Iraq:
Beating up old ladies

May 17, 2004

A 73-year old Iraqi woman was detained without charges for two months last summer, at Camp Cropper and at Abu Ghraib. According to a member of the British Labor Party who had inquired into this woman's case, she was hooded and forced to get down on her hands and knees. A U.S. interrogator, calling her a donkey, got on her back and forced her to crawl across the cell.

This case puts the lie to what the U.S. says was going on in these prisons. The abuse was not only in Abu Ghraib. It was not only last October and November. And it was not only against possible combatants.

If a 73 year old woman can be ridden like a donkey, the whole population is being targeted. This is terrorism of the rankest sort.