57 officers in Iraq charged with TORTURE

[Bluebear]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - In an unprecedented move, Iraqi authorities charged 57 members of the Shiite-dominated Iraqi police force, including a general, in the alleged torture of hundreds of detainees at a prison in east Baghdad, the Interior Ministry announced Tuesday.

Torture is considered widespread among the poorly trained police force, which has suffered heavy losses at the hands of Sunni insurgents and criminal gangs, but Tuesday's announcement marked the first time the government has pressed charges. Iraqi police are accused of close ties to the Shiite death squads, whose daily abductions and killings fuel sectarian violence convulsing the country.

Some officers were accused of abetting the violence by allowing the gunmen to violate curfews and pass through checkpoints.

The concerns were underscored by the discovery of a police torture chamber in Baghdad last year, and by the apparent complicity of police in a mass kidnapping of Sunni workers that prompted authorities to take an entire police brigade out of service for retraining.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061107/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[NNN0LHI]

1. Bush likes torture. He will give these guys the Medal Of Freedom n/t

[Bluebear]

2. Aren't these the people he trained?

The ones that are supposed to "stand up as we stand down"?

[NNN0LHI]

3. Thats our boys alright n/t