On
Their Way To Abu Ghraib
By Mike Ferner
31 May 2004
Electronic Iraq
ABU SIFFA, IRAQ
How could this happen? nearly everyone asks these days.
But as the U.S. now releases hundreds of men from Abu Ghraib prison,
another question, why were so many Iraqis locked up there in the
first place? is likely to become part of the debate.
The story of this
farming hamlet 30 miles north of Baghdad sheds a lot of light on that
question.
On December
16, 2003, at 2:00 am, on a rainy night, all the houses in Abu Siffa,
about two dozen, were surrounded by U.S. troops in tanks and humvees.
They surrounded the fields of the farmers by tanks and they destroyed
the fences of the fields, citrus farmer, Mohammed Al-Tai explained
to a delegation from Christian Peacemaker Teams visiting the village
to document detainees stories.
Soldiers from the
Armys 4th Infantry Division rounded up two attorneys, 15 schoolteachers,
men in their 80s, a blind man, police officers, young teens, and
an elderly man so frail he had to be carried by the soldiers, Al-Tai
said. In all, 83 men disappeared that night, virtually every male in
the village.
His description
of that night continued. They destroyed the doors of the houses
and of the rooms. At night usually the doors of the bedrooms are locked,
so they kicked the doors in and destroyed them by their weapons. After
that they gathered the men, beating them severely. One was an old man
and they smashed his glasses, and for that old man they had to guide
him.
Before the soldiers
finished the Abu Siffa raid, Al-Tai added that they also stole
from Imad, the attorney, about 14 million dinars ($10,370). From his
father, Kamel, they stole 4.5 million dinars ($3,300). They stole 4
million dinars ($3000) from Ziad, an Iraqi police officer, and from
all the other houses together, about 100,000 to 150,000 dinars ($75
to $110). They also took five cars. Later they returned two of them
that belonged to police officers who died in the line of duty.
The reason for the
raid was to apprehend Kais Hattam, Al-Tai said, adding that Hattam claimed
he planned to surrender to the Americans the following morning. In a
later interview, Lt. Colonel Nathan Sassaman, commander of the divisions
1st Battalion, the unit responsible for the district including Abu Siffa,
confirmed that Hattam was their man, but doubted he would have surrendered
voluntarily.
Sassaman said that
Hattam was on a wanted list because his name appeared in
Baath Party documents found with Saddam Hussein, captured less
than three days before the Abu Siffa raid. He described Hattam as a
key figure, one of five regional directors of the Baath
Party.
The Lt. Colonels
version of the raid was that 73 people, not 83 were rounded up, all
adults. He said his men found a several-acre compound with a large quantity
of material for making IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), weapons,
and just a ton of explosives. He added that three of the
detainees were later released for health reasons.
Asked why so many
villagers were rounded up after the Army got the man they were looking
for, he replied that the amount of weapons and explosives implicated
Abu Siffa was a center of resistance, further proven by the fact that
his base had been mortared from that area.
The CPT delegation
in Abu Siffa listened to Mohammed Al-Tai and several of his neighbors
explain that six weeks after the December pre-dawn raid on their village,
79 adult men were still held in Abu Ghraib, still without visiting privileges.
They said that one ill detainee had been released. Contrary to Sassamans
claim that no children were apprehended, Al-Tai said three children
had been transferred to Al-Karkh, a special youth prison in Baghdad.
The farmer and another villager said theyd been able to visit,
albeit under difficult conditions. It is not easy to get there,
the lines are very long, and even family members are kept behind a line
20 feet away from their children.
Hania, wife of attorney-detainee,
Kamel Khoumais, added in sad tones, For 47 days I did not see
him. I tried. I went to Abu Ghraib prison twice. I was turned back with
tears. On the night of the raid, soldiers took their family car,
she related, and her little finger, still swollen and red, was broken
when the keys were ripped out of her hand.
The raid that swept
up all of Abu Siffas men is only part of that villages story.
After describing
the December 16 roundup, Al-Tai took the delegation on a door-to-door
tour of his village, starting with a vacant house where Abbas Abdwahid
had lived with 15 members of his extended family. The 41 year-old primary
school teacher and several other former residents of the home were now
living in Abu Ghraib. Large holes in the brick walls, daylight through
the roof, and an orange and white VW Passat taxi smashed up against
a rear corner of the house by a Bradley Fighting Vehicle were silent
reminders of the Armys second raid on Abu Siffa, on New Years
Eve.
No men were apprehended
this time, Al-Tai said; there were none left. The purpose
of the return visit was made clear when the Bradley gunners opened fire
with the 25mm Bushmaster chain gun and the 7.62mm machine gun, blasting
holes large and small into the brick and cement-block home.
On January 2 the
military came back. Al-Tai showed us the rear of another vacant house
where he said four brothers, now all in Abu Ghraib, once lived. Still
visible were the tracks the Bradley made as it approached the home of
Hamis, Abd Kadir, Mohammed and Jasim. As with the previous raid, there
was no resistance, Al-Tai said. After another display of firepower the
soldiers left. The uninhabitable home, a flattened brick outhouse, a
pile of 25mm shell casings and a steel door shot off its hinges, bleeding
rust stains from dozens of bullet holes, spoke of that nights
violence. As the CPT delegation listened, one of the villagers added,
The soldiers warned the people that they will make this area just
like the land of the moon
it will not be good to plant...it will
be like the desert.
When asked why the
Army returned twice to destroy homes, the 1st Battalions Executive
Officer, Major Rob Gwinner, countered the homes were still habitable.
People are living in them. His boss, Lt. Col. Sassaman, said the
subsequent raids were a reaction to mortar attacks against his base
from the Abu Siffa area. Pentagon casualty reports state that on January
2, 28 year-old Captain Eric Paliwoda was killed in a mortar attack at
the 1st Battalions base.
The prisoner abuse
at Abu Ghraib is providing the public with a painful education on the
Geneva Conventions. To that lesson we can add the story of how people
are rounded up and homes destroyed in places like Abu Siffaboth
violate the Conventions prohibition against collective penalties.
Ferner returned to Iraq this year for two months to write on developments
since his trip just prior to the war with Voices in the Wilderness.
He served as a Navy Hospital Corpsman during Viet Nam, is a member of
Veterans for Peace and a former member of Toledo City Council.