with james side adelantado it's commandos grew into a five thousand strong force with a fearful reputation on the streets of iraq. still made a strong impression with the high level even battle hardened iraqis who worked with . us and also to learn who. and the mashad and so on me because of that horrible each officer would be believe the. wrong kind of. multiple. and it was just eliminate. general moon. is a former general in the iraqi army after the invasion he worked with the americans to rebuild the police force but muntadhar was very disturbed by the abuse and torture he witnessed being committed by the police commandos he tried on a number of occasions to stop each. he has never spoken before about the part the

u.s. played in running the special police commandos. more than it was out of the day after the. government was possible. a lot of them. don't you know. but a shot. that i missed. by sadr is that i would but it would stop the general muntadhar alleges that jane steele had access to all of these prisons and that he visited one in baghdad with him. all the dentists you. are all found to look hard. on the more. injured of. the. north and in the midst of this when the.

doctor most fact i was iraq's national security advisor through the west years of the war. he met james taylor's high level security meetings. jim steele for me was a mysterious guy. who sat in the meeting and he can. hold the chair and saw that. he did not introduce himself to me and you don't get anywhere in these meetings there were only only sciences. myself minister of defense and mr little. and him full stop. goes right to the spectacle and then listen to what he has to say. one of the main bases of operation for the commandos was the ancient city of

samarra the area was a center for the iraqi insurgency. it was also adnan talbot's hometown and he was determined to inflict a major defeat on the insurgents and their sympathizers. with jane steele advise him but none talbot's commandos flooded the city going door to door taking hundreds of men from their homes to the interrogation center. u.s. army medic neil smith was in somalia during the months long struggle to control the city. we're like in the government. and where the police station was was actually right across from where the commandos were headquartered so there are always special commandos there in the war and like pretty much every. military unit in the world. there are well equipped.

and more commandos on these brand new dodge ram pick that were painted in camouflage and they all look like they have new weapons and new uniforms. some are i was the first place that the connection between james steele and the activities of the police commanders was made known to the outside. new york times journalist peter maass convinced general petraeus to allow him and photographer to paraphrase to visit the commanders in somalia their host was james steele. what i heard. screaming all i phone. perry's stark black and white photographs capture had the commandos worked in samarra. james still crops up in these photographs repeatedly.

i was staying on the base in somalia an american base and i overheard soldiers american soldiers of the space talking about having watched prisoners be kind of strong up like animals after all over a bar having watched prisoners be actually tortured. bit and the american military made the joint decision she set up the commander headquarters and interrogation center in the city's main library. we spoke to two men from somalia who were imprisoned in the library still fearful they asked us to conceal their identities. so the one you could go to war. was a watch on those you know what. you go beyond just in the. smoke and that. is the.

car that you will. the interrogation center was the only place in the kind of mini green zone in somalia that i was not allowed to visit however one day jim steele said to me hey they just captured a saudi jihadi. would you like to interview him. my ass and paraphrase we're about to get an unprecedented glimpse into this. end. it's a long journey from home in haiti to school in the dominican republic crossing national borders and cultural barriers to tell his son but not the time in. discovering filmmaking talent from around the viewfinder latin america follows

a young man who will stop at nothing to secure an education. the crossing on al-jazeera. the nature of news as it breaks although thousands of women have reported frape and other sexual atrocities in south sudan's war rats are going to dish and say that figure is likely much higher with detailed coverage nearly fifty schools took part in the drive each one responsible for the whole acting at different aida school supplies clothing from around the world several focal is still very new here but the players are very cold for them they won't be able fully because what made people want to fight on the international study. bit of a strange day to start the centrifuge we just heard today to city of aleppo has fallen. or should we say liberated. one tool for astonishing stories toad and their own wives how

did you know who to trust and who not to trust. a stranger came to town witness on al-jazeera. you're watching al-jazeera as the whole ramadan day are these are all top news stories a group of displaced syrians have approached the border fence between syria and the israeli occupied golan heights waving white flags. israeli soldiers called out to the group to move back from the fence prompting some to turn back to nearby refugee camps it's thought the syrians were attempting to seek help all sanctuary following airstrikes in the area near going to try. meanwhile israel's typing it seemed almost two million people living in gaza by

further restricting the flow of goods into the territory it's planning to ban all fuel imports through the kind of crossing of food and medicine will need permission to go through carol siloam is the sole commercial crossing into gaza it's vital for the flow of fuel necessary for people who only get up to six hours of electricity per day u.s. president told trump has arrived home to severe criticism after siding with russian president vladimir putin on accusations of election meddling speaking after their summit in finland trying to cast doubt on his own intelligence agencies which found evidence of interference. the european union and japan have signed a free trade deal little of it limited nearly all terrorists presenting a united front as the trump an illustration puts of trade barriers is the e.u.'s biggest deal to date creating a trading zone covering six hundred million people and that a good third of the global economy a day after warning the u.s. china and russia again starting

a trade war the european council chief says this agreement sends a very clear message. we are putting can play is the largest bailout the road to a deal ever this is the largest of. those for the rules based international order at the time when the questioning dissolved. we are sending a clear message that we stand together against but the actually. a u.k. based investigative agency has obtained documents revealing an expensive lobbying effort by the u.a.e. in britain and the us the campaign tried to influence media coverage of the arab spring and discredit the muslim brotherhood and cattle those were the headlines cause you follow those stories on our web site at al-jazeera dot com back with more news in half an hour to stay with us. well.

