Bad news from Iraq: US and Iraqi forces have uncovered a secret detention facility in Baghdad where 173 Sunni prisoners were held and apparently mistreated. The facility was reportedly run by Iraq’s Interior Ministry, but it was staffed, when US and Iraqi forces arrived, by members of the Badr Brigade, which answers to the Shiite Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) political party.
This will be spun in the US media to mean that the ostensible “good guys” whom the US has indirectly put into power are no better than Saddam and his henchman, and that Iraq is a hopeless country. On the bright side, the Sunnis have long accused Shia forces of this kind of activity, and if they see that Iraq’s government and the US are determined to end this kind of abuse, it may help reconcile the Sunni minority. So it’s bad news that this was happening, but maybe good news that it’s been discovered.
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