible for their alleged torture.

According to the Iraqis’ solicitors, Public Interest Law (PIL), the men were all held in solitary confinement in a "compound within a compound" guarded by a specialist detachment of soldiers. The lawyers claim that the JFIT interrogators were a mix of members of the military, MI5 and civilian staff and that they took their orders directly from London.

In 2003 the Americans raised concerns that the British were failing to secure intelligence from Iraqi prisoners held at the UK/US Camp Bucca in southern Iraq who were suspected of having close links with extremist militias. They urged their British counterparts to take a tougher line.

Lawyers and human rights groups now believe the British heeded the Americans’ concerns by allowing personnel attached to JFIT to conduct coercive and unlawful interrogations. The Americans were later found to have tortured prisoners held at the Abu Ghraib prison, which has since been renamed the Baghdad Central Prison.

Between 2004 and 2007 hundreds of prisoners were held at the Divisional Temporary Detention Facility compound run by JFIT at the Shaibah base. When the JFIT interrogators had finished with them, the prisoners were released into the camp’s main prison halls, where they claim their abuse continued.

Many of these detainees complain of being subjected to sexual and physical abuse by male and female soldiers. Last year The Independent reported that the Ministry of Defence was investigating 33 separate allegations of abuse.

Phil Shiner, a human rights lawyer who is representing all the detainees, said that the Government must come clean about the role of the JFIT interrogators in the alleged unlawful detention and abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

In a legal letter, setting out the men’s claims and sent to the Defence Secretary, Bob Ainsworth, Mr Shiner said: "The forms of ill-treatment suffered by the claimants include physical beatings, deprivation of food, exposure to the cold and excessive heat, threats of rape and violence, sexual humiliation and solitary confinement. It is manifestly clear that the extent and culmination of the above amount to a clear and egregious breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

"In particular, the allegations evidence a return to the use of coercive interrogation techniques declared unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Ireland vUK (1978) 2 EHRR 25.

"It must also be said that the marked similarity of the claimants’ allegations with so many other cases lends a great weight of credibility to the allegations."

He added: "Much of the ill-treatment suffered by the men was clearly intended to break their will for the purpose of interrogation. This is in clear breach of international provisions and in clear breach of ECtHR jurisprudence."

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defence said that while she could not comment on any individual cases she was able to confirm that all 47 were or will be investigated.

She also confirmed that JFIT is part of the Army’s intelligence corps and that, as for any other military personnel, the allegations made against them will be investigated but "remain allegations until they are proven".

The Armed Forces minister, Bill Rammell, said: "We must never forget that over 120,000 British troops have served in Iraq and the vast, vast majority have conducted themselves to the highest standards of behaviour, displaying integrity and selfless commitment. Only a tiny number have ever fallen short of our high standards, but even a tiny number is unacceptable. All allegations of abuse are taken very seriously. However, allegations must not be taken as fact, and formal investigations must be allowed to take their course without judgements being made prematurely."

Case study: ‘A soldier hit me again and again with a hammer for at least three minutes’

In one of the most disturbing cases Hussain Ghazi Shihab, 35, claims he was badly beaten by soldiers before being handed over to specialist interrogators at Shaibah.

He recalls: "The officer showed me another photograph of a man… [and] insisted that I knew where he lived. I told him I did not know, otherwise I would take him there. The more I told them I couldn’t help, the more the officer instructed the soldiers to beat me further. The soldiers were hitting me with their fists, kicking me and bringing their rifle butts down on to my head and body. I was hit hard in the stomach by a soldier who had picked up a hammer.

"The pain was horrendous and I fell forward grabbing my stomach in agony. He hit me again and again with the hammer for at least three minutes on different parts of my body, but mainly concentrating on my stomach… I vomited later when I was in the tank and there was blood in the vomit."

The injuries were so serious he claims members of the Joint Forward Intelligence Team were forced to break off the interrogations so he could receive hospital treatment. Mr Shihab, a policeman employed by Iraq’s Ministry of Transport in Basra, said the lead interrogator who threatened and abused him during his detention in 2006 was dressed in civilian clothes.

