Meet the new boss, same as the old boss: Iraq running secret prison again?

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Nothing in Iraq happens without the approval of Al-Maliki. Nothing. So when the Human Rights Watch group and a Los Angeles Times writeup both accuse the military of either running secret prisons and/or of torture, Maliki is also complicit in these charges. From Jurist:

Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] on Tuesday accused military officials [HRW report] overseen by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki [BBC profile; JURISTnews archive] of running a secret jail in Iraq that is not subject to inspection by international groups and torturing suspects [JURIST news archive] in another detention center. The report claims that the Iraqi Army’s 56th Brigade controls the secret prison located in Camp Justice, and that Iraqi authorities ordered 280 detainees transferred there from Camp Honor in November 2010 days before international inspectors were to visit Camp Honor. The HRW report found that the 56th Brigade tortured suspects at Camp Honor, echoing a Los Angeles Times report [text] from last week. The Times found that the Camp Honor jail is run by the 56th Brigade rather than the Ministry of Justice, that prisoners face inhumane conditions, are held indefinitely and are often denied access to family members and lawyers. According to the HRW report, personnel in the overcrowded Camp Honor extracted confessions from suspected terrorists by beating them, suffocating them and making threats against their families. Deputy Justice Minister Buso Ibrahim denied the Times report [AFP report] last week, claiming that inmates can communicate with lawyers and family members and that they do not face torture or inhumane conditions. Ibrahim claimed the International Committee of the Red Cross [advocacy website] had visited Camp Honor, but the ICRC denied this, saying that it canceled the planned visit because the Iraqi government wanted to restrict its ability to talk to prisoners. Deputy Middle East director at HRW Joe Stark commented, “Revelations of secret jails in the heart of Baghdad completely undermine the Iraqi government’s promises to respect the rule of law. The government needs to close these places or move them under control of the justice system, improve conditions for detainees, and make sure that anyone responsible for torture is punished.”

In October, UN High Commissioner for Civil Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] called for the US and Iraq toinvestigate and prosecute [JURIST report] those responsible for alleged abuses that came to light afterWikiLeaks [website] released documents showing extensive human rights abuses in Iraq and accusing US forces of turning prisoners over to Iraqi forces despite knowing those prisoners were likely to face torture. Days earlier, HRW called for the Iraqi and US governments to launch an investigation [JURIST report] and prosecute those responsible for alleged detainee abuse. The group said the WikiLeaks reports detail the US military’s failure to prevent abuses, including beatings, burnings and lashings, of Iraqi detainees at the hands of their captors. In September, Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] accused the Iraqi government [JURIST report] of illegally detaining over 30,000 people and torturing many of them. Last April, HRW accused Iraqi authorities of torturing detainees [JURIST report] in another secret prison.

Nothing will ever change in Iraq it seems. There have been centuries of hate and overthrowing empires. What is pathetic however is that we, via Bush43,  have put in power another group that is no different than the one we deposed. Obama seems to be turning a blind eye to this and I can only hope that changes…soon.

About Post Author

Carol Bell

Carol is a graduate of the University of Alabama. Her passion is journalism and it shows. Carol is our unpaid, but very efficient, administrative secretary.
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13 years ago

The Jurist paragraphs came that way Stimpson, I didn’t make them. When I quote a news piece, I serve it up as it’s written, sorry. The narrowness of our page here makes it hard on the eyes I think. ;(

Obama’s administration doesn’t seem any more concerned about human rights, as a whole, than the Bush43 administration did..and that is very disconcerting for me.

Michael John Scott
Reply to  Dusty
13 years ago

The president just got into a serious debate with the Chinese leadership over human rights. He in no way resembles Bush in that respect, in my humble opinion of course.

Reply to  Michael John Scott
13 years ago

Michael, I qualified my comment here with’as a whole’. Obama has fought in the courts, dumping DADT.

Obama gently broached the human rights question during his presser w/the chinese president, although I will give him huge props for bringing up Tibet during the presser. Whether there was a serious debate in private, who can say? What I read was that Obama was more concerned about how China seriously screws with their currency more than their human rights abuses during their private time together, which is also a big deal for our economy.

Stimpson
13 years ago

Wow, that was a difficult read. Important information, but what’s with the enormous paragraphs?

I’m not surprised either. Human rights in Iraq wasn’t important to Washington when it invaded the country. It’s still not important to Washington now.

Michael John Scott
13 years ago

I am not a bit surprised by this news. I am surprised that it took so long to leak.

Reply to  Michael John Scott
13 years ago

Wikileaks kinda started the ball rolling and the LAT picked it up. The Bush admin tried like hell to bury all the bad press and it largely succeeded. All Bush43 did was install another bad regime but it’s just a different friggin religion.

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