The Guardian and BBC Arabic are reporting that the U.S. helped fund and organize a network of torture centers that fueled Iraq’s sectarian violence.

Iraqi Gen. Muntadher al-Samari, who reportedly worked with U.S. operatives, described some of the methods used in these torture centers to The Guardian: “Each one was made up of an intelligence officer and eight interrogators. This committee will use all means of torture to make the detainee confess like using electricity or hanging him upside down, pulling out their nails, and beating them on sensitive parts.”

These centers have been linked to the highest levels of U.S. military command at the time. According to the reporting, now retired Gen. David Petraeus and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld each had a man on the scene and the two agents worked in concert with each other to organize some of the most violent Shia militias to join their grotesque cause.

— Posted by Peter Z. Scheer.

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#david petraeus#donald rumsfeld#iraq#iraq war#military#sectarian violence#torture#war