According to media reports, CIA detained hundreds of AL-Qaeda suspects in a secret location in Ethiopia. The detainees came from19 countries and included women and children as young as seven months.
They were illegally deported to Ethiopia where they were held in horrific conditions in crowded jails, with a dozen detainees sharing a single 10 feet by 10 feet cell. There were little food, and abuse and torture were commonplace.
Also CIA often tortured detained terrorist suspects by using waterboarding and mock execution.
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) described in a report how waterboarding is done: the prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner's face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt.
The New York Times said in a report on December 7, 2007 that CIA in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Al-Qaeda operatives in 2002 in the agency's custody, which was widely believed that CIA was trying to destroy evidences of the existence of its secret detention program.
Besides, women prisoners were often subject to humiliation in Iraq. Reports said many of them became victims of Iraqi police and the occupying forces.
According to a Spain-based newspaper Rebellion's report, Iraqis said there had never been so many rapes and atrocities against women in any war since the Middle Ages as witnessed in the Iraqi war.
(Xinhua News Agency March 13, 2008)
