Is Pro-Iranian infiltration fueling torture in Iraq's Interior Ministry?

[Bilal]

From BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4443126.stm

((Many Iraqis were not surprised at the existence of the interior ministry centre where detainees were allegedly tortured, abused and starved. ))

(("The IIP has announced over and over again in its communiques that there are elements wearing interior ministry uniforms raiding peaceful houses under curfew at night and detaining dozens of innocent citizens," said a statement issued by the IIP. ))

(("Every time we've raised the issue with the US forces or the Iraqi government and asked them to investigate and stop these massacres and set things right, all we received was denial and silence," the statement concluded. ))

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20051117/wl_csm/osunnijail_1

((The revelation of torture of detainees at a secret interrogation center in Baghdad is likely to prove the tip of the iceberg if investigations are widened to look at the overall practices of Iraq's security services, human rights advocates and some Iraqi politicians say.))

(("I hold the view that this case is in no way an anomaly,'' says Sarah Leah Whitson, the director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East division. "I wouldn't be surprised if there were many other illegal detention centers either controlled by the Interior ministry or their unofficial agents, both in Baghdad and elsewhere."))

((Ammar Hamid Khalaf Muhammed Hummos related how his two brothers Hamid and Rafa were abducted by men in police uniforms on a street in Zafranaiyah, on the outskirts of Baghdad, this May, and how he later received word that the brothers were being held in the Shiite city of Kut, and that for $8,000 they'd be released.

The family didn't come up with the money, and near tears he showed photos of his brothers' badly mutilated bodies, which were recovered in a ditch near Kut. "Pulling their fingernails out wasn't even the worst part." ))

"What's really distressing is that we promised this would stop,'' says Whitson of Human Rights Watch. "What's different? What's changed? The Iraqi people were promised something better."

 

[Art]

Somehow I do not think anybody is even slightly surprised by this.

At a news conference in Baghdad, Mr Jabr disputed reports that 170 detainees were mistreated at the compound and said there had been only a few cases.
Flanked by his top security officers from the ministry, Mr Jabr was very defensive.
He accused the media and his critics of blowing things out of proportion.
But the most remarkable thing about the event was how reminiscent it was of news conferences in one party-states, or, in this case, from the era of Saddam Hussein.

"Meet the new boss - same as the old boss" - The Who

 

[Art]

Here's a wonderful piece of spin by the Washington Times.
It seems in their vaunted opinion it wasn't Iraqi's torturing the Iraqi prisoners in the Iraqi interior ministry it was actually the shi'ite pro-Iranians and their allies the sunni insurgents. Wha !
But hang on. Aren't the shi'ites and sunnis at war with one another? and why are the insurgents torturing their own captured members? Doh! Then again maybe they have a time share arrangement where they both use the same torture facilities on alternate days to torture each other's prisoners.
I wonder what kind of parallel universe the author Sharon Behn lives in and I can't help but wonder is her journalistic integrity and quite possibly her sanity perhaps affected by personal bias??
Or is it just there is no limit to the tripe some journalists will churn out??

Torture site backs fears of pro-Iran infiltrators
By Sharon Behn
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
November 18, 2005
The discovery of a secret Iraqi Interior Ministry torture chamber confirms what has been an open secret in Baghdad for months: Pro-Iranian militia have deeply infiltrated the ministry and are acting as a law unto themselves.
Iraqis have reported seeing men in Interior Ministry uniforms and vehicles at the sites of extrajudicial killings of Sunnis, and at least one reporter has been warned to keep his movements secret from the ministry for fear of being kidnapped.
It is widely thought that the ministry also is infiltrated by criminal networks linked to the insurgency.

http://www.washtimes.com/world/20051117-095201-6504r.htm
Another amusing snippet from the article relating to the torture reads,

the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad issued its toughest statement yet on the incident, saying the government "has assured us that it will take immediate action to investigate ... and to undertake measures to ensure that no Ministry of Interior detainees would be subject to abuse anywhere in Iraq."

What is this about? Are the Iraqis infringing on the US gov'ts Torture Inc. Monopoly? I thought with the recent outsourcing mentioned in the press it was more of a franchise these days anyway. Perhaps the Interior Ministry hasn't paid it's franchise bill yet?