How British Soldiers Used Child Porn to Threaten Iraqi Detainees

Unearthing a case of serious detainee abuse from Iraq.

The Divisional Temporary Detention Facility in Shaibah, Basra (The Al-Sweady Inquiry).

JFIT Abuses

In 2010, 222 former Iraqi detainees alleged that while they were detained by the Joint Forward Intelligence Team (JFIT – a specialist team of British Army interrogators), they were subjected to a variety of different abusive interrogation techniques, including sexual assault, severe beatings, stress positions, forced nakedness, sensory deprivation, and forced exposure to pornography. Video footage of a JFIT interrogation, shown at High Court proceedings in London in 2010, depicts an Iraqi detainee being forced to stand to attention as British soldiers scream abuse at him and threaten him with execution. The soldiers ignore his complaints that he hasn’t been allowed to sleep, and that he has been prevented from eating or drinking anything for two days. The footage also shows this detainee being forced to wear blacked-out goggles and earmuffs, and being dragged away by his thumbs. In 2012, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) subsequently paid out £14m in compensation to hundreds of Iraqis who were tortured by British soldiers; many of these claims centred around abuses carried out by JFIT. The International Committee of the Red Cross previously witnessed JFIT interrogators mistreating detainees, and a former JFIT guard told The Guardian that detainees were blindfolded and dragged around assault courses, often while being beaten. This context regarding JFIT’s proven abusive practices is relevant for what I shall now discuss.