WikiLeaks worries
Files claiming that US troops serving in Iraq surrendered captives to a renowned torture squad have reportedly surfaced on Wikileaks' war logs.
The documents seem to show US commanders handed over prisoners to the ‘Wolf Brigade,' a group under the control of the Iraqi government known to torture its victims. According to The New York Times, one US interrogator warned a prisoner: "he would be subject to all the pain and agony that the Wolf Battalion is known to exact upon its detainees."
Military log entries in 2005 and 2004 reportedly describe numerous raids made by US soldiers, who took prisoners and swiftly handed them over to the Wolf Brigade, while a reporter in the area just north of Baghdad at the time told The Guardian that "US soldiers, US advisers were standing aside and doing nothing".
The files also reportedly show the US command gave a secret order to turn a blind eye to the use of torture by the Iraqi authorities, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Worries UK soldiers might also have colluded with the use of torture in Iraq will no doubt intensify following the leak of such documents and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has backed calls for investigation into the claims.
"I think anything that suggests that basic rules of war, conflict and engagement have been broken or that torture has been in any way condoned are extremely serious and need to be looked at," he reportedly said.
Meanwhile, the founder of the website is apparently on the run in London as he supposes Western securities agencies are none too pleased with his aim to put sensitive documents in the public domain.
