Outside the Beltway

Iraq Torture Video

James Joyner · Thursday, June 17, 2004 · 1 comment

Stephen Green has a rather graphic video of people being tortured and mutiliated in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. No, it doesn’t involve American MPs or putting panties on the heads of prisoners.

From American Enterprise Institute, from whence the video comes,

For the last 30 years, Iraqis inside Iraq had little knowledge of the full extent of Saddam Hussein’s oppressive tactics. Many Iraqis who have documented his regime’s history argue that Coalition authorities have not done enough to make this history known to the Iraqi people, and proponents of more stringent de-Baathification argue that until this education is completed, Saddam-era officials cannot be trusted with the rule of the new state.

Much of the recent controversy surrounding Abu Ghraib has made only vague reference to the prison’s nightmarish past. Under Saddam Hussein, some thirty thousand people were executed there, and countless more were tortured and mutilated, returning to Iraqi society as visible evidence of the brutality of Baathist rule instead of being lost to the anonymity of mass graves.

Seven of these victims were Baghdadi merchants whose right hands were amputated and presented to Saddam as proof of their punishment. They have recently received medical attention in the United States, and now have the use of modern prosthetic hands. Four of these victims will speak of their experiences before returning to Iraq. In addition to their presentations, an unedited video documenting acts of torture during Saddam’s reign will be shown, and our Iraqi guests will identify persons conducting the torture who hold office in Iraq today.