Originally published December 7 2005
Torture cells outrage Sunni Arabs as leaders call for official investigation
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Iraqi government is now investigating an Interior Ministry Cell in Baghdad, where 173 prisoners, who were allegedly abused and tortured, were discovered during a U.S. raid.
The Iraqi government has ordered an investigation into the alleged abuse and torture of 173 prisoners, most of them Sunni Arabs, in an Interior Ministry cell in Baghdad.
The Associated Press reports, however, that the US raid may not have been accidental, and may have been aimed at "scoring points" with Sunni Arabs, whose participation in next month's general election is necessary if the US wants to be able to exit Iraq sometime in the next two years.
Sunni Arab politicians have complained for months about arbitrary arrests, torture and assassinations of Sunnis, allegedly at the hands of special commandoes of the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry, who are at the forefront of the battle against the largely Sunni insurgents ...
One Sunni politician, Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, said he had personally told Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari about conditions at detention centers, including the one seized by American forces Sunday night.
Ann Clwyd, British Prime Minister Tony Blair's human rights envoy to Iraq, Tuesday night told the BBC that a Sunni delegation had made allegations about abuse to her in May.
The paramilitaries are not held responsible for all the deaths -- some are the work of insurgents murdering supposed informers or government officials, or killing for purely sectarian motives.
The Independent also points out that "according to reports, $3bn (�1.7bn) out of an $87bn Iraq appropriation that Congress approved last year was earmarked for the creation of paramilitary units to fight the insurgency," often working with people who were in "senior intelligence" during the Hussein regime.
Meanwhile, two Iraqi businessmen who allege they were tortured by US troops in Iraq are suing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and other US officials in a federal court in Washington.
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