June 29, 2004

THEN AND NOW

"What we have seen about the recent abuse at Abu Ghraib is a joke to us," says Ibrahim al-Idrissi, president of Iraq’s Association for Free Prisoners:

If Idrissi seems a bit callous about the fate of the Iraqis in US-run jails, he has probably earned the right to differ. He recalls a day in 1982, at the General Security prison in Baghdad:

"They called all the prisoners out to the courtyard for what they called a 'celebration.' We all knew what they meant by 'celebration.' All the prisoners were chained to a pipe that ran the length of the courtyard wall. One prisoner, Amer al-Tikriti, was called out. They said if he didn't tell them everything they wanted to know, they would show him torture like he had never seen. He merely told them he would show them patience like they had never seen."

Read on. If you’re prepared.

(Via reader Garth Godsman)

UPDATE. It should be noted, in the interest of fairness, that Saddam’s Iraq wasn’t dangerous for everybody:

This past April, Pilger wrote about a journey he took four years previously through Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The film-maker related how he travelled from the hills of the Kurdish north, to the Shia south, remarking: "I have seldom felt as safe in any country."

UPDATE II. Tariq Ali would like to remind everybody:

An alert, intelligent and vigilant citizenry needs to make sure its leaders do not get away with murder.

Posted by Tim Blair at June 29, 2004 01:15 AM
Comments

Amongst Idrissi's wishes:

...that people would stop saying "things were better under Saddam."
Only criminals could say such a thing. The victims deserve better than this...

Criminals and many Western leftoids Mr Idrissi.

I wonder if this story will make it to the op-ed or features section of, say, the Sydney Morning Herald.

Posted by: CurrencyLad at June 29, 2004 at 01:52 AM

amazingly disgusting what they went through. he is a brave man.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at June 29, 2004 at 02:17 AM

I was expecting something bad. That was much worse.

Posted by: Greg at June 29, 2004 at 02:30 AM

""I have seldom felt as safe in any country.""

Euro-centric b*st*rd. Someone throw him in Saddam's prison, and then ask him how safe he feels.

Posted by: Half Canadian at June 29, 2004 at 02:40 AM

God, that was......disgusting. The leftoids have no reason to compare US abuse to Saddam's madness. Things are much better now! At the very least, we treat the abusers as criminals, not heros, as Saddam did. And the leftoids do, by ignoring that history.

Posted by: The Real JeffS at June 29, 2004 at 03:29 AM

"I have seldom felt as safe in any country."

I might express the same sentiments if my sorry ass was covered at every turn by Baathist Party hacks and Saddam Fedayeen.

Posted by: Tongue Boy at June 29, 2004 at 04:01 AM

Holy crap. I do mean that: Holy crap.

I have graduate academic experience in primary sourcce analysis of Nazi camp survivors--read: first person accounts from the days they were liberated.

I am 2/3 through Anne Applebaum's masterful "Gulag."

I have never read anything like that.

I do not think this is being told enough

Posted by: rod at June 29, 2004 at 04:10 AM

"Now its official. No WMD existed in Iraq."

Well, except for a few stockpiles and the random sarin artillery shell...

Posted by: Ken Summers at June 29, 2004 at 06:22 AM

Who is this idiot anyway? The only biographical detail I see is "author of Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of Iraq".

I haven't read the book, but the title suggests that it's about Bush tearing Iraq a new asshole.

Posted by: Ken Summers at June 29, 2004 at 06:26 AM

Perhaps your warning not to read on must be stronger. There are just no words for these things.

Posted by: Berend de Boer at June 29, 2004 at 07:56 AM

Thanks for the link. This kind of news never hits the mainstream media but it need to be heard. I have posted a link from my site at:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/dark2_knight/

Thanks

Posted by: P. Stocks at June 29, 2004 at 08:16 AM

Thanks for the link. This kind of news never hits the mainstream media but it need to be heard. I have posted a link from my site at:

Wading Through The Mire

Thanks

Posted by: P. Stocks at June 29, 2004 at 08:18 AM

IIRC Tariq Ali is an old lefty, originally from Pakistan. Now that the USSR is out of business he has to find some other way of carrying on the great struggle against liberty. Just as Carlos the Jackel converted to militant Islamism from his previous atheism in order to continue the fight against the US, so Ali has been sucking up to tyrants for the same purpose.

Posted by: Michael Lonie at June 29, 2004 at 12:07 PM

Pilger replies to Lapkin's article in The Australian 29/6/04 letters section.

Posted by: kae at June 29, 2004 at 01:42 PM

Tariq Ali says the U.S. lost the war of images. Well, we sure have killed thousands of jihadis, haven't we. Image that.

Posted by: Helen at June 29, 2004 at 02:37 PM

Tariq Ali may be an old lefty, but I still choose to believe that "recolonisation" means "tearing Saddam a new one".

Posted by: Ken Summers, Perversion Catalyst at June 29, 2004 at 03:52 PM