US embassy cable - 04MANAMA809

UNCLAS MANAMA 000809 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SECDEF FOR OASD/PA 
CPA BAGHDAD FOR CPIC 
USCINCCENT FOR PAO AND POLAD 
STATE FOR NEA/PPD MQUINN, ACASPER, PAGNEW; NEA/ARP 
LONDON FOR HAMBLEY AND NKHOURY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP, KPAO, BA 
SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR PRESS GUIDANCE ON ALLEGED ABUSE OF 
FEMALE IRAQI POWS 
 
 
1.  Embassy Manama requests guidance to respond to press 
accounts about abuse of female POWs in prisons in Iraq. 
Several stories ran on the front pages of Bahrain's 
Arabic and English language dailies on 5/29 (see para 
three for headlines), quoting sources in Baghdad about 
the rape of female prisoners.  These sources included the 
two Iraqi NGOs, "The Union of Detainees and Prisoners" 
and "International Occupation Watch Center," and 
professors at Baghdad University.  The Gulf Daily News 
reported, "a mother a four, arrested in December, killed 
herself after being raped by US guards in front of her 
husband."  The Bahrain Tribune reported, "According to 
Iman Khamas, head of the International Occupation Watch 
Center, a woman prisoner said her cellmate had been 
rendered unconscious for 48 hours.  She had been raped 
seventeen times in one day by Iraqi police in the 
presence of American soldiers."  Arabic daily Akhbar Al 
Khaleej also reported that, "several women POWs were 
killed by their families after coming out of Abu Ghraib 
pregnant due to rape." 
 
2.  In addition to the print press, Al Arabiya Satellite 
Channel carried an exclusive, seven-minute interview with 
recently-freed Iraqi woman POW Emtithal Al Qassimi on 
5/29 at 1300 (the interview was re-aired throughout the 
day and again on 5/30).  The ex-POW, in her late fifties, 
was dressed in a black hijab and she described her 
treatment and the treatment of other inmates in the 
Baghdad airport and later in Abu Ghraib.  She stated that 
she witnessed approximately 120 Iraqi prisoners being 
stripped down and then trampelled on by their American 
captors.  She also said that she had seen female 
prisoners sustain permanent damage, including partial 
paralysis, as a result of their injuries.  (Comment:  A 
PAS FSN reported that her mother burst into tears after 
watching the interview.) 
 
3.  Headlines: 
 
-  "Horrifying stories about raped Iraqi women prisoners 
in Abu Ghraib," Akhbar Al Khaleej 
 
-  "Terrifying Testimonies of Occupation Soldiers Raping 
Women Prisoners and the Tragic Fate of These Women," 
Akhbar Al Khaleej 
 
- "Women Raped at Abu Ghraib Jail" Bahrain Tribune 
 
- "Abu Ghraib at Centre of New Storm: Women Raped in 
Jail," Gulf Daily News 
 
4.  This request for guidance has been cleared by NAVCENT 
PAO. 
 
5.  Minimize considered. 
NEUMANN