Civilians were taken into custody simply "because of their appearance or even of their names"

By Mazen Ghazi & Samir Haddad, IOL Correspondents

BAGHDAD , May 20 (IslamOnline.net) – The U.S. forces have detained scores of Iraqis on trivial claims, misinterpretation and score settling, an Iraqi interpreter said after a nine-month work with the occupation army.

The translator accompanied U.S. soldiers during night raids on Iraqis' houses in the capital Baghdad for suspected resistance fighters.

Speaking to IslamOnline.net on condition of anonymity, he said most of the detention cases were based on "trivial" or "weird" justifications.

He recalled that civilians were taken into U.S. custody simply "because of their appearance or even their names".

Mistaken Identity

The 34-year-old interpreter remembered that an Iraqi was detained in July while walking hurriedly in the street with his clothes stained with blood and carrying a knife and a rasp.

"Six days after his detention, I was asked to help in interrogating Mohamed el-Masry."

"He kept crying out; ‘I am a butcher’, and that he was on his way back home from work," recalled the interpreter.

"He yelled that he had tried to tell the American soldier he was just a butcher – to no avail."

The occupation forces also detained Maamoun Al-Ganaby, 19, citing no clear reasons, said the translator.

They wrote in their file that he was detained after found hiding under his bed during a raid on his house in northern Baghdad in December 2003".

"He was released three months later – with no charges pressed against him," the translator said.

Misinterpretation

He cited other incidents in which people were arrested when U.S. forces mistook their names.

He recalled the story of an Iraqi named Salah at a southwestern Baghdad checkpoint in January 2004.

"Asked on his name, the man said Salah, which sounded to the U.S. soldier as Selah (weapons in English)."

Amidst his feeling of wonder, Salah kept repeating his name.

"Although they found no weapons in his car, the American troops immediately detained the man."

The interpreter asserted that even though he repeatedly explained to the U.S. officer in charge the misunderstanding Salah was kept eight days in Abu Gharib prison.

Even Policemen

Even U.S.-installed Iraqi policemen bore the brunt of the random detentions and "weird" actions, the Iraqi interpreter said.

An Iraqi policemen was detained for several weeks because U.S. soldiers thought he was firing at them when he was hunting down a gang in Baghdad streets.

"They thought he was targeting them. I do not what became of him," said the interpreter.

Some Iraqis used the occupation forces to settle personal scores, said the Iraqi interpreter.

He recalled that an Iraqi, Sattar Gomaa, incited the Americans against his nephew after a quarrel on April 23 near Ballad in northern Baghdad last year.

"Gomaa told the occupation forces that his nephew had a mortar launcher in his house. Although no arms were found in the house, the nephew was detained by the U.S. forces."

The interpreter underlined that most of the justifications cited by the Americans for detaining Iraqi civilians were simply wrong and based on groundless assumptions.

He asserted that most of the interrogation sessions he attended was in Abu Ghraib, where gruesome scenes of torture and sexually abuse by the occupation forces occurred.

However, he said the real tragedy of the Iraqis goes beyond the torture to the unjustified detentions.

Illegal 

Much to the suffering of Iraqi detainees, most of them are not allowed their legal rights as promised the occupation forces, an Iraqi lawyer said.

"The American forces had promised to allow detainees the right to contest their arrest or seek a defense attorney," Suleiman Hassan El-Farajy told IOL.

"Most of the detainees were held for long periods that could exceed nine months without being told of their charges."

Noting that most arrest cases were based on suspicion, Faraji charged that most of the detainees "were hidden away from the eyes of the Red Cross officials visiting the prisons".

In April, Farajy’s son was killed by an American patrol while he was looking through the window of his house in Ballad.