Fresh evidence that US soldiers handed over detainees to a notorious Iraqi torture squad has emerged in army logs published by WikiLeaks.
The 400,000 field reports published by the whistleblowing Web site at the weekend contain an official account of deliberate threats by a military interrogator to turn his captive over to the Iraqi “Wolf Brigade.”
The interrogator told the prisoner in explicit terms that: “He would be subject to all the pain and agony that the Wolf battalion is known to exact upon its detainees.”
The evidence emerged as British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the allegations of killings, torture and abuse in Iraq were “extremely serious” and “needed to be looked at.”
Clegg, speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, did not rule out an inquiry into the actions of British forces in Iraq, but said it was up to the US administration to answer for the actions of its forces.
His comments contrasted with a statement from the British Ministry of Defence on Sunday, which warned that the posting of classified US military logs on the WikiLeaks Web site could endanger the lives of British forces.
“We can bemoan how these leaks occurred, but I think the nature of the allegations made are extraordinarily serious. They are distressing to read about and they are very serious. I am assuming the US administration will want to provide its own answer. It’s not for us to tell them how to do that,” Clegg said.
Asked if there should be an inquiry into the role of British troops, he said: “I think anything that suggests that basic rules of war, conflict and engagement have been broken or that torture has been in any way condoned are extremely serious and need to be looked at.”
“People will want to hear what the answer is to what are very, very serious allegations of a nature which I think everybody will find quite shocking,” he said.
Within the huge leaked archive is contained a batch of secret field reports from the town of Samarra. They corroborate previous allegations that the US military turned over many prisoners to the Wolf Brigade, the feared 2nd battalion of the Iraqi interior ministry’s special commandos.
In Samarra, the series of log entries in 2004 and 2005 describe repeated raids by US infantry, who then handed their captives over to the Wolf Brigade for “further questioning.”
Typical entries read: “All 5 detainees were turned over to Ministry of Interior for further questioning” (from Nov. 29, 2004) and “The detainee was then turned over to the 2nd Ministry of Interior Commando Battalion for further questioning” (Nov. 30, 2004).
The field reports chime with allegations made by New York Times writer Peter Maass, who was in Samarra at the time. He told Guardian Films: “US soldiers, US advisers, were standing aside and doing nothing,” while members of the Wolf Brigade beat and tortured prisoners.
The interior ministry commandos took over the public library in Samarra and turned it into a detention center, he said.
Maass’ 2005 interview at the improvised prison with the Wolf Brigade’s US military adviser, Colonel James Steele, had been interrupted by the terrified screams of a prisoner outside, he said.
Steele was reportedly previously employed as an adviser to help crush an insurgency in El Salvador.
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