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The CPT Report
“For all this time there was no food—only water. It did not rain, but it was cold. We had to sit this way all through the night until the next day. This is the mark it made. (Ahmed shows us a quarter-sized, red scab on the outside bone of his ankle.) Then they made us stand. And so it continued this way for four days. “Sometimes they would take me to another place and let me walk into a wall. They interviewed me three times. Each time they took me inside a room before someone with a translator. They lifted the hood from my head. It’s made of the same material they use to make sand bags. They asked me for 3 to 5 minutes if I knew someone who did it and then they took me back. “After four days, they told me I would have lunch. They took me in front of the wall and beside me was a dog. A soldier had a biscuit to give the dog and a piece of meat to give to me but I couldn’t eat the meat because of its smell. So I told him give me the biscuit and give the meat to the dog, but the soldier gave the biscuit and the meat to the dog. They put the bag back on my head and took me back to my place. “On the fifth day, again taking me by the neck and hitting me into walls, they put me in a car and took me to Scania, a huge military base they built in Al Dora (a suburb of Baghdad). I could hear other voices with me. They searched me, took my cigars and my lighter and my money, and put them in a bag. They said I would get it back. “One of the soldiers spoke to me in Arabic. He said he would help me. He said he would put me with the group that had already been tortured. They took off the bag and freed my hands. “They took our group inside a room and closed the door. There were beds and blankets so you can sleep. I slept inside this room but there was no food until 9:00 in the night. They brought us the same bags of dried food they make for the soldiers, which is difficult for us to eat. Then we spent all of the night until the next morning. In the morning you could go to the toilet if you wanted. About 20 of us spent three days in this room. “After the three days, they took 10 of us and stood us against the wall outside. They said they would release us. They said when you reach the main road, stop a car and tell them you have no money and that you will pay them when you get home. They did not return my ID or my cigars or my money. I went to the main road, found a taxi and drove home. “God says you have to tell the truth. For that reason I am telling you the truth.” “Ali,” Ahmed’s 26 year-old son, told his story next. He has three children (ages 1½, 3 and 4) and drove for the Ministry of Education. Like his father he had been hooded, handcuffed and had received no food for four days. “They put us in a dark room and we were sitting cross-legged on the floor. They took the bag off my head and an officer who was doing the investigation asked me with a translator about the explosion—who did it, where I was. Then they put the bag over my head again and took me back (to where my father was). “At the second time, they took my father first and then they took me. They told me that my father told them everything so now we want to hear the truth from you. I replied to them the same—’I don’t know anything about the explosion.’ “The third time, they put me inside the same room with the officer and the translator. They took the bag off my head and put me against the wall. He came really close to me and told me not to look to the left or to the right, to just look at him. He said you will answer my questions. But first he gave me four points to remember. Because I was nervous I forgot the fourth point and he beat me with his hand and I fell down. He asked me the four points again but I forgot the fourth point again so he kicked me in the groin and I fell down. “He kept asking me about the explosions. He put his hand under my chin and lifted me up from the floor. While he was doing this to me he said if you vomit you must swallow it—don’t spit it out. Then he hit me with his hand and I fell and he kicked me with his shoes. Then he said if you refuse to answer my questions I will take pictures of your wife and your mother and your sister naked and I will put them on the satellite as a sex film. The last time he beat me I collapsed and I couldn’t remember anything after that. “The next day they used something like a needle on my neck and my back. I couldn’t tell what it was because I was hooded, but it felt like they were poking me with a nail. “When we were released after four days, they took us to the outside gate and left us with our hands handcuffed behind our backs. We were 11 persons. We had to go to someone with a shop nearby and ask for a knife to cut our handcuffs. “When they released me, they took 400,000 dinars (about $280) and my ID.” * * * Two brothers from the city of Samara came to our apartment to tell us the story of the death of their father while he was being detained. The following is a shortened version of the story according to Abdulkahar: “On December 21, 2003 at 9:30 p.m., U.S. soldiers surrounded our house and crashed in the front gate with a tank. When we opened the house door to see what was happening, about 15 soldiers rushed inside, broke open cupboards and cabinets and ransacked the house. The brothers saw soldiers dividing up family money they took during the search. Soldiers pushed around our 70-year-old father, Mehide Al Jamal, who had recently had a hip replacement operation and had difficulty walking. Our father was a former surveyor and planner for the rural areas around Samara, and was well respected in the community.
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