New terror that stalks Iraq's republic of fear....

[marmar]

New terror that stalks Iraq's republic of fear
By Patrick Cockburn in Arbil
Published: 22 September 2006

The republic of fear is born again. The state of terror now gripping Iraq is as bad as it was under Saddam Hussein. Torture in the country may even be worse than it was during his rule, the United Nation's special investigator on torture said yesterday.

"The situation as far as torture is concerned now in Iraq is totally out of hand," said Manfred Nowak. "The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it had been in the times of Saddam Hussein."

The report, from an even-handed senior UN official, is in sharp contrast with the hopes of George Bush and Tony Blair, when in 2003 they promised to bring democracy and respect for human rights to the people of Iraq. The brutal tortures committed in the prisons of the regime overthrown in 2003 are being emulated and surpassed in the detention centres of the present US- and British-backed Iraqi government. "Detainees' bodies show signs of beating using electric cables, wounds in different parts of their bodies including in the head and genitals, broken bones of legs and hands, electric and cigarette burns," the human rights office of the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq says in a new report.

The horrors of the torture chamber that led to Saddam Hussein's Iraq being labelled "The Republic of Fear", after the book of that title by Kanan Makiya, have again become commonplace. The bodies in Baghdad's morgue " often bear signs of severe torture including acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances, missing skin, broken bones (back, hands and legs), missing eyes and wounds caused by power drills or nails", the UN report said. Those not killed by these abuses are shot in the head.

Human rights groups say torture is practised in prisons run by the US as well as those run by theInterior and Defence ministries and the numerous Sunni and Shia militias.

The pervasive use of torture is only one aspect of the utter breakdown of government across Iraq outside the three Kurdish provinces in the north. In July and August alone, 6,599 civilians were killed, the UN says.

The rest is at: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1696153.ece

[Phredicles]

1. Heckuva job, neocons...

I hope Kanan Makiya appreciates what he's helped bring about, too; according to "The Assassin's Gate" by George Packer, he was a big part of conferring a veneer on intellectual legitimacy upon the Ahmed Chalabi dog and phony show. Plus, Makiya was apparently the source of the notion that US invaders would be greeted as liberators. Doesn't seem like he's been heard from much lately, for some reason...

[pinerow]

2. You are right...I've been wondering where that fellow has been

since the U.S. invaded Iraq...I seem to recall that he was with the Bremer crowd for awhile...hmmm...

[marmar]

3. Yup. The lie that launched a million lies...

:argh: