More Ex-Prisoner Counts Deepen U.S. Quagmire In Iraq

A former prisoner, who went under the alias Abu Abdul Rahman, told IslamOnline.net about how the afflictions of the U.S. occupiers dwarfed the torture and oppression of the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein.

Stripped naked before his fellow male and female prisoners, thrown on the floor with his hands and feet tied together for hours and severely beaten with truncheons are part of the shocking physical and mental torture Abu Abdul Rahman received at the hands of U.S. jailers.

"To mention but a few examples, one day the U.S. prison guards packed up female prisoners and forced them to look at naked male prisoners being tortured," Abu Abdul Rahman started the interview.

"They [the women] were terrified that they could meet the same the fate."

Abu Abdul Rahman, who spent four months from September to December 2003, said fear, humiliation and physical duress were regular features of the daily regimen of the prisoners.

He said one of the prisoners, named as Al-Sayed Mohammad, defied orders to take off his clothes and underwear to be forcibly hooded and handcuffed before being naked.

"Other naked prisoners were handcuffed to a cell gate with his arms splayed so wide that his back is arched till the morning," psychosocially-scarred Abu Abdul Rahman added.

‘More Malicious’

Abu Abdul Rahman said there is a difference between Abu Gharib now and under Saddam.

"There were no female prisoners in Abu Gharib under Saddam," he said. "Add to that, the Iraqi jailers were providing the prisoners with food and water on the contrary to the Americans."

He said the prison houses now prisoners of different age groups.

"They [U.S. soldiers] make random arrests without charges under the pretext of joining the Iraqi resistance."

Abu Abdul Rahman further said female U.S. soldiers were far more malicious than their male peers.

"One of them had sex with a soldier in front of us as they knew that it is culturally offensive," he said.

He also said how a trigger-happy soldier maimed a prisoner to life, when he opened fire indiscriminately at a fight between two prisoner, costing him his eyesight.

The former prisoner asserted that the abuse and torture were taking place under the nose of the U.S. commanders.

"The maltreatment took place under the watchful eye of the prison’s director, who used to visit the place on a daily basis," he said.

Abu Abdul Rahman further said all prisoners agree that no amount of money will make up their tattered dignity and honor.

"All we want is to see those jailers sentenced to death, and we will accept no compromise," he said.

The American mire was deepened also with a new chilling count of a 16-year-old prisoner, who told British daily The Independent on Monday that he and his three brothers were beaten, given electric shocks, forced to stand under cold water and forced to kneel for hours on end under American interrogation. (Click here to read the interview).

More Photos Emerge

The fresh count coincided with the emergence of new graphic photos for U.S. soldiers torturing and terrorizing Iraqi prisoners.

The New Yorker magazine released a new photo showing a naked prisoner at Abu Ghraib leaning against a cell door, with his hands clasped behind his neck, cowering in fear as two U.S. military Shepherd dogs bark at him.

The magazine, which was among the first to publish images that have caused an international scandal, said others existed from the same scene showing the prisoner on the floor with blood pouring from a wound.

It said the pictures had been in the possession of a member of the 320th Military Police Battalion.

"In another take a few minutes later, the Iraqi is lying on the ground, writhing in pain, with a soldier sitting on top of him, knee pressed to his back. Blood is streaming from the inmate’s leg," said the report.

"Another photograph is a close-up of the naked prisoner, from his waist to his ankles, lying on the floor. On his right thigh is what appears to be a bite or a deep scratch. There is another larger wound on his left leg covered in blood."

Rumsfeld has admitted in his testimony before a Congress hearing that many more pictures and at least two videos that could worsen the scandal have been seized.

Apologies by U.S. President George Bush and other top officials have so far failed to water international outrage over the photos of abused prisoners, aired by U.S. network CBS news network on April 28.

Major General Antonio Taguba, who investigated Abu Ghraib, detailed the abuses and the fact that many were photographed in a damning report last February.

But neither Rumsfeld nor Myers had read the report before this week.

U.S. mass-circulation the Washington Post splashed Thursday, May 6, more abhorrent photos, saying it had obtained 1,000 digital pictures.

One of the photos showed a soldier holding a leash tied around the neck of a naked Iraqi detainee grimacing and lying on the floor.

Senior U.S. military officials hit out Sunday, May 9, at the Pentagon’s strategic and tactical blunders, calling for sacking their boss Donald Rumsfeld and his top aides.