U.S. imprisoning 58 Iraqi teens, colonel admits; Fresh torture charges

[rawstory]

Hey -- there was a similar post on this before but I hope you'll not lock it; this report has a lot of new information (which I've tried to highlight here.) I'm still developing the story. There's a lot more new at the site (story is relatively thorough): http://rawstory.com

By John Byrne | Raw Story Editor

The US army admitted Monday for the first time to having detained adolescents in its prisons in Iraq, according to a German press report. The popular TV magazine “Report Mainz,” broadcast Monday evening, quoted Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the US troops in Iraq, as saying that they still imprisoned 58 Iraqis in the age of from 14 and 17. The program had previously reported July 5 that 117 children had been held during the period of January through May. The length of their average imprisonment is half a year, Johnson said.

<NEW>: In an independent report, Lieutenant Colonel Joe Yoswa, a spokesman for the Defense Department allegedly confirmed that the U.S. military is holding 58 juveniles. None of them are female, he said.

<snip>

<NEW>: An Iraqi TV reporter, Suhaib Badr-Addin Al-Baz, told a reporter for the German daily Der Spiegel that he had seen the prisons with his own eyes shortly after the original “Report Mainz” report.

From his solitary cell in the adults’ wing, Suhaib heard a girl of about 12 weeping. Later he learned that her brother was on the third floor of the prison. One or two times, says Suhaib, he saw her himself.

In the night, according to Suhaib, they were with her in her cell. The girl shrieked out to the other prisoners and called out to her brother. “She was beaten,” he said. “I heard her call: ‘They have undressed me. They have poured water over me.’”

http://www.rawstory.com

[rawstory]

1. More...

On the earlier program, they quoted U.S. Sergeant Samuel Provance about the torture of a 16-year-old.

“He was full of fear, very alone. He had the thinnest little arms that I have ever seen. His whole body shook. His wrists were so thin that we could not put handcuffs on him. As soon as I saw him for the first time and led him to the interrogation, I felt sorry for him. The interrogation specialists doused him with water and put him in a truck. Then they drove with him throughout the night, and at that time it was very, very cold. Then they smeared him with mud and showed him to hislikewise imprisoned father. With him they had tried out other interrogation methods. But they had not succeeded in making him talk. The interrogation specialists told me that after the father had seen his son in that condition, it broke his heart. He wept and promised to tell them what they wanted to know.”

[Krupskaya]

2. WHEN WILL THIS BREAK "MAINSTREAM"??

Why hasn't this broken? I mean, I know why, but Jayzus H.

[tom_paine]

9. When did the Gulags make it into Soviet Pravda?

Never. It was up to the Free World to expsoe the Soviet Lies as it is again up to the Free World (what's left of it) to expose Imperial Amerikan Lies.

But don't look for a Totalitarian Nation like Amereika to allow such things to come out.

[thebigidea]

3. Who the fuck cares? Theresa said "shove it"!

I don't have time in my busy schedule for puff pieces like this, I want hard news - I wanna hear about "shove it" ALL DAY.

[Krupskaya]

4. LMAO.

How could I have forgotten? That, and ANN COULTER said HIRSUTE PIE WAGONS!

[thebigidea]

5. before I could even type a reply...

MSNBC blurted a promo for yet another SHOVE IT piece.

I forgot what I was gonna say... SHOVE IT!

[rawstory]

6. Save us from 'shove it!!!!'

Yeah, Jesus. I've just started taking for granted that the mainstream media full of lazy sods. Just look at that 'Moonie' Capitol Hill piece -- the Washington Post ran a story THREE MONTHS after the event!!! Good lord!

But I've forwarded this on to some of my journo friends...who knows. Even the newsdesk at Air America. But everyone is like 'whatever' until the mainstream media reports it, only that the mainstream media themselves are 'whatever' until they get off their lazy asses.

Damn them.

[Krupskaya]

7. C'mon, people!

Stop bumping this! :mad:

[rawstory]

8. Why?

Don't care about Iraqis, but more about stupid abortion t-shirts and comments from Teresa? Please. And I'm actually responding because I sometimes really find DUers to have a thin skin of alleged social responsibility which masks a typical tabloid-loving American bragadoccio.

[Krupskaya]

10. /sarcasm off

I was continuing in the sarcasm vein. It pisses off no end that this story is going nowhere.

[NashVegas]

11. Duplicate Threads

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=709749

for the original from yesterday

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=706177

for the indymedia portion 3 days ago.

Rawstory, with all due respect, I am appreciative of your efforts for your site, but don't appreciate seeing stuff that's already been or is currently being discussed in LBN being reposted to promote your site.

[Moderator]

12. Duplicate

Please add this to the existing thread if you wish:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=709749