An Iraqi criminal prisoner was tortured and beaten to death within three days of being turned over to police in Basra by British troops.
This latest detailed evidence of previously covered-up Iraq atrocities has emerged following the leak of a vast number of Iraq war logs compiled by the US army and containing hour-by-hour military field reports.
The 391,832 previously secret field reports, passed to the Guardian and other newspapers by the online whistleblowing group WikiLeaks, has already shown that US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, rape and murder by Iraqi police and soldiers.
According to the new evidence, British authorities were well aware of the atrocities that were occurring in Basra and were unhappy about them.
An autopsy was conducted on the prisoner, the police officer said to have killed him was named in a UK investigation, and high-level diplomatic protests were made to the Iraqi interior minister, without apparent result.
Documents obtained by the Guardian and by a Danish newspaper detail the arrest of Abbas Alawi by a joint British and Danish patrol on 10 April 2005.
In Operation Grey Wolf, Alawi – code-named Bravo One – was picked up along with three other men in a dawn raid by British infantry of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment. The logs record that the prisoners were handed over to the Basra police, controlled by Iraq's ministry of the interior.
A press officer boasted on the Danish military website at the time that Alawi was a much-feared gangster and fuel smuggler who had terrorised his neighbourhood.
A Danish lawyer, Jes Rynkeby Knudsen, currently serving as a military judge advocate, confirmed today that Alawi was killed by the police. He told the Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information: "I saw pictures of his body afterwards."
Alawi was kept in a secret and illegal jail for three days, from 10-13 April. When his blood-covered corpse was collected by relatives, the Basra governor ordered an autopsy which "substantiated charges that Allawi was beaten to death".
The death appears to have been a last straw for the exasperated western occupiers. On 1 June the Danish ambassador, Torben Getterman, accompanied by a British diplomat, Tim Torlot, and the US charge d'affaires, David Satterfield, confronted the Iraqi interior minister in Baghdad.
According to documents from diplomatic sources, they told the minister, Baqr Jabr, who was also responsible for the notorious Wolf Brigade torture squads, that the situation caused "grave concern". The diplomatic trio handed over an intelligence report of an investigation carried out by the British 12th Mechanised Brigade HQ.
It implicated three members of the investigations support unit (ISU), including a named lieutenant said to have killed Alawi, in "assassinations, kidnappings, intimidation, threats against the judiciary and illegal attacks against the citizens".
Torlot told the minister: "The problem … is far more widespread than indicated in a single report. Grave concerns regarding the Basra situation extend to the ministry of the interior as a whole … The crimes of the corrupt Iraqi police are well known on the streets of Basra."
A few days earlier, the Basra chief of police, General Hassan al-Sade, who was advised by a British deputy chief constable, Colin Smith, admitted to the Guardian that the Basra police were effectively out of control. He said: "I trust 25% of my force, no more."
The Iraq war logs have provided a wealth of evidence about the reported abuse of detainees by Iraqi forces, with at least six people reported to have died. US army reports, some supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners experiencing whipping, kicks, punches or electric shocks. As recently as December US forces were handed a video seemingly showing Iraqi army officers executing a prisoner.
Other revelations from the files include an incident in 2007 in which a US helicopter gunship killed two Iraqi men attempting to surrender and a previously unknown US military tally of civilian and insurgent casualties during the US occupation. According to Iraq Body Count, which monitors civilian casualties in the country, the leaked files detail around 15,000 extra civilian deaths.
A US intelligence analyst formerly based in Baghdad, Bradley Manning, faces a court martial charged with leaking similar material to WikiLeaks, which has also released similar logs concerning operations in Afghanistan.
The UN's chief investigator on torture has called on Barack Obama to order a full investigation into US forces' involvement in human rights abuses in Iraq. Obama's secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, has condemned the release of the files, saying it could put lives at risk.
Iraqi men are frisked by a British soldier before being allowed to re-enter Basra. Photograph: Chris Helgren/Reuters
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
WikiLeaks founder urges US to investigate alleged abuse by its troops
Julian Assange says claims in leaked documents yet to be investigated, as US faces UN grilling over human rights record
The founder of whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has called on the US to investigate alleged abuses by its troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, saying it has a "proud tradition" of self-scrutiny.
Julian Assange says the US has not started any investigations into the alleged incidents detailed in thousands of documents published by WikiLeaks and has instead concentrated on tracking down those responsible for the leaks and on hounding his group.
