Insurgents' taped confessions broadcast on Iraqi television

Feb. 05, 2005

Insurgents' taped confessions broadcast on Iraqi television

ABDEL-QADIR MAHMOUD, an Egyptian man, confesses on an Iraqi television broadcast in Mosul on Friday to being part of a network responsible for kidnappings and beheadings in Iraq.

By Christine Hauser

MOSUL, Iraq - In one scene, the videotape shows three kidnappers with guns and a knife, preparing to behead a helpless man who is gagged and kneeling at their feet.

In the next, it is allegedly one of the kidnappers who is in detention, his eyes wide with fear, his lips trembling, as he speaks to his interrogators.

"How do I say this?" says the accused man, identified as an Egyptian named Abdel-Qadir Mahmoud, holding back tears.

"I am sorry for everything I have done."

In the first week after the elections, the Iraqi Interior Ministry and the Mosul police chief are turning the tables on the insurgency in the north by using a tactic -- videotaped messages -- that insurgents have used time and again as they have terrorized the region with kidnappings and executions.

But this time the videos, which are being broadcast on a local station, carry a different message, juxtaposing images of the masked killers with the cowed men they become once captured.

The broadcast of such videos raises questions about whether they violate legal or treaty obligations about the way opposing fighters are interrogated and how their confessions are made public.

Since thousands of Iraqi police officers fled their stations in November under insurgent attacks, the U.S. military has been working with the Iraqis to reconstitute the police force in Mosul.

It was not clear if U.S. advisers had any influence on the decision to use the videos. U.S. military officials did not have any immediate comment on the practice.

Officials in Mosul, short on manpower, apparently hope the psychological force of the broadcasts will help undermine the insurgency, making its fighters appear weak and encouraging citizens to call up with their reactions or information about those still at large.

A program loosely based on "most wanted" crime shows in the United States is also being developed, a Mosul television official said.

"Because of their confessions and the disgusting things they did, we have reached our limit," Mosul police Chief Ahmed Jaburi said.

"There is no more patience."

If nothing more, the confessions, as they are called in the videos, offer a rare glimpse into how the gangs operate and plot their killings.

The videos also try to divest the terrorists and criminals of their religious platform by challenging them with questions about Islam.

"These are men who do not fear God," an Interior Ministry official said at the beginning of one of the segments last week. He described the men as Iraqi and other Arab terrorists. "Our special forces will crush their filthy heads!"

"We are going to show you some men who have the blood of innocent people on their hands," the official said. "We are going to show you their confessions, say their names and those of their leaders, and we expect you to help us find them."

Some people said they found the practice of showing the insurgents on television troubling.

Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch said such tactics raised the issue of whether the people were tortured or otherwise coerced into making the statements.

Last week the organization issued a report based on interviews in Iraq that "found the abuse, torture and mistreatment of detainees by Iraqi security forces to be routine and commonplace," said Whitson, the executive director of the group's Middle Eastern division.

For example, she said, the police often described detainees as guilty before any trial had occurred and made them available to journalists to be photographed.

It is not immediately clear what the officials intend to do with the detainees.

Security officials said the men had been detained around Mosul during patrols based on leads.

Mahmoud's segment is especially dramatic. At one point it shows three masked kidnappers dressed in black, standing over their victim.

The two on the sides point weapons at the victim's head as the man in the middle reads a statement.

When he is finished, he hands the paper to someone off camera and, without hesitation, draws a knife and grasps the victim's chin, pulling it to the side to expose his neck. The other two lean forward to help.

Then the video pauses. The voice of an Iraqi security official comes on.

"That is Abdel-Qadir Mahmoud on the left," said the official, referring to one of the masked men. "And that is Mohammad Hikmat on the right."

The man identified as Mahmoud had been shown earlier in the video in a very different way than when he was displayed masked, armed and acting with bravado as he helped kill a man on his knees.

"The coalition forces arrested me last April as one of Saddam's special forces," he said, sporting a scraggly beard, his eyes wide and a crease furrowing his brow.

He was shown from the neck up, a plastic sheet forming a backdrop behind him.

"I met a man named Sheik Mahdi in jail," Mahmoud said. "When I was released, we met again. He was organizing four groups. They hung out at a pool hall."

He coughed a few times, then leaned his head on his right hand and put a finger to his temple as if trying to appear sincere or thoughtful.

"The operations were in the Mahmudiya area," he said, referring to a town south of Baghdad where guerrilla attacks are frequent.

"They killed someone named Metwalli Masri, along with four engineers."

In another scene, a man who gave his name as Muataz Jawba sat in front of a tiled wall. The camera was fixed on him from the shoulders up.

He was heavyset and had a thick mustache.

The commentator said he was part of a gang led by the "prince" of terrorists, Khaled Zakia, who was a colleague of Abu Musab Zarqawi, an al-Qaida associate.

Jawba's heavy-lidded eyes darted nervously from side to side.

Whispering into a little microphone held to his lips, he said he had pointed out to the gang a Christian man who worked for the Americans.

"They chose a day to kill him," Jawba said.

The gang went to the man's restaurant and shot him. But they found out he survived after they sent a scout to the hospital pretending he wanted to donate blood.

They then demanded a $10,000 ransom from the family, which the family paid, Jawba said.

"As a group, did you fast and pray?" the questioner said, referring to two requirements of practicing Muslims.

"Khaled came and fooled us," said Jawba. "He said it's jihad, it's occupation, come help us."

"Do you call this jihad?" the interrogator said.

"No," Jawba replied meekly.

"Is Khaled Zakia a religious man?" the questioner asked.

"He brainwashed us," Jawba said.



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