Abu Ghraib Prison was Notorious Before American Mistreatment of Iraqis

Friday, May 7, 2004

By Jim Krane

Associated Press Writer

On April 21, a barrage of 28 mortar rounds killed 22 prisoners and wounded 91. All but a couple of the 10 patients seen in the hospital on Wednesday were prisoners injured in that barrage. One man could be seen cradling a stump of an arm, the lower portion of which had been wounded and amputated. "In a matter of 45 minutes we had 125 patients," said 1st Sgt. David Janney, a medic with an Army surgical team.

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq -- AP
The 280-acre (112-hectare) Abu Ghraib prison, a jumble of top-security jail houses and low-risk tent cities, was one of the world's most notorious prisons even before photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners spread around the world, prompting calls for its closure.

Under Saddam Hussein, Abu Ghraib's crooked concrete block walls and jagged watchtowers corralled as many as 15,000 prisoners at a time, many of whom were tortured and executed.

Under the U.S. Army, Abu Ghraib's population peaked at around 7,000 prisoners, with common criminals housed separately from suspected guerrillas and their supporters.

The stark penitentiary is perhaps Iraq's most visible symbol of brutality, sitting amid languid palm groves and farms just north of the main highway between Baghdad and Fallujah.

Now, some U.S. Congress members say it should be demolished. The Senate on Thursday debated a nonbinding resolution saying the destruction of the facility would be "as a symbolic gesture that the American people will not tolerate the past and current mistreatment of prisoners."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday that any decision to demolish the prison is best left for the Iraqi interim government expected to take power June 30.

"From my standpoint, I think it's not a bad idea but I think it's really up to the Iraqi people," Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

(More: GlobalSecurity.org)

2003 © The Associated Press.

Dan