Iraqis Commit Abuse

From the WMD Mailbag and the Financial Times:

Iraqi security forces stand accused by a leading international human rights organisation of committing systematic torture against detainees, raising alarm over the conduct of Iraq's post-war interim government less than a week before the country's first democratic elections.

In a report issued on Tuesday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch calls on the Iraqi government to investigate widespread abuses and urges the US to increase the number of advisers at detention centres run by the Iraqi ministry of the interior.

“The Iraqi interim government, led by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and presented to the international community as a sign that the violence and abuses of the Saddam Hussein government are a thing of the past, appears to be actively taking part, or is at least complicit, in these grave violations of fundamental human rights,” says the report.

“Nor has the United States, the UK, or other involved governments publicly taken up these issues as a matter of concern.” Sabah Kathim, spokesman for the interior minister in Baghdad, on Monday said he had never come across “complaints of this nature to the police” or even a single case of torture. He said allegations would be investigated, but that he was sceptical of a report issued days before the election.

What! A liberal organization wants to influence an election!? That is a total shocker, man! Unprecedented even...

First of all, Human Rights Watch fails to provide what I like to call evidence. Merely accussations... What they say may actually be true and if so, I would hope that the Iraqi government would bring them to justice as the US did with their soldiers who committed similar acts.

But here is the thing that gets me...the bloke who sent me this story says this:

It's about WMD...euh... I mean about links to AQ....euhh...I mean about bringing freedom and democracy. Yeah sure!

What this tells me is that my correspondent isn't really interested in the human rights problem, but rather sticking it to the US. That's just pathetic. And that's all I have to say about that.

Islamofascism Delenda Est!