February 26, 2006
In a clandestine message from his US
jail, handed over specifically to both Magazines "Al Majd " and "al Moharer"..*
Taha Yasin Ramadhan tells the details of his
imprisonment, the tortures he endured and the sessions of the interrogation -
tortures he suffered.
* Traitors of the Kurdistani Union raided my
home in Mosul. They kidnapped one of my children before I came forward to face
them!
* The US interrogations-tortures sessions
concentrated on asking me about the place where his Excellency President Saddam
Hussein was staying, and I always told them: I don't know!
* When I was on the verge of death
due to tortures, they told me: "We shall not let you die, rather we will take
you to die then, we will bring you back.."
* I told the US interrogators-torturers that
your tortures are ten fold more horrible than the ones I endured during
Abdelkarim Qassim and Abdelsalam Arif eras!
* A US interpreter from an Arab origins saved my
life, for he secretly provided me with some food from time to time!
* They proposed to me to collaborate in order to
detain his Excellency President Saddam Hussein and then to let me free. When I
refused they said: "You will stay jailed for ever."
The Magazines "al Majd" and "Al Moharer" are utterly honored to
be the confidence forum of the detained legitimate Iraqi Leadership symbols
who chose to use them to get in touch with the Arab and foreign opinion. As
President Saddam Hussein has already sent, through the lawyer Khalil al Dulaimy,
his greetings and appreciation to these two national tribunes, his Mujahid
deputy Izzat al Duri, the Commander of the Triumphant Iraqi Resistance, too,
chose these two Magazines, as the first tribune, to address the Arab people
after a long time of clandestine life and secrecy..
Today, the jailed Leader-Commander Taha Yasin Ramadhan, the Iraqi
legitimate Vice-President, chose to send the first message he was able to leak
from behind the US jail bars to the "Al Majd" and its sister "Al Moharer" to be
published in order to divulge the various horrible ways and means of the US
tortures and expose the US lies about justice, democracy and human rights..
Here is the full text of this very moving letter indeed
written by the jailed Vice-President:
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
((Be sure we shall test you with something of fear and hunger,
some loss in goods. Lives and the fruits (of your toil), but give glad tidings
to those who patiently preserve.))
(God is trustworthy is his words)
Some weeks ago, you were able to read my letter in which I
described the unbelievable hardships and ordeals suffered by the prisoners and
detainees at the hands of the US authorities who continue to defy the Geneva
Conventions, mainly the Third and the Fourth conventions in reference to the
physical torture we endured specially during the first twenty two days of our
detention.
I spoke to more than one US interrogator and to the Red Cross
representatives during the first visit they made to us, in great detail about
the bizarre tortures. I found here, convenient to reveal To Whom It May Concern
and in particular to those interested in Human Rights and people of good will
everywhere and especially among our nation. These torture practices show the
unbelievable hatred and the immense rancor US carry to every Arab and every
Moslem who is loyal to his homeland and to his nation and who rejects servility
and puppetry and cares about the security of his brethren and is proud of his
dignity. This will let you discover the US utter evil intentions against our
people and against our nation. What is happening now on the soil of Iraq such as
tearing away the country, planting the seeds of sectarianism and racism is a
horrid example, which absolutely shows how the US looks down at the Arabs.
That is why it is necessary to be careful and bear full responsibility right
now, and from this very moment, towards what is happening in Iraq.
I have chosen the title of 22 days in a US holiday resort for the
torture duration practiced against us during this period, and I shall try as far
as I can to be brief, for in those twenty two days we have endured a lot
of physical and moral tortures and we will explain the nature of the questions
asked in the beginning of every torture sessions which went on for hours. We
will tell of their complete details in the coming appropriate time, God willing.
22 days in a (US holiday resort)
The period in between the 17/8/2003 and 9/9/2003 is a period
where it was revealed to me or rather, where I personally discovered, and
closely touched the human feelings and the respect of human rights either small
or great of a US male or female. In the light of what we heard, and what other
brothers outside the prison camps heard, the US Media talk about their values
and principles, defending with uttermost strength the human rights in the world,
however, in Iraq, after occupying this independent country without any legal
ground and using the Weapon of Mass destruction lie as an excuse., today the US
says they are defending the Human rights and establishing a democracy in Iraq,
so it will be a beacon for the region.
Here I would like to give my brothers just one example among
others, of our suffering between 17/8/2003 and 9/9/2003 concerning the US
treatment of a human being who is 65 years old, with the known position and
history he had on the Iraqi and Arab levels for at least forty years. Yes I did
say after these events, after less than a week, to a US interrogator-jailer, or
rather to two of the US interrogators, that the tortures I suffered at their
hands while I was sixty five years old, are ten folds more horrible than the
tortures I personally endured for three consecutive times at the hands of
Abdelkarim Qassim and Abdelsalam Arif when I was 20, 24 and 25 years old! This
will allow you to have an idea about the horrible modern ways of US tortures in
the twenty first century.
