Revelations add to Picture of US Torture

cont'd:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/revelations-add-to-picture-of-us-torture/2006/03/19/1142703216779.html

Revelations add to picture of US torture
Email Print Normal font Large font By Eric Schmitt in Washington and Carolyn Marshall in San Francisco
March 20, 2006
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Bitter anniversary … anti-war protesters march down 42nd Street in New York.
Photo: AFP

AS THE Iraqi insurgency intensified in early 2004, an elite US special operations forces unit converted one of Saddam Hussein's former military bases near Baghdad into a top-secret prison. There, US soldiers turned a former government torture chamber into their own interrogation cell, calling it the Black Room.

In the windowless room, soldiers beat prisoners with rifle butts, spat in their faces and used them for target practice in games of jailhouse paintball. Their aim was to extract information to help hunt down Iraq's most wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, US Defence Department personnel said.

The Black Room was part of a temporary prison at Camp Nama, the secret headquarters of the elite Taskforce 6-26. Located at Baghdad International Airport, the camp was the first stop for many insurgents on their way to nearby Abu Ghraib prison.