Iraqis placed in cage with lions story is untrue?

Iraqi Detainees Claim They Were Put Into Cage of Lions

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Iraqi businessmen, who were imprisoned by U.S. forces in Iraq, claimed Monday that American soldiers threw them into a cage of lions in a Baghdad palace, as part of a terrifying interrogation in 2003.

"They took me behind the cage, they were screaming at me, scaring me and beating me a lot," Thahe Mohammed Sabbar said in an interview. "One of the soldiers would open the door, and two soldiers would push me in. The lions came running toward me and they pulled me out and shut the door. I completely lost consciousness."

Army spokesman Paul Boyce said he has never heard of lions being used in any detainee operations and it has never come up in any of the more than 400 investigations into detainee abuse conducted by the military over the past three years. (Related story: U.N.: Multinational forces in Iraq holding 11,559 detainees)

"We take every allegation of detainee abuse seriously," Boyce said. "But it does seem unusual that this is now coming out for the very first time after three years of investigations." more...