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World
Abuse of prisoners in Iraq widespread, officials say
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi authorities have been torturing and abusing prisoners in jails across the country, current and former Iraqi officials charged.
Deputy Human Rights Minister Aida Ussayran and Gen. Muntadhar Muhi al-Samaraee, a former head of special forces at the Ministry of the Interior, made the allegations two weeks after 169 men who apparently had been tortured were discovered in a south-central Baghdad building run by the Interior Ministry. The men reportedly had been beaten with leather belts and steel rods, crammed into tiny rooms with tens of others and forced to sit in their own excrement.
A senior American military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said he suspected that the abuse wasn’t isolated to the jail the U.S. military discovered.
Ussayran said abuse was taking place across the country.
In five visits to a women’s prison in Baghdad’s Kadhimiya district over more than three months, the Human Rights Ministry found that women were being raped by male guards, Ussayran said. That problem continues.
One woman told the Human Rights Ministry that she was raped seven times on the seventh floor of the Interior Ministry, which is notorious to some Iraqi Sunni Muslims and home to intelligence offices. The Human Rights Ministry investigated that, and Ussayran said the problem had been rectified.
No one was able to estimate the extent of the abuse, but the Iraqi government expects the results of the investigation into the Baghdad secret prison and into other prisons by the end of the week, Laith Kubba, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said Saturday.
Interior Minister Bayn Jabr has downplayed the extent of the problem, saying that only seven prisoners out of the 169 who were discovered at the facility in Baghdad’s Jadriyah district had been mistreated.
Adnan Thabit, the head of the Interior Ministry’s special police commandos, said that while mistakes had been made, perhaps only one detainee out of every 200 had been mistreated.
National
Bible study ban prompts questions
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly recently asked the state attorney general to determine whether it’s unconstitutional for Wisconsin universities to prohibit resident assistants from conducting Bible studies in their dormitories.
His request comes four months after UW-Eau Claire ordered resident assistant Lance Steiger to stop leading Bible discussions in the basement of his dormitory.
Resident assistants at the university receive free room and board and a $675-per-semester stipend in exchange for nurturing and counseling dorm residents.
University officials said that by organizing and leading Bible study in the dormitory, Steiger was placing undue pressure on residents to participate. Officials said he was free to participate in, or lead, the group elsewhere on campus.
A national organization called Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, state legislators and U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-Wis.) lambasted the policy, insisting that it violates Steiger’s free-speech rights. Green wrote a letter to Reilly, urging him to “rid the UW System of this deplorable mandate.”
In a letter to Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, Reilly doesn’t support or defend the policy at UW-Eau Claire, which he says is similar to a policy at UW-Madison.
Instead, Reilly says that all schools in the UW System make campus facilities and student funding available to student religious organizations, and that the UW System is committed to state and federal civil rights laws.
Reilly says UW-Eau Claire was clarifying its policy, but given the similarities of policies elsewhere in the UW System, he was seeking Lautenschlager’s advice.
“I am requesting your written opinion as to whether the university’s practice is consistent with First Amendment standards,” Reilly writes.
Local / BSU
IT student group offers free PC repair
Is your computer slowing down with viruses, spyware, unneeded programs and popups? Having trouble connecting to the Internet? Not sure how to install upgraded software or hardware, like a larger hard drive or more memory?
The Association of Information Technology Professionals a student organization at Boise State, will repair PCs for free from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, in the Lookout Room on the third floor of the Student Union Building.
The repair fair is limited to the first 100 registrants. For more information or to register visit www.aitpbsu.org/computer_repair.html.
Participants should bring in their PCs between 9 and11 a.m. and computers will be worked on in the order they are received. Registrants only need to bring their computer, pertinent software and any hardware that may need to be installed; monitors, keyboards and mice will be provided.
Volunteers will be outside in front of the SUB to assist participants who wish to drop off their PC before parking.
AITP is a national computer/technology organization with professional and student chapters. The second annual computer repair fair is the BSU chapter’s community service project for the semester.
The fair is free, but any donations received will be used to help send students to the national AITP conference in April.
The conference is educational and also offers students the opportunity to engage in technology competitions. During the past few years, BSU AITP teams have stacked up well in various competitive events against teams from top universities across the United States, receiving first place finishes in Web site design, student papers and systems analysis and third place finishes in network design and PC troubleshooting.
What the ?
We just want to congratulate you – whap!
A New Jersey man won $5,000 with a scratch-off lottery ticket and went to a bar in Bayonne to celebrate. But he just couldn’t keep the good news to himself.
“He was all excited and showing people the ticket,” said the bar’s owner. After he left the bar that evening, two men beat the guy senseless and took the ticket.
World/National/What the? stories and photos courtesy of KRT Campus Wire Services unless otherwise credited. Local/BSU stories are courtesy of the Boise State Web site at www.boisestate.edu. All stories are compiled by News Writers.