Former Iraqi prisoner says U.S. jailers humiliated him

NAJAF, Iraq – Dhia al-Shweiri spent several stints in Baghdad’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison, twice under Saddam Hussein’s rule and once under American. He prefers Hussein’s torture to the humiliation of being stripped naked by his American guards, he said Sunday.

Now the 30-year-old, who used to work in a fabric shop, is a die-hard fighter in the al-Mahdi Army, the fanatic militia of a Shiite Muslim cleric who has vowed to take on the Americans.

Al-Shweiri said that while jailed by Hussein’s regime, he was electrically shocked, beaten and hung from the ceiling with his hands tied behind his back.

“But that’s better than the humiliation of being stripped naked,” he said. “Shoot me here,” he added, pointing between his eyes, “but don’t do this to us.”

Allegations of mistreatment exploded onto the world stage last week after CBS’ “60 Minutes II” broadcast images allegedly showing Iraqis stripped naked, hooded and being tormented by their U.S. captors.

Al-Shweiri, who was arrested by the Americans in Baghdad in October, and accused of militant activity, said he was asked to take off his clothes only once and for about 15 minutes.

“I thought they wanted me to change into the red prison uniform, so I took off my clothes, down to my underwear. Then he asked me to take off my underwear. I started arguing with him but in the end he made me take off my underwear,” said al-Shweiri, who was too embarrassed to go into too much detail.

He said he and six other prisoners – all hooded – had to face the wall and bend over a little as they put their hands on the wall.

“They made us stand in a way that I am ashamed to describe. They came to look at us as we stood there. They knew this would humiliate us,” he said, adding that he was not sodomized.

Al-Shweiri’s account could not be independently verified.

“They were trying to humiliate us, break our pride. We are men. It’s OK if they beat me. Beatings don’t hurt us, it’s just a blow. But no one would want their manhood to be shattered,” he said.

“They wanted us to feel as though we were women, the way women feel and this is the worst insult, to feel like a woman,” al-Shweiri said.