Last month, WikiLeaks published 400,000 US field reports containing evidence that US soldiers handed over detainees to a notorious Iraqi torture squad. This followed a the publication of 75,000 documents in the summer revealing how coalition forces killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents in Afghanistan.
Assange made his comments ahead of a big diplomatic set piece in Geneva tomorrow, when America's human rights record comes under scrutiny before the UN human rights council for the first time. Every UN member is subject to what his called a universal periodic review every four years. The US is taking its moment under the spotlight seriously, sending a high-level delegation of some 30 officials to fend off expected attacks in a forum dominated by developing countries, many of them Muslim.
Iran has already begun sniping at the US. Earlier this week an Iranian foreign ministry official said Tehran was concerned about violations of human rights in western countries, particularly in the US.
"We are seriously concerned about the human rights situation in western countries and will bring up our points during the UN human rights council universal periodic review conference," said Ramin Mehmanparast, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman.
In anticipation of criticism from countries such as Iran, the US said it was open to fair criticism of its record, while former senior American officials warned of political fireworks.
"There should be no illusions: the council is a highly political environment, and there is bound to be strong criticism of the United States on specific matters," said a comment piece in the New York Times co-written by Thomas Pickering, the former US ambassador to the UN.
While the US may brush aside attacks from the likes of Iran and Bolivia as highly partial, it cannot so lightly dismiss concerns from allies and friends. Britain, Japan, Norway have all raised concerns about the death penalty in the US.
"The UK remains concerned about the continuing use of the death penalty in the US, and particularly by evidence that the death penalty is administered in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner with an inevitable risk of miscarriages of justice," Britain said in a question submitted to the US. "Could you tell us what steps the administration is taking to address these concerns?"
Another pithy British question likely to make the Obama administration uncomfortable said: "Could you please outline the next steps needed to ensure the final closure of the detention facility in Guantánamo?"
Human rights groups have also piled in with their submissions. More than 300 activist groups, including Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union, have issued a separate 400-page report claiming that protection of fundamental freedoms has eroded since 9/11.
"Human rights advocates across America have not only documented substandard human rights practices which have persisted in the US for years, but also those that reflect the precipitous erosion of human rights protections in the US since 9/11," said Sarah Paoletti of the US human rights network.
"Whether it is migrant labourers who are excluded from workplace protections, children denied education because of the school-to-prison pipeline, or women denied equal pay in the workplace, advocates feel compelled to bring their experiences before international human rights mechanisms because the US legal system has fallen short."
A state department submission in August, written after extensive public consultation, said American was a democracy guided by "simple but powerful principles", but admits to discrimination against black people and Hispanics and a "broken" immigration system.
The US said it was at "currently at war with al-Qaida and its associated forces" but that it would comply with all applicable domestic and international law in armed conflicts and had ordered foreign detainees be treated humanely.
It pointed to a "free, thriving and diverse independent press", said it upheld freedom from religious persecution and had worked to ensure fair treatment of Muslims, Arab-Americans and South Asian communities affected by discrimination and intolerance since 9/11. It acknowledged concerns about the US justice system including capital punishment, juvenile justice, racial profiling and racial disparities in sentencing.
The UN general assembly created the 47-member human rights council in 2006 after its predecessor, the UN human rights commission, was discredited as a politicised forum which gave a platform to regimes with dismal human rights records.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
1. obviously, they covered it up for a reason
2. no one cares
it is just proving a point the the US does not abide by what the UN says. if the UN says investigate, we will tell the UN to kiss our ass, yet the US will use the UN to force it's will on other countries both through sanctions and going to war, and will veto any resolutions aimed at punishing israel for it's atrocites and occupations, and to deny UN recognition of a palestinian state...funny how we use the UN when it suits us, yet we blow it off when we are under the microscope....
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
How long before those people who tried to give us the lie that torture was the actions of a few bad apples (Donald Rumsfeld and Geoff Hoon, I'm looking in your direction) are called to account for their complicity in crimes against humanity?
93: Slane
96: Cork, Dublin
00: Dublin
06: London, Dublin
07: London, Copenhagen, Nijmegen
09: Manchester, London
10: Dublin, Belfast, London & Berlin
11: San José
12: Isle of Wight, Copenhagen, Ed in Manchester & London x2
How long before those people who tried to give us the lie that torture was the actions of a few bad apples (Donald Rumsfeld and Geoff Hoon, I'm looking in your direction) are called to account for their complicity in crimes against humanity?
they will never be held to account. instead they can make millions and live comfortably from the sweet book deals they are sure to get.
isn't it fucked up how the world rewards despicable people like them??
