Torture tales turn abuse pictures pale

Secret sworn statements by detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq describe in raw detail abuse that goes well beyond what has been made public, adding allegations of prisoners being ridden like animals, sexually fondled by female soldiers and forced to retrieve their food from toilets.

The fresh allegations of prison abuse are contained in statements taken from 13 detainees shortly after a soldier reported the incidents to military investigators in mid-January.

The detainees said they were savagely beaten and repeatedly humiliated sexually by American soldiers working on the night shift at Tier 1A in Abu Ghraib during the holy month of Ramadan, according to copies of the statements obtained by The Washington Post.

The statements provide the most detailed picture yet of what took place on the cellblock. Some of the detainees described being abused as punishment or discipline after they were caught fighting or with a prohibited item. Some said they were pressed to denounce Islam or were force-fed pork and liquor. Many provided graphic details of how they were sexually humiliated and assaulted, threatened with rape, and forced to masturbate in front of female soldiers.

"They forced us to walk like dogs on our hands and knees,'' said Hiadar Sabar Abed Miktub Al Aboodi, detainee No. 13077. "We had to bark like a dog, and if we didn't do that they started hitting us hard on our face and chest with no mercy. After that, they took us to our cells, took the mattresses out and dropped water on the floor and they made us sleep on our stomachs on the floor with the bags on our head and they took pictures of everything.''

The prisoners also provided accounts of how some of the now-famous photographs were staged, including the pyramid of hooded, naked prisoners. Eight of the detainees identified by name one particular soldier at the centre of the abuse investigation, Spc. Charles Graner, a member of the 372nd Military Police Company from Cresaptown.

Five others described abuse at the hands of a soldier who matches Graner's description. "They said we will make you wish to die and it will not happen,'' said Ameen Saeed Al Sheikh, detainee No. 151362. "They stripped me naked. One of them told me he would rape me. He drew a picture of a woman to my back and makes me stand in shameful position holding my buttocks.''

Most of the detainees said in the statements that they were stripped upon their arrival to Tier 1A (a block reserved for prisoners thought to possess intelligence that could thwart the insurgency) forced to wear women's underwear, and repeatedly humiliated in front of one another and American soldiers. They also described beatings and threats of death and sexual assault if they did not co-operate with US interrogators.

Kasim Mehaddi Hilas, detainee No. 151108, told investigators that when he first arrived at Abu Ghraib last year, he was forced to strip, put on a hood and wear rose-coloured panties with flowers on them. "Most of the days I was wearing nothing else,'' he said in his statement.

Hilas also said he witnessed an Army translator having sex with a boy at the prison. He said the boy was between 15 and 18 years old.

Someone hung sheets to block the view, but Hilas said he heard the boy's screams and climbed a door to get a better look. Hilas said he watched the assault and told investigators that it was documented by a female soldier taking pictures.

"The kid was hurting very bad,'' Hilas said. Hilas, like other detainees interviewed by the military, said he could not identify some of the soldiers because they either covered their name patches or did not wear uniforms. But he and other detainees did know the names of three, including Graner and Sgt. Javal Davis, both of whom have been charged and now face courts-martial.

Some of the detainees described a short female MP with dark hair and a blond female MP of medium height who watched and took part in some of the abuses. Three female MPs have been charged in the case so far.

Hilas told investigators that he asked Graner for the time one day because he wanted to pray.
He said Graner cuffed him to the bars of a cell window and left him there for close to five hours, his feet dangling off the floor. Hilas also said he watched as Graner and others sodomised a detainee with a phosphoric light.

"They tied him to the bed,'' Hilas said. Graner has said that his client was following the lead of military intelligence officers.

Mustafa Jassim Mustafa, detainee No. 150542, told military investigators he also witnessed the phosphoric-light assault. He said it around the time of Ramadan, the holiest period of the Muslim year, when he heard screams coming from a cell below. Mustafa said he looked down to see a group of soldiers holding the detainee down and sodomising him with the light.

Graner was sodomising him with the phosphoric light, Mustafa said. The detainee "was screaming for help. There was another tall white man who was with Graner – he was helping him. There was also a white female soldier, short, she was taking pictures.''

Mohanded Juma Juma, detainee No. 152307, said he was stripped and kept naked for six days when he arrived at Abu Ghraib.

One day, he said, American soldiers brought a father and his son into the cellblock.

He said the soldiers put hoods over their heads and removed their clothes. Then, they removed the hoods. "When the son saw his father naked he was crying,'' Juma told the investigators. "He was crying because of seeing his father.''

He also said Graner repeatedly threw the detainees' meals into the toilets and said, "Eat it.''

Hussein Mohssein Mata Al Zayiadi, detainee No. 19446, told investigators that he was one of the hooded prisoners shown in photographs masturbating before American soldiers. "They told my friend to masturbate and told me to masturbate also, while they were taking pictures,'' he said. Al Zayiadi also said he and other detainees were beaten and tossed into separate cells.

"They opened the water in the cell and told us to lay face down in the water and we stayed like that until the morning, in the water, naked, without clothes,'' he said in his statement.
He also said soldiers forced him and others to perform like animals.


Digital videos amplify humiliation

Short digital videos show US soldiers physically and emotionally abusing detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison. The new pictures and videos amplify the overt violence against detainees and displaying a variety of abusive techniques previously unseen.

In one video, five naked detainees stand against the wall, each masturbating, with two other hooded detainees crouched at their feet. Another shows a prisoner handcuffed to the outside of a cell door. He repeatedly slams his head into the green metal, leaving streaks of blood before he collapses at the feet of a cameraman.

In another, a prisoner in an orange jumpsuit sits up against a wall, his hands behind his back. His fear is unmistakable as a black dog snarls at him, the animal's long, sharp teeth bared inches from his face. The dog is leashed by an unidentified US soldier in a flak jacket and wool hat, the soldier using both hands to keep the d