Iraq Detainees Held in Small Crates

After a blogger filed a Freedom of Information Act request, the military last week released photographs of the crates (”segregation boxes”) into which it segregates violent Iraqi prisoners:

Three grainy black-and-white photos show the rudimentary structures of wood and mesh. Some of the boxes are as small as 3 feet by 3 feet by 6 feet tall, according to military officials. There was no image released of a box that size.

The average Iraqi male is 5 feet 6 inches tall, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Health. That leaves little room for a prisoner to move once placed inside. (CNN)

The military says that the boxes are (1) humane; and (2) checked every 15 minutes. (CNN) Well, then.

But those pesky human rights advocates are worried anyway.

Human rights advocates say little is known about how the military treats prisoners inside these boxes.

“There are concerns that they could be used in places where the detainees are enclosed in extremely hot conditions. It is important to know whether or not detainees are provided with food,” said Jennifer Daskel of Human Rights Watch. (CNN)

Maj. Neal Fisher, a spokesman for Task Force 134, the Marine unit in charge of detainees, provided reassurance on that point: crated detainees are fed and watered regularly. (CNN)They didn’t say anything about bathroom breaks. I wonder about that.

Noting that Bush has robbed us of the moral high ground, Professor Jonathan Turley wrote:

As President George Bush is in China lecturing his counterparts on human rights and detainee rights, pictures have emerged of the U.S. military’s use of small crates to hold detainees in Iraq. The wooden boxes are only 3 feet by 3 feet by 6 feet tall, but the Bush Administration insists that it is a perfectly humane way to hold detainees. That is no doubt something that Chinese will find instructive.

The boxes are used for up to 12 hours at a time….

China previously defended its own abuses by citing the advances of the Bush administration in this area, click here.

It will take years for the United States to be able to speak internationally on the subject of human rights without a round of snickering…. (Jonathan Turley; emphasis added)