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
How long before those people who tried to give us the lie that torture was the actions of a few bad apples (Donald Rumsfeld and Geoff Hoon, I'm looking in your direction) are called to account for their complicity in crimes against humanity?
when that day happens ... i will honestly believe it will be the dawn of a new age ...
Comments
Iraq war logs: Prisoner beaten to death days after British handover to police
High-level diplomatic protests were made to Iraqi interior minister after death of Abbas Alawi while in custody of Basra police
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oc ... bbas-alawi
An Iraqi criminal prisoner was tortured and beaten to death within three days of being turned over to police in Basra by British troops.
This latest detailed evidence of previously covered-up Iraq atrocities has emerged following the leak of a vast number of Iraq war logs compiled by the US army and containing hour-by-hour military field reports.
The 391,832 previously secret field reports, passed to the Guardian and other newspapers by the online whistleblowing group WikiLeaks, has already shown that US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, rape and murder by Iraqi police and soldiers.
According to the new evidence, British authorities were well aware of the atrocities that were occurring in Basra and were unhappy about them.
An autopsy was conducted on the prisoner, the police officer said to have killed him was named in a UK investigation, and high-level diplomatic protests were made to the Iraqi interior minister, without apparent result.
Documents obtained by the Guardian and by a Danish newspaper detail the arrest of Abbas Alawi by a joint British and Danish patrol on 10 April 2005.
In Operation Grey Wolf, Alawi – code-named Bravo One – was picked up along with three other men in a dawn raid by British infantry of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment. The logs record that the prisoners were handed over to the Basra police, controlled by Iraq's ministry of the interior.
A press officer boasted on the Danish military website at the time that Alawi was a much-feared gangster and fuel smuggler who had terrorised his neighbourhood.
A Danish lawyer, Jes Rynkeby Knudsen, currently serving as a military judge advocate, confirmed today that Alawi was killed by the police. He told the Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information: "I saw pictures of his body afterwards."
Alawi was kept in a secret and illegal jail for three days, from 10-13 April. When his blood-covered corpse was collected by relatives, the Basra governor ordered an autopsy which "substantiated charges that Allawi was beaten to death".
The death appears to have been a last straw for the exasperated western occupiers. On 1 June the Danish ambassador, Torben Getterman, accompanied by a British diplomat, Tim Torlot, and the US charge d'affaires, David Satterfield, confronted the Iraqi interior minister in Baghdad.
According to documents from diplomatic sources, they told the minister, Baqr Jabr, who was also responsible for the notorious Wolf Brigade torture squads, that the situation caused "grave concern". The diplomatic trio handed over an intelligence report of an investigation carried out by the British 12th Mechanised Brigade HQ.
It implicated three members of the investigations support unit (ISU), including a named lieutenant said to have killed Alawi, in "assassinations, kidnappings, intimidation, threats against the judiciary and illegal attacks against the citizens".
Torlot told the minister: "The problem … is far more widespread than indicated in a single report. Grave concerns regarding the Basra situation extend to the ministry of the interior as a whole … The crimes of the corrupt Iraqi police are well known on the streets of Basra."
A few days earlier, the Basra chief of police, General Hassan al-Sade, who was advised by a British deputy chief constable, Colin Smith, admitted to the Guardian that the Basra police were effectively out of control. He said: "I trust 25% of my force, no more."
The Iraq war logs have provided a wealth of evidence about the reported abuse of detainees by Iraqi forces, with at least six people reported to have died. US army reports, some supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners experiencing whipping, kicks, punches or electric shocks. As recently as December US forces were handed a video seemingly showing Iraqi army officers executing a prisoner.
Other revelations from the files include an incident in 2007 in which a US helicopter gunship killed two Iraqi men attempting to surrender and a previously unknown US military tally of civilian and insurgent casualties during the US occupation. According to Iraq Body Count, which monitors civilian casualties in the country, the leaked files detail around 15,000 extra civilian deaths.
A US intelligence analyst formerly based in Baghdad, Bradley Manning, faces a court martial charged with leaking similar material to WikiLeaks, which has also released similar logs concerning operations in Afghanistan.
The UN's chief investigator on torture has called on Barack Obama to order a full investigation into US forces' involvement in human rights abuses in Iraq. Obama's secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, has condemned the release of the files, saying it could put lives at risk.