These are the details of what tortures I have endured in this US
holiday resort for twenty two ongoing days! This time, the US holiday resort was
located in Iraq at the Baghdad International Airport, after Iraq become under
the US supervision and military occupation.
At about ten o'clock on the evening of 17/8/2003, while I was
with my children at a residential area in Mosul, the proud City of the leaning
minaret, al Hadbaa, the hometown of my birth, my home was encircled by the
traitors Kurdistani Union Party collaborators who pushed their way
inside, detained my little child Omar who was then eleven years old and
threatened to murder him, had I not come forward, and asked them to leave him
alone.
Then they led me to a nearby location, after stealing my hand
watch, a wedding ring, and a golden necklace. Everything I had! Then I was
rushed into a US armored vehicle that e went speeding immediately towards Mosul
airport. I was taken into a helicopter. My hands were tied behind my back,
my feet were also tied, I was blindfolded, and a long bag was placed on my head.
I was attached in this position to the airplane seat by the chest and my feet
were tied to the chair too. There were four guards standing at my head because I
was able to distinguish their voices. The helicopter left to Baghdad and I think
that we arrived at about two o'clock after midnight, wearing only my dishdasha.
The helicopter landed! They untied my feet and left my hands tied
behind my back, and my eyes remained blindfolded! I was taken to a place some
twenty meters further, I think, there they lifted up the blind folds from my
eyes and the bag from my head. I found myself in a room with four officers and
two US soldiers and a translator wearing the US military uniform, one of them
was holding a rod made out of aluminum. They immediately ordered me saying:
"kneel down"! I told them how can I! My hands are tied behind my back!" They
untied my hands. When I knelt down they asked me one single question: "Where is
Saddam Hussein?" I said:" I don't know!" Immediately after I finished my word
the beating started with the aluminum rod and I was thrown to the prison
concrete floor. Then they said:" Crawl!" This went on for about two hours. In
the meantime blood came flowing from my wrists and my knees… Every fifteen
minutes they would repeat the same question: "Where is Saddam Hussein? You have
to help us detain him!" When I told them:" I don't know and that was the mere
truth!" they started to beat me with the rod. They were hitting me hard, using
their feet against my waist and striking my loins. One of the officers said: "He
can't crawl, that must be his dishdasha which is preventing him from doing so!"
One of the soldiers drew up his bayonet and tore up my dishdasha turning it into
strips. I became almost naked.
I asked him for some water to drink! They answered:" right away!"
They didn't let me get up and kept me on the floor. They lift up my head and put
the water bottle in my mouth, then I discovered it was hot water! I restrained
from drinking it and I told them:" I would like some cold water!" They
said:"right away!" Here I felt some ice cold water being poured on my back and
on my body which gave me a strange quiver and a bizarre shiver while I was
abundantly sweating. They said:"This is the cold water you asked for! We will
continue to do so because you are not telling us where Saddam Hussein is!" After
two more hours, they made me stand up and put the bag on my head after
blindfolding me and tying my hands again. Then they led me to another room some
steps further. I felt that the four interrogators-jailers left and other guards
I (knew) through their voices took over. When I wanted to sit down I
was prevented from doing so. I was asked to walk forwards and backwards in the
room, every time getting knocked down against the walls because I couldn't see
anything and I couldn't feel with my hands for they were tied up behind my back.
This went on for many hours until I couldn't feel any longer the sole of my
feet. I asked to go to the water closet and no one paid attention to me despite
the fact that ten hours have passed of detention, tortures and transfer by air.
Because I lost consciousness, my urine came down while I was standing. When the
US soldiers saw this they immediately came, knocked me down and drew me from the
neck ups and downs on the urine while I was almost naked as I mentioned already,
because my dishdasha was torn to pieces, until they dried up the urine on the
floor using my own body. I was semi conscious.
After that, they asked me to stand up. After many minutes and a
great deal of efforts I could hardly stand up. The US soldiers refused purposely
to help me stand up on my feet! They forced me to continue going backwards and
forwards and after an hour they took me to the water closets, they lifted the
bag from my head but didn't untie my hands so I couldn't do anything. They took
me back to the room without being able to fulfill my need because they kept my
hands cuffed inspite of my insisting to undo them. Few hours later the four US
interrogators came. One of them was a translator as I mentioned. They led me to
the first room and repeated the same question saying: "Have you given
yourself a good thought to tell us where is Saddam Hussein so we can let you
free?" I told them:" I don't know and that was the truth."
