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| Iraq |
| Captured SAS men 'spying on drill torturer' |
| 2005-10-16 |
| Two SAS soldiers imprisoned by Iraqis last month had been spying on a senior police commander who was torturing prisoners with an electric drill, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal. The SAS detachment in Basra was trying to establish who was behind the reign of terror at the jail The real story behind the soldiers' undercover operation emerged last week after the Government promised to pay compensation for any injury or damage caused during the rescue operation. It is understood that the Special Air Service had been ordered to carry out surveillance operations against several members of the Iraqi police, who were believed to be responsible for torturing prisoners at the notorious Jamiyat prison in Basra. Military sources said that the operation was ordered by senior officers after the body of an Iraqi, who had been arrested by the police for smuggling and gun-running, was found on the outskirts of the city in April. An examination of his body had revealed that an electric drill had been used to penetrate his skull, hands and legs. Iraqi sources later gave information to the Army that suggested the torture had been carried out by a senior police officer, who is a member of one of the most powerful tribes in southern Iraq. It had been previously reported that the SAS had been monitoring the activities of police officers thought to be members of the al Mehdi army, an insurgent organisation trying to force Britain to withdraw from southern Iraq. Sources within the Army now believe that hundreds of people who have been arrested by the Iraqi police might have been tortured at the prison, a two-storey complex that houses Basra police's major crimes unit and was once nicknamed Gestapo HQ by British officers. British Government ministers are understood to be extremely concerned and embarrassed by the allegations of torture because it was the Army that helped to re-create the police force and reopened Jamiyat jail. Brig John Lorimer, the officer who launched the raid to rescue the two SAS men who were taken prisoner, gave an indication of the problems at the jail when he described it in an interview with this newspaper as a "very nasty place". The SAS detachment in Basra was given the task of trying to establish who was behind the reign of terror at the jail. They were also warned to tread carefully because the Iraqi police were meant to be allies of the coalition. "The finger of suspicion started to point in the direction of a senior officer inside the Jamiyat," said a senior Army source. "We believe victims were strapped into a chair and then the torture would begin. We think it was more to do with inter-tribal warfare than clamping down on terrorist activity. This is a very corrupt society." As part of the investigation, two SAS men were ordered to monitor the movements of the Iraqi police officer but the operation was compromised on September 19 when the SAS team became involved in a shoot-out with four plain-clothed police officers just as they were about to withdraw from the surveillance operation. Fearing that they would be killed, one of the SAS men opened fired as they drove off. The Iraqi men gave chase and a few hundred yards later the SAS soldiers dumped their car in the belief that they had a better chance on foot. The SAS men contacted their headquarters and were moving towards an emergency rendezvous point when they were stopped by a uniformed Iraqi police unit that had driven into the area after hearing the shooting. To try to avoid a shoot-out with the police, the SAS soldiers decided to surrender and each pulled out handkerchief-sized Union flags and began shouting, "British forces, British forces". The SAS soldiers were arrested and taken to the jail where they were beaten and interrogated. The source said that the soldiers concocted a cover story and never admitted to being members of the elite special forces unit. He added that when the soldiers were eventually moved to another house, the mood of their captors changed and that although their hands remained bound together they were treated quite well before being freed in a rescue operation by their colleagues. The two SAS men were flown back to Hereford, where the unit is based, and were debriefed by senior officers. It is understood that all SAS operations against Iraqi police have since been suspended. |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #11 I hope he wasn't using a masonry bit. That is definitely inhumane. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2005-10-16 21:19 |
| #10 You're reading more into this than I see, but it is certainly not impossible, and if it is the case, and the Brits would seem to have implemented their colonial strategy of co-opting the most powerful tribe. It may be that leaving them in charge of Basra was a mistake. And it's hard to imagine where else they could have been helpful, except possibly Kurdistan. Perhaps the Brits should have gone in there through Turkey. |
| Posted by: Greans Ominerong3730 2005-10-16 13:59 |
| #9 My take too, tw. |
| Posted by: lotp 2005-10-16 13:52 |
| #8 The torture isn't about a bent copper. Rather, the torture is a tool with which to set up a Shia-ruled tribal enclave within conquered Iraq, under the unwitting protection of the oblivious, but well-intentioned, British Army. Ths SAS are the proper tool to fix that kind of problem. I most sincerely hope the High Command is not serious about discontinuing this effort, as that would mean the people of Basra would have been freed from Saddam Hussein's tyrannt only to be turned over to the tender mercies of Arab tribal/religious infighting -- which is certainly not what America spent troops and treasure to achieve. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-10-16 13:50 |
| #7 Tough call Tony. It's not like Britain or the US has no responsibility for what the Iraqis are doing in their zones of control. If it is going on, this kind of torture is over the line and I don't know that we want to be responsible for setting up a regime that practices it, at least before we've left. |
| Posted by: Flavimp Omiter8761 2005-10-16 12:16 |
| #6 I really hope this isn't true - the thought of the SAS being used to spy on some iffy Iraqi copper leaves a nasty taste in my mouth. |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2005-10-16 12:10 |
| #5 Thank you, Sgt. Mom. The unendurable and ghastly travesties of Abu Ghraib immediately sprang to mind. I remain confident that the moral relativists will somehow manage to shrug off this "bit" of vile nastiness as they continue to shriek about the horrors of war. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2005-10-16 10:56 |
| #4 Hersch wouldn't touch this story - it might impede the war effort. |
| Posted by: anon again 2005-10-16 10:39 |
| #3 Gee,they might have been doing something really, really bad... like leading them around on dog leashes, naked, and putting panties on their heads. Has anyone told Seymour Hersh and the NY Times about this? |
| Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2005-10-16 10:19 |
| #2 Exactly, leave it to the professionals. |
| Posted by: Oliver 2005-10-16 09:48 |
| #1 If this is true the Brits should mind their own business and worry about things that compromise their and Iraq's security. |
| Posted by: BillH 2005-10-16 09:00 |