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posted December 12, 2005 at 11:00 a.m.

Iraqi officials find more abused prisoners

Almost all the prisons are run by Shiites, and almost all the prisoners are Sunnis.

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

For the second time in two months, an Iraqi government search of a prison near Baghdad has found prisoners who appeared to have been tortured. The Washington Post reports 600 prisoners were cramped into a small space and that 13 prisoners were found in a condition that required immediate medical attention.

An Iraqi official with firsthand knowledge of the search said that at least 12 of the 13 prisoners had been subjected to "severe torture," including sessions of electric shock and episodes that left them with broken bones.

The first prison site was found November 15 by US troops searching for a lost teenager. Witnesses say several people at that site appeared to have been beaten and many were emaciated. But officials say the "abuse" at the second prison was much worse and included "breaking of bones, torture with electric shock, extraction of fingernails and cigarette burns to the neck and back."


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The New York Times reports that Sunni leaders immediately denounced the Shiite-led government for its involvement in running the prisons, which are operated by the Iraqi Interior Ministry. Almost all the prisons are run by Shiites, and almost all the prisoners are Sunnis.

The Interior Ministry is run by Bayan Jabr, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a leading religious Shiite party that has an Iranian-trained armed wing called the Badr Organization. Many Iraqi officials have said the ministry has recruited heavily from Badr and other Shiite militias, and there is growing evidence that such forces are abducting, torturing and killing Sunni Arabs.

Reuters reports that revelations about the first prison, and that most of the prisoners there were Sunnis, has greatly raised tensions in the country in the days leading up to this week's elections. Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, one of the first to acknowledge that abuses had taken place at the prison, ordered an investigation into the conditions at Iraqi prisons, and the United Nations has also called for a thorough examination of prison conditions in Iraq.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported Friday that Ibn al Shaykh al Libi, a senior Al Qaeda operative and one of at least 150 terror suspects to have been subjected to "rendition," admitted that he had lied to his Egyptian interrogators about Iraq's links to Al Qaeda in order to avoid being tortured, according to current and former US government officials.

The new disclosure provides the first public evidence that bad intelligence on Iraq may have resulted partly from the administration's heavy reliance on third countries to carry out interrogations of Qaeda members and others detained as part of American counterterrorism efforts. The Bush administration used Mr. Libi's accounts as the basis for its prewar claims, now discredited, that ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda included training in explosives and chemical weapons.

In the United States, Reuters reports that Senate majority leader Bill Frist (R) of Tennessee said Congress will reach an agreement with the White House on a defense bill that would ban the torture and inhumane treatment of detainees. Senator Frist told FoxNews that the negotiators were discussing the issue of "degrading" prisoners.

"I think there will be clarification of what we mean, how aggressive can one be to get information?" said Frist, who did not specify what would be banned. ''What does degrading mean? Do you not want to degrade a terrorist, not hurt them, but degrade them, if they are going to take out your family, if they are going to assassinate you? That's the question that is being worked out."

Frist had earlier voted in favor a bill sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona to ban the inhumane treatment of detainees. McCain's amendment to a defense bill, which passed 90-9, was strongly opposed by the White House. Vice President Dick Cheney made an unsuccessful attempt to exempt the CIA from the torture ban, saying it would hinder the war on terrorism.

But Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) of South Carolina told NBC's Meet the Press that agreement was not close.

"There is a breakdown along how to best protect the troops," the South Carolina Republican said, when asked if the White House was seeking immunity for possible past torture. "There is a philosophical difference here I don't want to divulge. The vice president is not the vice president of torture," he said. "He is trying to create exemptions, in my opinion, to protect our people who go too far."

Senator Graham also said that if the US wants to teach the Iraqis ethics and values and "close down these secret prisons," it's important that the US "practice what we preach." Graham said.