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Reports From Iraq > Fri., Apr. 30, 2004
More Horror Stories from Abu Grahib
62 year old Sheik Abu Yasin Al-Zawi the day he was freed
from American military custody. "They kept me in
a very small cell without any type of bed or blanket,"
he explains. "The soldier didn't allow me to wash
for prayer and they put a hood over my face. And they
didn't bring us food and even when I wanted to go to the
toilet it was very complicated because the soldier would
come with his gun and point it at me while I was in the
toilet." |
by Aaron Glantz
BAGHDAD, IRAQ --- George Bush says he'll "take care"
of the soldiers who photographed themselves laughing, lording
over naked bodies of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Grahib -- formerly
Saddam Hussein's most notorious lockup, which currently holds
about 15,000 prisoners. Speaking at a White House Rose Garden
during an appearance with Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada
he said: "Their treatment does not reflect the nature
of the American people. That's not the way we do things in
America."
But the main source for the story broadcast on CBS's 60 Minutes
which showed the photos, soldier Ivan Frederick wrote to his
uncle, quote: ``I questioned some of the things that I saw
... such as leaving inmates in their cell with no clothes
or in females' underpants, handcuffing them to the door of
their cell. I questioned this and the answer I got was, 'This
is how military intelligence wants it done.' He wrote that
military intelligence has also, quote "instructed us
to place a prisoner in an isolation cell with little or no
clothes, no toilet or running water, no ventilation or window
for as much as three days.''
Such stories are all to familiar to most Iraqis.
62 year old Sheik Abu Yasin Al-Zawi who was arrested with
his son by the American military after calling Israel's assassination
of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin state terrorism during
Friday prayers.
"They arrived at the mosque at 5pm and surrounded the
whole area with hummers and tanks and they said: 'You said
you bad things about the coalition at Friday prayers and your
son said bad things too."
Sheik al-Zawi wasn't taken to Abu Grahib, Saddam Hussein's
most notorious prison -- which now holds more than 15,000
Iraqis. He and his son were taken to an American military
base near his mosque.
"They kept me in a very small cell without any type
of bed or blanket," he explains. "The soldier didn't
allow me to wash for prayer and they put a hood over my face.
And they didn't bring us food and even when I wanted to go
to the toilet it was very complicated because the soldier
would come with his gun and point it at me while I was in
the toilet."
Sheik al-Zawi was lucky. After 12 days, the Americans released
him. Had he been sent to Abu Grahib he likely wouldn't have
been released for months. Sheik Ahmed Yahir al-Samarai, who
has a brother and two sons incarcerated at Abu Grahib. He
explains how two of his sons -- who run an auto parts store
in Baghdad -- were arrested by the American Army.
"They surrounded their shop and arrested them both,"
says Sheik Ahmed Yahir. "Also, they took two cars --
one was a new Mercedes and a Toyota pick-up. They also took
American dollars from the shop and Iraqi currency and they
took all the copy-books and they broke everything in the shop."
Now Sheik Ahmed Yahir and his wife are doing their best to
raise five grandchildren on their own. They haven't been able
to visit either of their sons, but they have been able piece
together a picture of life in Abu Grahib from a few who have
been released. .
"Even Saddam Hussein didn't treat people as bad as Americans,"
argues Sheik's Ahmed Yahir's wife Um Omar. "They left
them three days standing without any food they're holding
them in a tent with lots of older people, without electricity
and the only water is warm water."
But as angry as they are about the imprisonment of two of
their sons, their feelings can't compare to how they feel
about the death of a third son at the hands of the American
Army. Sheik Ahmed Yahir explains what happened when two of
his sons were stopped by the American Army on from Baghdad
to the Northern City of Samara.
"The American soldiers told them to get out of the car,"
he says. "Then they ran over the car with a tank."
After holding them for a few hours, Sheik Ahmed Yahir says
American soldiers took his sons to a damn over the Tigris
River near Samara.
"The water is very quick there and very powerful,"
he says. "The Americans told them to jump into the Tigris
River. You know its a place where if you throw a piece of
wood it will shatter into pieces. One of sons survived, but
the other one was found dead in the river 14 days later."
The American Army has sent a note of apology to Sheik Ahmed
Yahir and his family and paid $6,000 in compensation for the
destruction of the family car. But there has been no apology
for the death of one son and the imprisonment of two others.
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