*finally* Abu Ghraib is shut down

[Irvine511]

but, of course, no one is held responsible for anything -- just 8 bad apples in the bunch, nothing systemic, no one ordered anything from on high, and it's not like *Rumsfeld* should be held accountable for the conduct of the American soldier!



[q]US to abandon Abu Ghraib

The American military has announced that it will close its notorious Abu Ghraib prison facility, probably within three months.

The prison, which currently holds over 4,500 detainees, is widely seen as a symbol for America's abuses of Iraqi prisoners.

When photographs were published showing US guards torturing detainees at Abu Ghraib, America's position in Iraq came under intense international criticism.

Since then, the America has faced repeated calls to shut the facility down.

But the announcement that Abu Ghraib is to be consigned to history came as it emerged that America's new prison complex - Camp Cropper, near Baghdad airport - will be completed and ready for use in about three months time.

It is expected that prisoners currently held in Abu Ghraib will be rehoused in Camp Cropper and other prison facilities around Iraq.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...ml&sSheet=/portal/2006/03/09/ixportaltop.html

[/q]

 

[U2democrat]

 

[verte76]

 

[deep]

Symbol of Abu Ghraib Seeks to Spare Others His Nightmare
By HASSAN M. FATTAH

AMMAN, Jordan, March 8 — Almost two years later, Ali Shalal Qaissi's wounds are still raw.

There is the mangled hand, an old injury that became infected by the shackles chafing his skin. There is the slight limp, made worse by days tied in uncomfortable positions. And most of all, there are the nightmares of his nearly six-month ordeal at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 and 2004.

Mr. Qaissi, 43, was prisoner 151716 of Cellblock 1A. The picture of him standing hooded atop a cardboard box, attached to electrical wires with his arms stretched wide in an eerily prophetic pose, became the indelible symbol of the torture at Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad. [The American military said Thursday that it would abandon the prison and turn it over to the Iraqi government.]

"I never wanted to be famous, especially not in this way," he said, as he sat in a squalid office rented by his friends here in Amman. That said, he is now a prisoner advocate who clearly understands the power of the imagenebulous security services. After the fall of the government, he managed a parking lot belonging to a mosque in Baghdad.

He was arrested in October 2003, he said, because he loudly complained to the military, human rights organizations and the news media about soldiers' dumping garbage on a local soccer field. But some of his comments suggest that he is at least sympathetic toward insurgents who fight American soldiers.

"Resistance is an international right," he said.

Weeks after complaining about the garbage, he said, he was surrounded by Humvees, hooded, tied up and carted to a nearby base before being transferred to Abu Ghraib. Then the questioning began.

"They blamed me for attacking U.S. forces," he said, "but I said I was handicapped; how could I fire a rifle?" he said, pointing to his hand. "Then he asked me, 'Where is Osama bin Laden?' And I answered, 'Afghanistan.' "

How did he know? "Because I heard it on TV," he replied.

He said it soon became evident that the goal was to coax him to divulge names of people who might be connected to attacks on American forces. His hand, then bandaged, was often the focus of threats and inducements, he said, with interrogators offering to fix it or to squash it at different times. After successive interrogationsssi himself, standing atop a cardboard box, taken 15 days into his detention. He said he had only recently been given a blanket after remaining naked for days, and had fashioned the blanket into a kind of poncho.

The guards took him to a heavy box filled with military meal packs, he said, and hooded him. He was told to stand atop the box as electric wires were attached to either hand. Then, he claims, they shocked him five times, enough for him to bite his tongue.

Specialist Sabrina Harman was convicted last May for her role in abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, but she was accused of threatening to electrocute a hooded inmate on a box if he stepped off it, not of shocking him while he was ato

 

[VintagePunk]

Yes, let's change the building. Close down the old one, open a new one. That will fix everything.

Idiots.

 

[A_Wanderer]

Too many people died there before the US took over management.

 

[Rono]

Too many people died there before the US took over management.

And both did feel superior above others,.....