Wikileaks has posted a "Confidential memo from Maj. Gen. Kelly, commander of US forces in western Iraq (MNF-W, or Multi-National Force — West), written in late February 2008."
It begins:
I spent the entire day inspecting the Fallujah city jail. I found the conditions there to be exactly (unbelivable [sic] over crowding, total lack of anything approaching even minimal levels of hygiene for human beings, no food, little water, no ventilation) to those described in the recent (18 February) FOX news artickle [sic] by Michael Totten entitled the "Dungeon of Fallujah".
and it gets worse from there.
Please forgive me if this entry is on the brief side (as opposed to my usual long-winded diatribes). I often think that I'm far too cynical to be shocked by anything; occasionally something like this comes along to teach me how wrong I am.
Here's a link to the transcribed memo if you want to read the whole thing -- it's not very long. If you don't want to take the time to do that, here are some choice excerpts:
First, there is zero support from the government for any of the jails in Anbar. No funds, food or medical support has been provided from any ministry.
These jailer/investigators are undermanned and more often than not spend most of their time out begging and scavenging for food than investigating crimes. (It is unlikely the prisoners will eat today).
We need to go to general quarters on this issue right now.
To state that the current system is broken would erroneously imply that there is a system in place to be broken.
The Dungeons of Fallujah, as referenced by Major General Kelly, were covered by Michael S. Totten in his journal, where he explains "The Iraqi Police call it a jail, but it's nothing like a jail you've ever seen, at least not in any civilized country. It was built to house 120 prisoners. Recently it held 900."
And it was only built three years ago -- so one as-yet-unanswered question is "why were the requirements so badly underestimated?" and another is "how long has this absurd overcrowding been going on?" And perhaps given this comment by Totten:
The building looked at least sixty years old, and it looked as though no maintenance work had ever been done. Floor tiles were broken, the foundation was cracked, the stairs were uneven, and the walls were utterly filthy as though they hadn’t been painted once since I’ve been alive.
it might be appropriate to ask WHICH contractor built this hell-hole using our tax dollars. (I've been looking for an answer to that question, but I don't have one yet.)
I was about to write "why should we care?" and then answer it, but then I remembered what audience I was writing for. You already know. You don't need me to enumerate the litany of reasons why this matters on so many levels.
I'm sitting here in a comfortable chair with half a glass of wine left, wondering about someone half a world away, trying to sleep standing up, hungry, filthy, desperately tired and perhaps -- entirely innocent. (The Fallujah jail houses its share of suspected petty criminals who as yet have been convicted of no crime.) So I do the only thing I can do: I tell you, in the hope that when enough of us know, we'll have the accumulated power to change it.
We must.