Dismembering prisoners; A new narrative of American human rights in Abu Ghraib prison
An Iranian prisoner in the American Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, while narrating his torture, emphasized that the American soldiers watched and laughed at the dismemberment of the prisoners, and at the same time they claim human rights.
Mohammad Blandian, a former Iranian prisoner in the American Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, in an interview with the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen news channel, after 19 years of his release, gave details of his seventeen months in this prison.
Blandian told Al-Mayadeen network, I am an eyewitness who endured the worst types of torture in Abu Ghraib. The reason for my interview is to tell the youth in Iran and the world that America is not what it shows. I myself witnessed, what America committed in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and Afghanistan is the most heinous crimes against humanity, while it also claims human rights.
Describing the story of his arrest in Kazmin after having dinner in a restaurant that he left during the military rule due to the sound of gunshots, Blandian said that after his arrest, he was taken to a place that he later found out was the Saadoun police station. A place that was under the control of Baathists and Americans. According to Blandian, in that center, his rib was broken due to the beating and he was left untreated, and fifteen days later, he was transferred to one of Saddam’s palaces while his head was covered with a bag. A palace that had probably become one of America’s intelligence headquarters. There, he was put in a U-shaped cage that could only fit the height of a human.
Saddam airport… Abu Ghraib prison
Blandian told Al-Mayadeen, they interrogated me there accompanied by an Iraqi translator. But I didn’t know Arabic and I didn’t understand what they were saying. I understood things by pointing, but it was natural that I didn’t fully understand. A few days later, they said they wanted to release me and put me in an American Hummer car. How many of us were there? On the way, we saw a sign on which was written, Matar Saddam (Saddam Airport). We thought they wanted to release us and send us to Iran because we had not committed any sin. The car passed through the airport and after some time we entered the place where it was written “Sajjan Abu Ghraib” (Prison of Abu Ghraib). They brought us in there.
We did not understand what they were saying. We did not have a translator. Later, they brought a Tajik translator who knew Farsi. They said that you have been arrested and you are accused of bombing the hotel in Baghdad. I remember well, when the Baghdad hotel was blown up, I was in Saadoun police station and I told them this. The translator translated, but the American soldier shrugged. When I wanted to enter the prison, they were examined. We didn’t have hands, eyes, face, etc. name. They had given a number. They put a ring on my hand. They said that we should always have it. We entered a camp that looked like tents. I don’t know if it was twenty or twenty-five. A few days later, they took me for interrogation and brought an Iraqi interpreter. I said I don’t understand anything. A few days later, they said again that they want to take you to the American Hotel and after a few days of rest, they will release you.
