IRISH-IRAQI RESIDENT RETURNS TO DUBLIN AFTER IRAQ

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DUBLIN 000042

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

BAGHDAD FOR ERIK RYE
EUR/UBI
EUR/PPD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/27/2014
TAGS: PREL PTER KPAO IZ EI
SUBJECT: IRISH-IRAQI RESIDENT RETURNS TO DUBLIN AFTER IRAQ
CAPTIVE ORDEAL

Classified By: POL/ECON CHIEF MARY E. DALY, FOR REASONS 1.4 (B),(D)


1. (C) On December 24, the leader of the opposition in
Ireland called the Ambassador seeking information about the
detention in Baghdad of Ahmed Abbas Naji Khursheed, the
brother of Irish citizen Dr. Nizar Naji Khursheed (an MD
practicing in respiratory care in Ireland). Emboff met with
the now freed victim and his brother in Dublin to get their
story before they take it to the Irish press and political
leaders. The below report is as relayed to emboff by
Khursheed. Post cannot verify the veracity of this
information, but passes it along in case it would be helpful
to colleagues elsewhere.

Timeline of Kidnapping
--------------


2. (C) Ahmed Abbas Naji Khursheed (AKA Ahmed Abbas Kurchied)
says that he accompanied his elderly mother on December 18
from Damascus to Baghdad via car. On the 21st he visited his
brother, Khalid Abbas Naji Khursheed, in the middle-class Hay
Badr (Badr neighborhood) in the Al Jihad district of Baghdad,
where he witnessed a police raid on a neighbor's house. Six
to seven masked policemen, some in blue uniforms and some in
desert khakis raided the home of ABDULLAH (last name
unknown),a former employee in one of Saddam Hussein's
palaces, according to Khursheed. They carried a list that
included the names of ABDULLAH and his three brothers. Upon
confirmation of the identities of the three brothers by a man
called AL WAHASH, the three men were taken from the house and
forced into Iraqi Ministry of Interior Land Cruisers and blue
and white police cars. These vehicles did not have license
plates.


3. (C) Upon witnessing this raid, Khursheed was advised by
his brother to leave Iraq immediately. He then crossed the
street to say good-bye to his sister and her husband, Nathem
Mohammed Isma'eel. The police commandos, who had circled the
block and were raiding another house, saw Khursheed crossing
the street. (Khursheed said it is possible that they thought
he was informing others about the raids). Despite pleas of
innocence, both he and Isma'eel were handcuffed, blindfolded
and forced into one of the Land Cruisers.


4. (C) During the next two days, family members reported
that police picked up some 57 people in the same
neighborhood. Some of those picked up reportedly were
leaders of Sunni political parties.

Interrogation and Ransom
--------------


5. (C) Khursheed and Isma'eel were driven approximately 45
minutes to the North of Baghdad. They were held and
questioned in a makeshift, bombed, interrogation center.
They remained handcuffed and blindfolded. They were told
that they would be released, but instead they were put into
the back of a Kia model minivan and driven for 15 minutes to
a house. The house was inhabited by a family with one boy
and one girl and contained an interrogation room on the roof.



6. (C) During the course of continued interrogations, a
low-ranking officer told Khursheed that he could be ransomed
for $60,000. He then called another of Khursheed's brothers,
Mohammed (now in Syria) and demanded the money. Khursheed
said that he could raise no more than $2,500.

Interrogation room
--------------


7. (C) Khursheed and Isma'eel were placed into a cramped
closet on the roof. There they stayed for about twelve days.
They were denied use of toilet facilities, and remained
blindfolded and handcuffed to each other. The first day,
Khursheed was given only one date to eat and a minimal amount
of water to drink. During the time he was imprisoned, he
usually received only a small piece of bread and just "a few
drops" of water per day.


