Al Qaeda terror infrastructure included medical area

CNN:

Troops in Iraq have found a medical facility next to the torture complex discovered last week near the Diyala province city of Muqdadiya, according to the top U.S. general in Iraq.

Gen. David Petraeus told CNN that the facility was part of a larger complex belonging to al Qaeda in Iraq and that a large weapons cache was also found.

The general cited a similar complex found in Baquba last June and said the complexes typically have torture rooms, courthouses, weapons and food warehouses, and medical facilities.

Last week, coalition forces found 26 bodies buried in mass graves, a bloodstained torture complex with chains hanging from walls and ceilings, and a bed connected to an electrical system.

The complex was in an area thought to be an al Qaeda in Iraq haven and operating base, the military said. Iraqis had tipped off Task Force Iron members about the site during an earlier operation.

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CNN demonstrates more intellectual honesty about the war than the NY Times, by at least calling the enemy by the name they use--al Qaeda in Iraq. The additional facts in this story about the medical facility also tell something about the insurgency too. It suggest that the enemy can no longer count on public health care facilities to treat their injured. It is another example of how the enemy has alienated the population and is acting as an alien force in Iraq.

The story would have been better if it had mentioned how the enemy torture facilities were a blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions. The media in the US tends to look at those conventions as a unilateral contract binding only the US and its allies. This is a false premise that gives the enemy a pass for its outrageous conduct.

Mona Charen suggest people look at what real torture is all about when they raise questions about how the CIA extracted information from terrorist.