An al Qaeda torture manual, found in a safe house in Baghdad and released by the military last week, was likely widely distributed, according to an Army official.
The official told The Examiner that because the book of sketches depicting gruesome torture techniques was in electronic form on a hard drive— and was not found as a stand-alone paper document — it indicates that al Qaeda had widely circulated the instructions via the Internet to cells in Iraq and perhaps in the region.
It was for that reason, in part, the source said, that the U.S. command in Baghdad decided to release the manual. The command assumed it was already in the hands of many al Qaeda operatives. The official, who asked to remain anonymous because he is not authorized by the Army to talk to reporters, said the release was an attempt to show the world al Qaeda’s depravity.
Some of the techniques depicted in black and white:
» An electric drill punching holes in hands
» A knife severing limbs
» A screwdriver taking out an eye
» A blowtorch burning tracks of skin
» Live electric wires attached to tongues
Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, has called al Qaeda his No. 1 enemy. The group carries out suicide bombings almost daily, killing hundreds of Iraqis.
American and Iraqi forces in recent weeks have raided at least five al Qaeda safe houses, where they discovered torture chambers and kidnapped Iraqis.
“One of these victims was a 13-year-old boy who had been grotesquely tortured,” said Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, chief military spokesman in Baghdad. “In addition to being beaten with whips and hoses, he had had electrical wires connected to his tongue, where he had been subjected to repeated shocks.”
Inside one torture room, soldiers found electric drills, blowtorches, meat cleavers and whips.
