When abuse in Iraq is discussed, it has become almost standard practice to call it "Abu Ghraib abuse" and seldom (if ever) is it referred to as what it often was: torture.  Based on conventional wisdom, torture is something that happened at Gitmo while a couple of bad apples at Abu Ghraib went buck-wild on a few detainees in Iraq.  I think embracing this point of view is both dangerous and wrong.

My initial thought was to have a nice weekend project tracking down the "half dozen" facilities where abuse reportedly occurred. Maybe give a couple of narratives for each site to try and establish a more complete picture of what happened beyond Abu Ghraib.

It didn't take long to find out that "half-dozen" is a euphemism for "boat-load".  In very short order the list had ballooned to around twenty sites of alleged or confirmed systemic abuse - without scratching the surface of the reports.  It became pretty clear this was a bigger job than first imagined.  Certainly not a weekend affair.   A big problem was the occasional use of pseudonyms (especially to the Red Cross) making disambiguation a part of the task.

One detail that keeps popping up in the facilities explored so far is that abusive interrogations most frequently track back to JSOC (SMU-TF in the Levin report) or a team behaving exactly as JSOC task forces are described in other reports (plain clothes, lax grooming rules, murky command, etc.). Fun fact: the commander of these JSOC units, Stanley McChrystal, is facing a half-hearing to confirm his promotion as commander of military forces in Afghanistan tomorrow.  I am not very confident that he will get a thorough questioning.

Another consistent aspect is that most specific information seems to emerge from situations where JSOC personnel and regular troops operate in close contact.  In almost every instance where a detailed account of abusive actions is given, it comes from a regular army source (MIs or MPs assigned from regular forces) .  The JSOC itself rarely seems to leak - even when compelled in classified briefings they often simply refuse to provide information.

After the jump, I've listed the locations identified thus far - with some supporting links and occasional notes.  If anyone has additional facilities they know of (or resources documenting abuse at a facility on the list, or information about what troops were assigned to a facility), please toss it in a comment.

Source of the list: The events in 3 facilities (Nama, Tiger, Diamondback/Glory) are extensively documented in a human rights watch report. A good number of the facilities on this list were identified as locations of significant abuse in the leaked IRC report and/or mentioned in documents recently released in the ACLU's ongoing torture FOIA lawsuit. Several others were identified through reports encountered while researching a different facility.  Many of the supporting links are redundant and lead to aggregate pages providing additional source documentation or reports covering more than one facility.

This post is woefully incomplete and kind of a mess - deepest apologies, it's a work in progress (hoping to get some feedback to help shape the final). Bear in mind, in some circumstances an acute episode doesn't necessarily prove a systemic abuse program. Many of the locations on the list need more research to establish the extent of problems. Entries marked with ** indicate a high degree of confidence that systemic approved abuse occurred at the facility.

(In no particular order)

 1. Ministry Of Defense (Baghdad)
    http://www.health-now.org/mediafiles/mediafile50.pdf

 2. Presidential Palace (Baghdad)
    http://www.health-now.org/mediafiles/mediafile50.pdf

 3. BIAP(pseudonym for Nama or Cropper?)
    http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/111808.html
    http://ww4report.com/static/91.html#iraq6 (may be Cropper/Nama)
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 4. Camp Cropper (Baghdad Airport - Closed Oct. 2004) **
    http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/111808.html
    http://www.health-now.org/mediafiles/mediafile50.pdf
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article997475.ece
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5094207


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 5. Camp Nama (Baghdad Airport) **
   http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us0706web.pdf

    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/international/middleeast/19abuse.html?pagewanted=5&_r=1

    http://armed-services.senate.gov/Publications/Detainee%20Report%20Final_April%2022%202009.pdf (Iraq SMU-TF facility)

Run by JSOC/Taskforce 6-26; McChrystal confirmed oversight of abuse.  Used some MI from JTF-7.  Closed summer 2004, taskforce moved to Balad (TF bases also reported near Fallujah, Ramadi and Kirkuk).

Extensive narrative in linked HRW report.

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 6. Abu Ghraib **
    http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/111808.html
    http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/OathBetrayed/silence-index.html
    http://www.health-now.org/mediafiles/mediafile50.pdf
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article997475.ece    

Most publically documented of all facilities (examine last, if at all).
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 7. Camp Whitehorse (Tallil Airbase, outside of Nasiriyah)
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5094207


 8. Al-Baghdadi (Ramdi)
    http://www.health-now.org/mediafiles/mediafile50.pdf


--. Heat Base (Ramdi - Rifles??)
    http://www.health-now.org/mediafiles/mediafile50.pdf


 9. Rifles Base (Ramdi)
    http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/OathBetrayed/silence-index.html


10. Habbania Camp (Camp Manhattan? - Ramdi)
    http://www.health-now.org/mediafiles/mediafile50.pdf
    http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/OathBetrayed/silence-index.html

11. Ruthwania Palace(Al Basara)
    http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/111808.html

12. Tikrit Holding Area:
    http://www.health-now.org/mediafiles/mediafile50.pdf
    http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/OathBetrayed/silence-index.html

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13. Camp Diamondback/Camp Glory (Mosul airport) **
    http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us0706web.pdf
  
    2nd Brigade Combat Team (101st Airborne Division) / Navy SEAL Team 7 (under JSOC?)