They said we will take you with us in an airplane and you will
show us the places where Saddam Hussein might be staying!" I told them:" I will
not do this, for this behavior is none of my nature! Others might be assigned to
such mission, anyway I don't know where he can possibly be or the places where
he is expected to stay!" They went on asking me to stay kneeling on the ground
and to crawl upwards and downwards as in the first time. I was awfully
exhausted, I could hardly breathe, and I thought that my death hour was
approaching! Then I raised my finger and I pronounced the Shahada (La Ilaha illa
Allah wa Mohammad Rasul Allah: every Muslim utters to ascertain his faith before
his death - a translator notice) As it appeared, the translator told the
interrogators what I meant by that. I saw one soldier putting his foot on my
finger squashing it so cruelly as he wanted to break it while it was wounded and
bleeding and said :"Don't do that, we will not let you die! Rather we will take
you to die and then bring you back and so on and so forth until you answer our
demands and collaborate with us, because there are others who agreed to
cooperate without being forced or without being tortured to avoid your present
state!" I told them what is the cooperation and who are the collaborators?" They
mentioned two names of the brothers! I don't find it convenient to mention their
names here. They said:" Cooperate with us and answer the questions we ask you!"
The first question is:" Will you help us detain Saddam Hussein because you are
his deputy, one of his closest collaborators and his colleague for the last
forty years." I told them: "If I don't know, and I can't possibly cooperate with
you, what are you going to do?" They told me:"You will stay in this situation
forever!"
Two hours passed by and the blood was flowing from my hands and
my feet, while they continued pouring frozen water on my body and was led back
to the room to walk backwards and forwards as before. I started to lose
consciousness, was knocked down and fell to the floor. The US soldiers asked me
to get up on my own, beating me up, swearing and uttering degrading and debased
terms.
Two days later, I think, they put a bag of canned food in front
of me and allowed me to see. They said:"This is your food!" I said to them:"
Untie my hands!" They said:"No!" I said:"How can I open the bag and eat the
food?" They said:"You are free; you have ten minutes to decide. Then we will
blindfold you and put the bag again on your head!" And they did it effectively.
I didn't eat any food. After few hours the four came, I mean the four
interrogators-jailers plus the translator and asked: "Have you eaten?" I
said:"No! I couldn't and also I don't like this kind of food, if some local food
is available, I wish a piece of khoobz - Iraqi bread - a cup of tea or a boiled
egg!" They said: "That is our food; you must eat it if you like!" The translator
started to open one of the cans and tried to put the food into my mouth, because
they refused to untie my hands: Then I was left alone. After three days or so
without sitting on the ground, continuing to crawl and to walk backwards and
forwards. I was about to collapse! Later on I was told that I was allowed to go
to the water closets once every twenty four hours. They put a tiny little water
bottle 3/4 litre in the room, it was to drink water and to wash after being at
the water closets. So for 22 days I was never been able to wash or to put
any water on my face or my body.
On the fourth day they took me to another room a few steps away
from mine and lifted the bag from over my head. I found myself in front
of other interrogators-jailers different than the previous four criminal ones.
They were three plus a translator from the town of Haditha. I knew he was of
Arab origins holding a US nationality and wore US (military) uniform. This time
they allowed me to sit on a chair and they sat down also on chairs and there
were desks to write. They spoke to me normally and to begin with, asked the same
question concerning the place of President Saddam Hussein, but this
time inquiring about the details when I met with him the last time and where and
with whom. The interrogation went on for about two hours to no avail. I was
taken back to my room with the bag on my head, and was forced to walk backwards
and forwards. The next day I met again with this interrogator’s committee. This
time they wanted to know how and where I was staying during the last four
months. They tried to find out who cooperated with us or who helped us to hide,
but they didn't succeed. I was led again back to my room and I think this lasted
for about a week. The same torture and inhumane treatment, three times meeting
with this new interrogation committee, plus the first committee with the known
ways and means of torture I explained earlier.
One day I was surprised when one of the four, the rod holder,
because I couldn't forget his face, came forward and told me:"You are allowed to
sit but you are not allowed to lie down!" When I sat at the corner of the room
as I changed positions because I was incredibly exhausted, I felt asleep
immediately. The US soldier came at once to wake me up. So every time I fell
asleep, the guards came to wake me up.
On the day I was allowed to sit down, I was transferred also to
the room to crawl on the floor and to be beaten up and was asked another bizarre
question about the US pilot who was downed during the 1991 aggression in the
Iraqi desert. They said:"He is alive and is imprisoned in your jails and you
have to tell us where he is!" I told them:" I don't know any thing about this!"
The torture went on again and I was forced to crawl and was beaten up and this
time for about another week...
