Joint Forward Intelligence Team

A Joint Forward Intelligence Team or Joint Forward Interrogation Team (JFIT) of the British Army, that reported to the UK-based Defence Intelligence and Security Centre, interrogated Iraqi prisoners between 2004 and 2007 at the Shaibah Logistics Base thirteen miles from Basra.[1][2][3][4]

Former prisoners interviewed by the legal firm Public Interest Lawyers "alleged that British soldiers, including at least one female soldier, were responsible for abuse that included sexual abuse, stress positions, sleep deprivation and beatings".[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Coghlan, Tom (8 March 2010). "New inquiry into torture claims as Iraq votes for its future". Timesonline. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article7053351.ece. 
  2. ^ BBC Staff (1 January 2010). "Secret Army squad 'abused Iraqis', lawyers claim". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8437090.stm. 
  3. ^ "Colonel Nicholas Mercer, the Commander Legal for British forces in Iraq in 2003. ... [He] told the court martial that on March 27, 2003, he intervened after seeing about 40 hooded Iraqi detainees being kept in a stress position in the sun next to an electric generator at the Shaibah Logistics Base. The prisoners were in the care of interrogators from the JFIT. He said the interrogators told him that he was not authorised to end the prisoners’ treatment because the unit answered directly to the Defence Intelligence Security Centre in Britain."(Coghlan, Tom; Fordham, Alice (2 January 2010). "Iraqi prisoners ‘were sexually humiliated by female British soldier’". The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6973482.ece. ).
  4. ^ "Lieutenant Colonel Nick Mercer, one of the army's most senior legal advisors, gave evidence to the Baha Mousa inquiry. ... [He] told the inquiry that shortly after the invasion, he had visited an interrogation centre near Basra operated by the army's joint forward intelligence team ... He had warned that hooding and the use of stress positions were illegal, but was informed that it was 'in accordance with British army doctrine on tactical questioning'." (Cobain, Ian (1 July 2010). "Iraq deaths in British custody could see military face legal challenges". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/01/iraq-deaths-custody-military-legal. ).