"The Baath Party were bad people, they used to hurt people inside the police station.
"You say bad words about Saddam, they take you in there and you never come out."
Royal Marines uncover evidence of torture at an Abu al Khasib police station, including the police chief's grim collection of no-longer-needed ID cards, and this:
the last room we saw upstairs, again at the end of a corridor, initially left us totally bewildered.
Unlike every other room on the second floor, it was empty, apart from two old rubber car tyres and a long electric cable lead attached to the mains supply, and still live.The room's likely purpose was explained later, after we had asked around the Commando for a bit, by a Royal Marine officer who had spent some time in the Balkans on UN service.
He said: "Two tyres and an electric cable is something we came across a lot in Bosnia.
"The interrogator would stand on them while prodding the captive with the live cable so his own feet were insulated from the high voltage by the rubber.
Primitive maybe, but a pretty effective and recognised form of torture in a lot of Third World countries.
We later found one man, who did not want to be identified, who gave up some of the secrets of the police station.Posted by Dr. Frank at April 2, 2003 09:58 AM | TrackBackHe said there was a tariff system, if you committed a crime, but paid enough money you wouldn't be tortured. For stealing about £1000 for murder almost twice that. He said prisoners were blindfolded, tied up, hung from the hookls in the ceiling and beaten.
Just after we left the police station some Iraqis looted the building. It was a place many feared until now.