In one of the most shocking allegations made against British soldiers, Mr Shihab alleges the interrogators superimposed his head on the photograph of a man sexually abusing a child.

"The photographs were of Western faces and the people looked to be around 15 to 16 years old," he said. "The sheet of paper was about A4 size and there were around 10 photographs on it. The interrogator told me that I should admit to raping the children in the pictures. He said that if didn’t confess he would send information to Basra to say that I was part of a sex gang which kidnapped and raped young girls and then threw them on to the street.

"He said they were just about to send the picture to the police unless I gave them the information they required. They even said they would distribute it on the streets in my area to my neighbours and friends."

Case study: Sleep deprived, kept in the dark, blindfolded

Sajjad Naji Nassir, 40, was arrested at his home by British forces on 18 September 2005 when he claims he was shot in the foot and fell unconscious.

On arrival at Shaibah he was forced into a kneeling stress position on pebbled ground. In a letter to the Ministry of Defence his lawyers allege that he was barefoot and was dressed only in his underwear. If he moved or rested from the stress position a soldier kicked him in the back, he says. Mr Nassir was in this position for three hours before being taken to an interrogation. He estimates that over an eight-hour period he was interrogated eight times before returning to his permanently dark prison cell.

He was held in these conditions for two-and-a-half months, during which time he was interrogated frequently, he says. When Mr Nassir was taken out of his cell he was blindfolded and ear muffed and walked in a disorienting zigzag.

He was deprived of sleep by soldiers making noise and kicking the doors of the cells. Soldiers also allegedly played pornographic movies at high volume, including during Ramadan. He could only eat bread and fruit because the soldiers could not confirm the meat was halal.

Source:  Exclusive: Secret Army squad ‘abused Iraqis’ By Robert Verkaik, Home Affairs Editor – Home News, UK – The Independent

Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, it has emerged.

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.

Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

Allegations of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photographs was never revealed. He has now confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

The graphic nature of some of the images may explain the US President’s attempts to block the release of an estimated 2,000 photographs from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan despite an earlier promise to allow them to be published.

Maj Gen Taguba, who retired in January 2007, said he supported the President’s decision, adding: “These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.

“I am not sure what purpose their release would serve other than a legal one and the consequence would be to imperil our troops, the only protectors of our foreign policy, when we most need them, and British troops who are trying to build security in Afghanistan.

“The mere description of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it.”

In April, Mr Obama’s administration said the photographs would be released and it would be “pointless to appeal” against a court judgment in favour of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

But after lobbying from senior military figures, Mr Obama changed his mind saying they could put the safety of troops at risk.

Earlier this month, he said: “The most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to inflame anti-American public opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.”

It was thought the images were similar to those leaked five years ago, which showed naked and bloody prisoners being intimidated by dogs, dragged around on a leash, piled into a human pyramid and hooded and attached to wires.

Mr Obama seemed to reinforce that view by adding: “I want to emphasise that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib.”

The latest photographs relate to 400 cases of alleged abuse between 2001 and 2005 in Abu Ghraib and six other prisons. Mr Obama said the individuals involved had been “identified, and appropriate actions” taken.

Maj Gen Taguba’s internal inquiry into the abuse at Abu Ghraib, included sworn statements by 13 detainees, which, he said in the report, he found “credible based on the clarity of their statements and supporting evidence provided by other witnesses.”

Among the graphic statements, which were later released under US freedom of information laws, is that of Kasim Mehaddi Hilas in which he says: “I saw [name of a translator] ******* a kid, his age would be about 15 to 18 years. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn’t covered and I saw [name] who was wearing the military uniform, putting his **** in the little kid’s ***…. and the female soldier was taking pictures.”

The translator was an American Egyptian who is now the subject of a civil court case in the US.

Three detainees, including the alleged victim, refer to the use of a phosphorescent tube in the sexual abuse and another to the use of wire, while the victim also refers to part of a policeman’s “stick” all of which were apparently photographed.

Source: Abu Ghraib abuse photos ’show rape’ – Telegraph 

By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent and Paul Cruickshank
Last Updated: 11:52PM BST 27 May 2009