Iraq Downplays Torture Charges
Iraq's Shiite interior minister accused critics Thursday of exaggerating reports of torture at a lockup seized by U.S. troops last weekend, saying inmates included both Shiites and Sunnis and only a handful showed signs of abuse.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said that a number of those detained were suspected foreign terrorists, including one man accused of building six car bombs.
"These are the most criminal terrorists who were in these cells," Jabr said. He said he personally instructed that these particular suspects be taken to the detention center in Jadiriyah because they were considered the most dangerous.
He said that an investigation was underway into the torture allegations, about which he held talks with the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey.
"I reject torture and I will punish those who perform torture," Jabr said. "No one was beheaded, no one was killed."
Jabr said only seven detainees showed signs of abuse "and the people behind the beatings will be punished according to the law."
In other developments:
Jabr appeared with senior commanders to try to defuse a crisis that grew Tuesday after Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, under pressure from the Americans, announced that 173 detainees had been found by U.S. soldiers at the Jadriyah facility. Some appeared malnourished and showed signs of torture, he said.
A Pentagon official told CBS News the Iraqi running the detention facilities was a former member of Saddam Hussein's regime and was complicit in the abuse and torture. The official called it a mess the Iraqi government doesn't nee
Most of the detainees were believed to be Sunni Arabs, prompting Sunni politicians to demand an international investigation. Sunni leaders, who have long complained of sectarian abuse by Shiite-led security forces, accused the government of trying to intimidate them from voting in the Dec. 15 parliamentary election.
Shiites and Kurds dominate the government's security services, while most of the insurgents are Sunni Arabs.
CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier reports angry Sunnis claim it's part of a pattern of abuse, which they've documented over the past year, with interviews and photographs. They called the latest finding worse than Abu Ghraib.
U.S. officials who have been briefed told CBS News national security correspondent David Martin that they're worried the abuse scandal could undo all the progress that's been made to bring the various factions into the political process.
The U.S. Embassy said in a statement that it was "united" with the Iraqi government in deploring the mistreatment of detainees.
"Detainee abuse is not and will not be tolerated by either the Iraqi government or the Multi-National Forces in Iraq," it said.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a senior U.S. military officer in Iraq, told reporters that U.S. troops, led by U.S. Brig. Gen. Karl Horst, went to the facility because a 15-year-old boy was believed to be held there illegally.
Interior Ministry officers denied the U.S. troops entrance until Horst made a phone call to Jabr, who ordered the officers to allow the general and his men inside, Lynch said.
"When he entered the facility, Gen. Horst saw 169 individuals that had been detained. Some of those individuals looked like they had been abused, malnourished and mistreated," Lynch said. "Gen. Horst and his soldiers took control of the facility, took appropriate actions with the Iraqi leadership and the Iraqi government."
U.S. officials refused to discuss exactly how many detainees appeared to be mistreated or give any other details, citing the investigation currently under way.