Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Iraqis torturing Iraqis: Same as it ever was

by Jay McDonough



Yessiree, it was definitely worth 4,000 American lives and a trillion dollars to rid Iraq of that murderous asshole, Saddam Hussein.  From a new article at The Guardian:



Iraqis held at a secret prison in Baghdad were routinely tortured using whips, electric shocks and rape, according to an investigation by Human Rights Watch.


"The jailers suspended their captives handcuffed and blindfolded upside down by means of two bars, one placed behind their calves and the other against their shins. All had terrible scabs and bruising on their legs. The interrogators then kicked, whipped and beat the detainees. Interrogators also placed a dirty plastic bag over the detainee's head to close off his air supply. Typically, when the detainee passed out from this ordeal, his interrogators awakened him with electric shocks to his genitals or other parts of his body." (Link)





In case you've been desensitized with stories of torture by U.S. personnel (oh, sorry - we call it "enhanced interrogation"), here's one to prove the Iraqis can even out-Abu Ghraib us.



Iraqi soldiers arrested Detainee E, a 21-year-old, on December 19 at his home in Mosul: �During the first eight days they tortured me daily. They would put a bag on my head and start to kick my stomach and beat me all over my body. They threatened that if I didn�t confess, they would bring my sisters and mother to be raped. I heard him on the cellphone giving orders to rape my sisters and mother.� During one torture session, the man, who was blindfolded and handcuffed, was stripped and ordered to stroke another detainee�s penis. After he was forced to the floor, the other detainee was forced on top of him. �It hurt when it started to penetrate me. The guards were all laughing and saying, �He�s very tight, let�s bring some soap!� When I experienced the pain, I asked them to stop and that I would confess. Although I confessed to the killings, I mentioned fake names since I never killed anyone. So the torture continued even after I confessed because they suspected my confession was false.� One of the guards also forced him to have oral sex. (Link)





The prison, managed by Prime Minister Maliki's predominantly Shia government, housed mostly Arab Sunni prisoners.  During Saddam Hussein's rule, the Sunni led Iraqi government tortured Iraqi Shia and Kurds. 



Good thing he's gone, huh?



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