American military commanders knew of more than a thousand reports of Iraqi security forces torturing prisoners, but this didn’t stop officials in the Obama administration from deciding to hand over detainees to the Iraq government.

 

According to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, U.S. soldiers had reported 1,365 claims of torture by Iraqi forces from 2005 to 2009—information that the Department of Defense possessed when the administration finished transferring 9,250 detainees to Iraqi custody.

 

In addition to reports from American soldiers, the United Nations and several human rights organizations had published accounts of torture at Iraqi detention centers.

 

“This adds further weight, if it were needed, that U.S. authorities committed a serious breach of international law when they handed over thousands of detainees to Iraqi security forces who, they clearly knew, were responsible for widespread and systematic torture,” Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program, told The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. “It is our view that the current U.S. administration is complicit in torture.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Obama Administration Handed over Detainees Despite Reports of Torture (by Angus Stickler, Bureau of Investigative Journalism)

Iraq War Logs: Secret Order That Let US Ignore Abuse (by Nick Davies, Guardian)