My dear brothers, I really don't want to annoy you with this old
same torture story! It was all the same torture routine. At the end of the
week they started to ask a third question:" Tell us the names of the
Resistance Fedayeen leaders in Mosul and in Baghdad because you were in charge
of all that and mainly in Mosul." I said to them: "I don't know anything and I
have no idea of what you are talking about! During that time I disappeared and I
couldn't move!" They started again to beat me up and torture me and forced
me to crawl as I already mentioned... They kept on chopping and changing about
this question. One time asking me to divulge four names and another two names
and finally they said:" Tell us only one single name! We will not say that you
are the one who told us about him! "I told them: "You are being unfair with the
torture you are inflicting upon me, and I am honestly not ready to be unjust
with anybody I don't know to be brought and tortured by you." This situation
went on for about five days, when they came and told me that they had the most
important question to ask: "If only you cooperated with us, they said, to
mention one single real name, we will let you free in three days time." Then I
was abandoned.
I would like here to tell for the History records how I lived
without food and without touching the food bag they were giving me daily. On the
fourth or the fifth day in my room where I was forced to walk backwards and
forwards, while my eyes were still blindfolded the translator of Arab origin who
was with the second committee, came into my room and said calmly and literally:
"Mr. Taha why aren't you eating your food!" adding:" Not eating your food might
harm your health!" He said so while I had my eyes blindfolded. I told him:" I
don't like this food; you know the taste of our food! we Arabs and in Iraq!
Please if you can help with a piece of Khoobz or anything, if not a boiled egg,
some jam!" He replied!"I do understand you!" Effectively after two hours he
brought two pieces of khoobz and some jam in a tiny jar. Almost every day he
came swiftly to bring the khoobz, a packet of juice or a cake before
disappearing. More than once he brought a cup of tea after greeting me and
immediately leaving. Finally I told him:" Shall I stay almost naked this way?
Don't you have a dishdasha or anything I could put on?" He said:" I will try my
best!" Yes! Two days before leaving the place, he brought me a blue
tracksuit with underwear and a jumper I put on straight away!
In the third week I was transferred to another room and they put
on the floor a mattress and they said:"You may lie on!" The room was 1,5X1 meter
only and I had when lying down to put my head on the step and hold my legs
against the wall. The room was far too small for me!
During these days I couldn't distinguish between day and night
because the electric lights were always on. Being without a watch, no one would
answer my question about the time, the day and the date.
One day came the US translator of Arab origin. He looked happy
and told me: "Mr. Taha you will be transferred in a few minutes to a better
place where you will meet your brothers and you will distinguish between day and
night!" I told him:" Thank you! Tell me what today’s date is?" He answered:"
Today is the 9/9/2003!" I said to him:" You mean I have been here since the last
twenty two days!" He left the room at once. In less than five minutes, soldiers
came and blindfolded, handcuffed me and led me to a car and after some ten
minutes drive, we reached (Crowbar imprisonment camp). I was handed over to the
Camp’s authorities. They lifted the black plastic bag off my head and untied my
hands, after registering my name. The group which led me from the (US resort) to
Camp Crowbar left the place. While another gang led me with my hands free to my
room which is one of Camp Crowbar solitary room measuring some 2X6metres, and
doesn't have any windows. There are two tiny holes on the door which (often) are
kept open. But as far as I am concerned as soon as I got to the room they sealed
completely the two openings and I was kept for three whole months without any
contacts with any of the brothers when they went outside in groups for the daily
exercise. They opened the door every twenty four hours allowing me half an hour
exercise on my own and to go to the water closets twice a day each lasting ten
minutes and in different times.
The second day of my arrival to Camp Crowbar they started to
interrogate me again. I asked the interrogators, why was I isolated from the
others and why the door openings were sealed because this started to badly
affect my health." They answered:" You will have to cooperate!"
Talking about this subject would take a long time... I hope to
get another opportunity in the future for that. In Crowbar Camp, the moral
torture after the physical torture in the (US democratic resort) started.
Here I shall stop and I apologize again for taking such long time
and this without mentioning a great deal of the ways and means of torture and
the horrible debased insults and degrading talk I heard from the US soldiers and
officers, while they were beating and banging the door with hands and rods, day
and night, not to mention the fearsome and loud music, the noises of animals and
savage dogs that I heard non stop day and night with the effect and influence
they have which no less than that of physical torture. This was for you to know
how the biggest country in the world excels into developing and upgrading the
methods and arts of torturing, this same country which claims to defend Human
Rights in the world and threatens any government under the cover of human rights
abuse and ill treatment and never stops talking about democracy.
Translated from Arabic by Abu Assur
–
www.al-moharer.net