Abu Ghraib prison
From Wikinfo
See also Abu Ghraib (prison) The Abu Ghraib prison (IPA: /ʔabuː ɣrajb/; Arabic: أبو غريب) is in Abu Ghraib, an Iraqi city 32 km west of Baghdad. It came to the notice of world when allegations of Iraqi prisoner abuse committed by US and other Coalition forces, then under investigation by the Pentagon, were publicized by CBS.
The prison prison complex covers 280 acres (115 ha) with a total of 24 guard towers. There are five walled compounds within the facility. Cells in the facility are approximately four metres by four metres and hold an average 40 prisoners each.
During the Ba'athist regime, it was known as Abu Ghraib Prison and had a reputation as a place of torture. It was sometimes referred to in the media as Saddam's Torture Central.
Under Saddam Hussein
Under the regime of Saddam Hussein the facility was under the control of the Directorate of General Security (Amn al-Amm) and was the site of the torture and execution of thousands of political prisoners—up to 4000 prisoners are thought to have been executed there in 1984 alone.
The political section of Abu Ghraib was divided into "open" and "closed" wings. The closed wing housed only Shi'ites. They were not allowed visitors or any outside contact.
Coalition prisoners were held and tortured in Abu Ghraib during the Gulf War, including the ill-fated British SAS patrol Bravo Two Zero.
In 2001 the prison is thought to have held as many as 15,000 inmates. Hundreds of Shi'a Kurds and other Iraqi citizens of Iranian ethnicity had reportedly been held there incommunicado and without charges since the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War. Prisoners were routinely executed. Guards fed shredded plastic to prisoners. There are allegations that some of these detainees were subjected to experiments as part of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons program.
An expansion of the prison was underway prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
When Hussein's regime fell, the compound was looted by former prisoners.
Under the US-led coalition
Since the fall of the Ba'athist regime the prison has been used as a detention facility by the U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq, holding more than 5,000 people, some alleged rebels, some alleged criminals and others free of any such allegations. It was the opinion of senior UK officials that the prison should be demolished as soon as possible, however this was over-ruled by the US authorities.
Currently the U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq utilizes the site as the Baghdad Correctional Facility, though it remains better known under its original official name. In late April 2004, U.S. television news-magazine 60 Minutes II broke a story involving abuse and humiliation of Iraqi inmates by a small group of U.S. soldiers. The story included photographs depicting the abuse of prisoners, and has resulted in a substantial political scandal within the U.S. and other coalition countries.
See Iraq prison abuse scandal for a full treatment of post-occupation allegations of abuse in Iraqi prisons.
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References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Abu_Ghraib_prison" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_prison, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
