[Vision2020] Torture in Iraq Worse Than Under Saddam

[Donovan Arnold]

Nick,
  
 Don't you miss the good old simpler days in Iraq when  we only had to deal with one tyrant and his sons gassing and torturing  the public? 
  
You ought to campaign for his return. I hear  Saddam is tanned, back in shape, and ready to take back over. It will  be a kinder gentler torture in the Saddam II regime. 
  
  Best,
  
  _DJA
  
  

nickgier at adelphia.net wrote:  Torture in Iraq 'worse than under Saddam'

Staff and agencies
Thursday September 21, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

Torture  in Iraq is worse now than it was under the regime of Saddam Hussein and  "is totally out of hand", according to a United Nations investigator.

"The  situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it has been in the  times of Saddam Hussein," said Manfred Nowak, a UN special investigator  on torture, at a press conference in Geneva.

He said government forces, private militia and terrorist groups were all involved.

"You  have terrorist groups, you have the military, you have police, you have  these militias. There are so many people who are actually abducted,  seriously tortured and finally killed," said Mr Nowak, an Austrian law  professor.

"It's not just torture by the government. There are much more brutal methods of torture you'll find by private militias."

Mr Nowak also said that bodies were being discovered with very heavy and very serious torture marks.

He  said a mission to Iraq to investigate torture was too dangerous, but he  had gathered information from interviews with people in Amman, Jordan,  and other sources.

Mr Nowak is in Geneva to brief the UN Human  Rights council - a body that addresses human rights violations - on the  situation of the United States detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

He  is one of five UN human rights investigators who in February called for  the closure of the camp on the grounds it was a "torture camp". The  calls were rejected by the US.

Mr Nowak's comments come a day  after the human rights office of the UN assistance mission for Iraq  (Unami) raised concerns about the violence gripping the country. It  said that 6,599 civilians had died in July and August.

Unami  cited increasing evidence of violent torture, a growth in the numbers  of death squads, and a rise in the honour killings of women and girls.

"Corpses  appear regularly in and around Baghdad and other areas. Most bear signs  of torture and appear to be victims of extrajudicial executions," said  the report.

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