8. (C) The room, which measured less than 1.5 square meters,
was crowded further when a man by the name of Mahmoud was
thrown in with them. Mahmoud, of Al Musayeb in Babel was
captured in the Al Washash area of Baghdad. He is a Sunni
cleric with nine children and, according to Khursheed, under
the duress of continual beatings confessed to membership in
insurgency groups (possibly in a group called the Islamic

DUBLIN 00000042 002 OF 003


Army). As Mahmoud,s mobile phone was on intercom mode,
Khursheed heard that his wife would sell their home to try
and pay the ransom demand of $100,000.

Location of Detention House
--------------


9. (C) Due to the time it took to travel and the location of
roundabouts and bridges he crossed, Khursheed suspects he was
held in a house in the Al Sadr or Al Habibia areas. From the
detention room, he could hear Shia Islamic calls to prayer
and believes that he was held near one of the three Shia
mosques in the area. The house was also near a main road and
he heard boys playing soccer in a nearby lot. He heard a
generator running nearby as well. The roof was covered by a
green tarpaulin to hide the movements of the detainees during
the day.

Charges of Torture
--------------


10. (C) Khursheed says that he and Isma'eel were regularly
interrogated and beaten, especially when they complained
about the pain from the handcuffs or their detention
conditions. Khursheed's injuries from beatings include a
dislocated shoulder and possible nerve damage in his fingers
from the shackles. He also has a large and deep wound on the
bridge of his nose that may require cosmetic surgery to
repair. He was beaten daily with metal bars. He also had a
wet pillow placed over his face while a policeman pressed it
into his face with his foot. (Note: Emboff personally
viewed the gash on the nose and cuts in wrists from being
shackled. These wounds are notable even a week after his
release).


11. (C) Khursheed believes that he and Isma'eel were beaten
to ensure their silence prior to the visit of a carpenter and
welder called to secure the locks on the doors. Isma'eel
received the worst of the beatings. They were both hit with
metal rods, but the more Isma'eel screamed the more he was
beaten to keep him quiet. Khursheed suspects that Isma'eel
has broken ribs. When he was last with him, he was in a
great deal of pain and having difficulty breathing.


12. (C) After 12 days, they were returned to the makeshift
detention center, where Khursheed heard prisoners being
burned, threatened with electric shocks and power tools, and
lifted by their feet with a mechanical device.

Released
--------------


13. (C) Two days after the return of Khursheed to the
detention facility, a man addressed as a colonel ordered his
release due to lack of evidence. The more junior officers
failed to follow the order and kept him for two more days
after which the colonel returned, inquired as to his identity
and demanded his released.


14. (C) The day before his release, the policemen in the
detention hid all the prisoners in a backroom. Khursheed
suspects that American troops may have visited the center,
and the police did not want them to see the conditions of
their detainees.


15. (C) On January 5 Khursheed was taken about 12 minutes
away to a site on Palestine Street near the Ministry of the
Interior and released. With the help of friends and family,
he left Iraq, traveled to Syria and is now in Dublin. He
still has no word on the status of Isma'eel.

Identifying the Captors
--------------


16. (C) Khursheed said he was constantly blindfolded and in
the original raid, the captors wore masks. The only
identifying feature he saw of the captors was that one of the
chief officers had distinctive green eyes. Per above, Al
Wahash is the name of either a policeman or an Al Jihad
neighborhood informant. Two of the captors present during
beatings were referred to as Abu Haider and Walid. All had
accents of the south, possibly Nasiriyah, or of the Sadr city
area of Baghdad.

Prior run-ins of Khursheed and Isma'eel
--------------


DUBLIN 00000042 003 OF 003



17. (C) Khursheed was granted refugee status in Ireland in
2001 and carries an Irish passport. He was in the Iraqi
military before Gulf War I, but was re-conscripted during the
invasion of Kuwait. He later deserted and was detained and
beaten for six days after the war. Khursheed currently works
as an auto mechanic in Dublin. Isma'eel was arrested by
Iraqi police seven months ago on charges related to
connections to Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, but turned over to and
released by American forces for lack of evidence.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Visit Dublin's Classified Website:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/dublin/index. cfm
KENNY