Iraqi
National Police Break Up al-Qaeda Rape, Terror Cell in Samarra
by Jeff
Emanuel (more
by this author)
Posted 09/20/2007 ET
Updated 09/20/2007 ET
Samarra, Iraq -- Like
their hardline Islamist brethren in other nations -- such as the
Taliban in Afghanistan, and the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia, among
others -- the Islamic State of Iraq (or “ISI,” the name under
which al Qaeda in Iraq has organized in Iraq) has built a brutal
reputation not only for terrorism against its members’ own
countrymen and against the coalition, but also for being a proponent
of the most medieval, fundamentalist interpretation -- and enforcement
– of what its leaders claim to be the laws of the Koran.
Enforcement of these laws -- which can perhaps be described as
Shari’a taken to the greatest extreme -- has included taking
measures to brutally punish people who commit the slightest offense,
from smoking, to a woman failing to cover her head in public, to a man
not growing a long enough beard. The strictest social mores are to be
observed and any deviation from the standard can result in a
punishment consisting of torture, mutilation, or death -- including,
as the western world has seen on a few occasions (though not enough to
grasp the extent of its use), beheading
Unfortunately for those who might have chosen to join this hardline
Islamist faction in hopes of keeping more virtuous company, the recent
apprehension of a key ISI figure showed just how hypocritical – and,
as if more evidence was necessary, unspeakably inhuman -- the
leadership of that movement is capable of being.
Earlier this week in Samarra, the Iraqi National Police apprehended a
man named Ahmed Mohammed Sabar Hamud al-Medhi al-Bazi, a key figure in
a five-man ISI cell which was responsible for an attack on the
National Police using an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), as well as
for IED, rocket-propelled grenade (RPG), and small arms attacks on
coalition forces.
Upon being taken into custody, Medhi openly declared himself to be a
member of al Qaeda, and freely admitted (and signed a written
confession stating) that he had helped orchestrate and execute these
attacks on Iraqi Security and Coalition Forces. Perhaps wishing to
escape the punishing clutches of the NPs, and knowing full well -- as
do all fighters in Iraq and elsewhere – how strict the rules
are that Americans must abide by with regard to the humane treatment
of prisoners and detainees, Medhi asked to be handed over to the
coalition forces from Charlie Company 2-505 PIR (82nd Airborne) at
Patrol Base Olson, in northwestern Samarra. In exchange for the
transfer of custody, he had more information (and more confessions)
that he was willing to provide.
What it was that he confessed to once in American custody shocked and
outraged even his seasoned coalition captors, who had been facing ISI
in this city for over a year.
Without a bit of pressure -- indeed, without the appearance of a care
in the world -- Medhi, described in graphic detail the other half of
his ISI cell’s operations: running an organized al Qaeda Rape ring
in Samarra. With a modus operandi of breaking into various houses and
either raping women on the spot or threatening the family with death
while taking their daughter away to become a hostage and a sex slave,
Medhi, a self-described homosexual who engaged in intercourse (via
rape) with women “because other members of this group” did,
confessed to his cell’s penchant for abducing girls and “holding
them [hostage] just for their pleasure.” Most recently, he said, he
had taken part in the rape, kidnapping, and/or killing of five women,
three of whom were supposedly still alive.
Among these most recent victims was “a twenty-five year old
virgin,” who was “alone in her house” when the al Qaeda leaders
“raided” it. Breaking into the house, all five members of the cell
held her captive in her own home and raped her repeatedly. Finally,
when all five had quenched their base desire for that action which
they so brutally prohibited others from humanely engaging in, under
the guise of enforcing “true Islamic law,” the terrorists
departed, leaving the woman alone in her pain and misery.
If there is such a thing as “getting off easy” for a girl who is
gang-raped, this first woman did just that. Two others, both age 23,
met a much more gruesome fate shortly after the first, as they were
taken from their houses (in front of their families), raped repeatedly
by the entire al Qaeda cell, and then slaughtered. According to Medhi,
their bodies were buried in a cemetery somewhere in the city.
The two most recent victims -- girls aged 23 and 20 -- were also taken
from their family and gang-raped by these supposed enforcers of
Islamic virtue. Both, claimed Medhi, were still being held hostage
somewhere in Samarra. Unfortunately, the al Qaeda captive’s keenness
to confess to such atrocities as though they were simply ordinary
daily activities did not translate into a willingness to provide
coalition forces with an accurate location of his cell’s current
hostages. Twice Charlie Company platoons were dispatched to raid
houses fingered by al-Medhi as being the site of his group’s
activities; both times, the information turned out to be inaccurate.
However, on the last raid -- early on the morning of September 18th --
Charlie Co.’s White (2nd) Platoon was able to gather enough
information to confirm that the other members of the cell, upon
Medhi’s capture, had fled Samarra, with the leader having gone all
the way to Syria.
The dungeon was never found, nor were the two supposedly living
captives, though the best guess by coalition forces is that they were
either freed or -- much more likely -- killed when the remaining
members of Medhi’s al Qaeda cell decided to depart the region.
The mindset of such a person as Ahmed al-Medhi is impossible for a
civilized person to comprehend; however, this is the face -- and the
mind -- of the radical Islamist movement. This faction, which so
brutally enforces “Islamic virtue” in others, is capable of
turning right around and walking into families’ houses, taking their
daughters (about whom, Medhi said, there was “nothing special” –
they just happened to be randomly chosen); and, after gang-raping
them, either holding them hostage or slaughtering them.
Though few now seem to remember (only 4½ years from the end of his
reign), this is the type of treatment that women in Iraq were subject
to under the bloody rule of Saddam Hussein and his two sons, Uday and
Qusay. Rape rooms were common throughout the country, and any woman in
the vicinity of the Hussein family or their trusted high-ranking
Ba’athists had to fear being randomly selected for such brutal
treatment.
Now, though such horrifying acts can be (and, unfortunately, are)
perpetrated, there is a chance that those who commit such atrocities
will be captured, killed, or -- at the very least -- driven out of the
region (and hopefully out of Iraq). Ahmed al-Medhi is an example of
this new situation; while he was able to abduct, rape, and murder
women for a time, he has been apprehended -- by none other than the
new Iraqi authorities -- and is now in custody and awaiting trial. In
another departure from the way that things were done in Iraq under
Saddam Hussein, Medhi will have his day in court, with his own defense
counsel and with the ability to call witnesses on his own behalf.
Based on his own confession, this should not prohibit him from
receiving the stiffest penalty that the magistrate court he will be
facing can hand down to him. However, the trial will be both fair and
open, and as a result, this terrorist -- who is now off the streets,
and will likely never be able to harm another person again -- will
have a far greater opportunity to influence his own fate than he ever
gave to the countless young girls whose dignity, and whose lives, he
so wantonly stole.
Jeff Emanuel, a special operations veteran of Operation Iraqi
Freedom, is currently embedded with the U.S. military in Iraq. His
reports can be seen at www.JeffEmanuel.com.
Mr.
Emanuel, a special operations military veteran, is a columnist and
director of conservative weblog RedState.com.
He
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