Iraqi men are frisked by a British soldier before being allowed to re-enter Basra. Photograph: Chris Helgren/Reuters
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Julian Assange says claims in leaked documents yet to be investigated, as US faces UN grilling over human rights record
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/no ... estigation
The founder of whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has called on the US to investigate alleged abuses by its troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, saying it has a "proud tradition" of self-scrutiny.
Julian Assange says the US has not started any investigations into the alleged incidents detailed in thousands of documents published by WikiLeaks and has instead concentrated on tracking down those responsible for the leaks and on hounding his group.
Last month, WikiLeaks published 400,000 US field reports containing evidence that US soldiers handed over detainees to a notorious Iraqi torture squad. This followed a the publication of 75,000 documents in the summer revealing how coalition forces killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents in Afghanistan.
Assange made his comments ahead of a big diplomatic set piece in Geneva tomorrow, when America's human rights record comes under scrutiny before the UN human rights council for the first time. Every UN member is subject to what his called a universal periodic review every four years. The US is taking its moment under the spotlight seriously, sending a high-level delegation of some 30 officials to fend off expected attacks in a forum dominated by developing countries, many of them Muslim.
Iran has already begun sniping at the US. Earlier this week an Iranian foreign ministry official said Tehran was concerned about violations of human rights in western countries, particularly in the US.
"We are seriously concerned about the human rights situation in western countries and will bring up our points during the UN human rights council universal periodic review conference," said Ramin Mehmanparast, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman.
In anticipation of criticism from countries such as Iran, the US said it was open to fair criticism of its record, while former senior American officials warned of political fireworks.
"There should be no illusions: the council is a highly political environment, and there is bound to be strong criticism of the United States on specific matters," said a comment piece in the New York Times co-written by Thomas Pickering, the former US ambassador to the UN.
While the US may brush aside attacks from the likes of Iran and Bolivia as highly partial, it cannot so lightly dismiss concerns from allies and friends. Britain, Japan, Norway have all raised concerns about the death penalty in the US.
"The UK remains concerned about the continuing use of the death penalty in the US, and particularly by evidence that the death penalty is administered in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner with an inevitable risk of miscarriages of justice," Britain said in a question submitted to the US. "Could you tell us what steps the administration is taking to address these concerns?"
Another pithy British question likely to make the Obama administration uncomfortable said: "Could you please outline the next steps needed to ensure the final closure of the detention facility in Guantánamo?"
Human rights groups have also piled in with their submissions. More than 300 activist groups, including Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union, have issued a separate 400-page report claiming that protection of fundamental freedoms has eroded since 9/11.
"Human rights advocates across America have not only documented substandard human rights practices which have persisted in the US for years, but also those that reflect the precipitous erosion of human rights protections in the US since 9/11," said Sarah Paoletti of the US human rights network.
"Whether it is migrant labourers who are excluded from workplace protections, children denied education because of the school-to-prison pipeline, or women denied equal pay in the workplace, advocates feel compelled to bring their experiences before international human rights mechanisms because the US legal system has fallen short."
A state department submission in August, written after extensive public consultation, said American was a democracy guided by "simple but powerful principles", but admits to discrimination against black people and Hispanics and a "broken" immigration system.
The US said it was at "currently at war with al-Qaida and its associated forces" but that it would comply with all applicable domestic and international law in armed conflicts and had ordered foreign detainees be treated humanely.
It pointed to a "free, thriving and diverse independent press", said it upheld freedom from religious persecution and had worked to ensure fair treatment of Muslims, Arab-Americans and South Asian communities affected by discrimination and intolerance since 9/11. It acknowledged concerns about the US justice system including capital punishment, juvenile justice, racial profiling and racial disparities in sentencing.
The UN general assembly created the 47-member human rights council in 2006 after its predecessor, the UN human rights commission, was discredited as a politicised forum which gave a platform to regimes with dismal human rights records.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
1. obviously, they covered it up for a reason
2. no one cares
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
How long before those people who tried to give us the lie that torture was the actions of a few bad apples (Donald Rumsfeld and Geoff Hoon, I'm looking in your direction) are called to account for their complicity in crimes against humanity?
96: Cork, Dublin
00: Dublin
06: London, Dublin
07: London, Copenhagen, Nijmegen
09: Manchester, London
10: Dublin, Belfast, London & Berlin
11: San José
12: Isle of Wight, Copenhagen, Ed in Manchester & London x2
isn't it fucked up how the world rewards despicable people like them??
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
when that day happens ... i will honestly believe it will be the dawn of a new age ...