the interrogation center was the only place in the kind of mini green zone in somalia that i was not allowed to visit however one day jim steele said to me hey they just captured a saudi jihadi would you like to interview him and we kind of walk into the entrance area and the first thing that i see is one of the iraqi guards beating up one of the iraqi prisoners and then i'm taken not into the main area kind of the main hall although out of the corner of my eye could see there were a lot of prisoners in there with their hands tied behind their backs i was taken to a side office where the saudi was brought in and there was actually blood dripping down the side of a desk in this office away in a room in the library into ewing studio and i. you know. and while this interview was going on me in the saudi with jim steele also in the room there were these terrible screams there was somebody shouting allah but it wasn't you know kind of religious ecstasy or something like that these were these were screams of pain and

terror. we asked general why he thought the prisoners were screaming. go on and. on and. they were so loud and they were so disturbing that steele left the room to go find out you know what was going on because it was breaking up our interview and while he was gone the screaming stopped and then he came back into the room and the interview continued. with the radio. for. me and. but so quite highly in front of any other kind of i thought of it when just. looked

at the look at the right. like f. at melwood it looks a little of my view a list of all of the matter. in the so i look at the plan that you know so i met your. general adnan had his own explanation for the bloody desk witnessed during master and terry's interview with james steele in the library. what is either going to be ensued and you got a new home. i don't malard gotta. go but that is not enough then you can have so little what good happens and i'll quit you know. what i'm up out of and they will find out we had a monopoly out up where. my name might have it how do i feel mazed without a cuppa. when are the have you for. although james steele did not respond to our requests for an interview about his activities in

somalia he did tell the new york times that he opposes human rights abuses. one american soldier in somalia i was deeply affected by what he saw. at the time i just felt like everybody knew and nobody cared that there is torture going on. me medic neil smith remembers just have frightened iraqi civilians in some are aware of the special police commandos what was pretty widely known in our but talian definitely in our pool tune was that they were pretty violent with their interrogations that they would beat people shock them with you know electrical shock stab them i don't know what you know sounds like pretty awful things if you sent a guy there who is going to get tortured and perhaps raped. or whatever

humiliated and brutalized by the special commandos in order to get whatever information they wanted to go i don't know about boston and. they learned. about city to the hood but it's very full. just mccauley like. i thought it give all of them a little bit of a clear priority at that time in iraq was to not have this incredibly shaky provisional government defeated by the insurgency that was priority number one to which every other priority democracy human rights. it's etc was aboard. the trails defended his record with the police commandos to p.b.s.

frontlines martin smith he says he was aware of individual militia members in the commanders but not militia groups. i did not see militia groups in the special police during the time that i was there did you feel. different. to have prevented the development of these militias that were developed by your lie again don't i have not seen you know we heard we kept hearing this all the time martin that this or that to find the absolute evidence of this has actually been quite difficult but jerry buck who is a senior advisor in police affairs to the iraqi interior ministry says that the trace must have known that organized shia militia were dominant in the police commanders he had to have known these things were discussed openly whether it was staff meetings or you know before or after various staff meetings and general conversation. pretty much the whole world in iraq knew that the police commandos

were about a brigade and he must have known about the death squad activities and yet it was common knowledge and across baghdad even to trace his own special adviser in the military chain of command colonel james coffman was according to many witnesses working side by side with james steele in the detention centers where torture was taking place. kaufman declined to be interviewed by us. about general petraeus his relationship with james steele the official speaking for the general said steele was one of thousands of advisors to iraqi units working in the area of the iraqi police. journalist peter mass who interviewed patris at the time remember. the relationship being a lot closer than the patrol statement would indicate. it was very clear.

that they were very close to each other in terms of their command relationship and also in terms of their ideas and ideology about what needed to be done to try to explicitly told me that he believed very very strongly in the commandos thought the commandos were successful and wanted them to become bigger stronger and even more prevalent in the fight against insurgency. international humanitarian law imposes obligations on those engaged in armed conflict regarding the treatment of prisoners not only must prisoners not be abused but those detaining prisoners also have an obligation to ensure respect as well it is not acceptable to turn a blind eye. because absolutely responsibility of every u.s. service member if they see in your main treatment. to intervene to stop it i don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it's to report.

if you're a physically present when in your main treatment is taking place or they have an obligation to tours. but the masses of secret iraq war communiques released by wiki leaks showed that u.s. soldiers were routinely handing prisoners over to the iraqi police force even before the police commandos were officially launched. the top u.s. military knew from the soldiers' daily logs that torture was going on inside detention centers they even issued a new official military order in june two thousand and four it was called frog zero two four to get direct.