Extensive narrative in linked HRW report.
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--. "Kilometer 22" (psudonym - either Blacksmith or Tiger)
    http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/111808.html
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14. "Blacksmith Hotel" (outside Quaim) **
    http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/111808.html
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/02/AR2005080201941_pf.html
    http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/us_law/etn/dic/mowhoush.asp
    http://www.health-now.org/mediafiles/mediafile50.pdf (Referred to as "former train station in Al-Kahim")
    http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us0706web.pdf (states some Mowhoush events at Tiger)

A makeshift detention facility about six miles away from Qaim in the Iraqi desert, a prison fashioned out of an old train depot. Soldiers with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 101st Airborne Division were running a series of massive raids called Operation Rifles Blitz(U.S. troops searched more than 8,000 homes in three cities, netting 350 detainees, according to court testimony), and the temporary holding facility, nicknamed Blacksmith Hotel, was designed to hold the quarry. Teams of Army Special Forces soldiers and the CIA were conducting interrogations.

a tiered system of interrogations. Army interrogators were the first level. Second level detainees would be handed over to members of Operational Detachment Alpha 531, soldiers with the 5th Special Forces Group, the CIA or a combination of the three. "The personnel were dressed in civilian clothes and wore balaclavas to hide their identity,". Third level, the interrogators would deliver the detainees to a small team of the CIA-sponsored Iraqi paramilitary squads, code-named Scorpions.

The Scorpions went by nicknames such as Alligator and Cobra. They were set up by the CIA before the war to conduct light sabotage. After the fall of Baghdad, they worked with their CIA handlers to infiltrate the insurgency and as interpreters, according to military investigative documents, defense officials, and former and current intelligence officials. Example deployment: a Special Forces retiree, worked as a CIA operative with the Scorpions.

Famous for Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush (smothered w/ broken ribs in sleeping bag).

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15. FOB Tiger(Al Quaim) **
    http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us0706web.pdf
    http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/111808.html
    http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/us_law/etn/dic/mowhoush.asp

Extensive narrative in linked HRW report.

Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush turns himself in here before transfer to "Blacksmith" (Follow up on sons)
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16. FOB Headhunter (Renamed Camp Independence - Baghdad/Muthenna Airbase, 1m off Hafia St.)
    http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/111808.html


Camp Info: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/baghdad-muthenna.htm
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17. FOB St. Michael (Mahmudiyah - 25k S. Baghdad)
    http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/111808.html

Camp Info: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/mahmudiyah.htm
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18. Airbase H3 (Al Walid Airbase)
    http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/111808.html

(need to nail down exact facility)

The H-3 Southwest airfield is one of three dispersal airfields in the H-3 base cluster located 435 kilometers from Bagdad in western Iraq. The main H3 airfield was originally built to support the H-3 oil pumping station. H-3 Main is supported by two dispersal airfields, H-3 Southwest, and H-3 Northwest, and a Highway strip, 42 kilometers to the west. H-3 Southwest is served by a single 9,700 foot runway and has a parrallel taxiway that could be used as an alternate runway. There are at least 6 hardened aircraft shelters, and 6 revetments. (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/h-3.htm#)

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19. FOB Mercury (10 miles east of Fallujah) **
    http://www.hrw.org/en/node/11610/section/2

    U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment

The acts of torture and other cruel or inhuman treatment they described include severe beatings (in one incident, a soldier reportedly broke a detainee's leg with a baseball bat), blows and kicks to the face, chest, abdomen, and extremities, and repeated kicks to various parts of the detainees' body; the application of chemical substances to exposed skin and eyes; forced stress positions, such as holding heavy water jugs with arms outstretched, sometimes to the point of unconsciousness; sleep deprivation; subjecting detainees to extremes of hot and cold; the stacking of detainees into human pyramids; and, the withholding of food (beyond crackers) and water.

As soon as the 82nd pulled out of FOB Mercury in April 2004, the U.S. Marines that replaced the 82nd undertook a major offensive against insurgents in Fallujah.

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Hostage Incidents:
===============
Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush Mowhoush - beat with sledghammer handles and hoses, 5 broken ribs, smothered in sleeping bag. Turned himself in because his family was held hostage. 15 year old son, threatened, mock killing (Mowhoush died believing his son was murdered). (Tiger/Blacksmith).

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Col. David Hogg, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, said tougher methods are being used to gather the intelligence. On Wednesday night, he said, his troops picked up the wife and daughter of an Iraqi lieutenant general. They left a note: "If you want your family released, turn yourself in." Such tactics are justified, he said, because, "It's an intelligence operation with detainees, and these people have info." They would have been released in due course, he added later.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A54345-2003Jul27
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