Powerline: Part of the propaganda campaign against the Iraq war was the claim that coalition troops were torturing captured Iraqis. Those claims made a pretty big splash in the United States, and probably even a bigger one in Europe. Now it turns out that large numbers of Iraqis may have been paid by British lawyers to make false claims of torture:
One of the country’s leading human-rights lawyers faces a criminal inquiry into claims Iraqi civilians were bribed to bring abuse claims against British soldiers, The Telegraph can reveal.
Phil Shiner is accused by legal regulators of knowing about the bribes which were allegedly disguised as expenses and then submitted as legal aid claims funded by the taxpayer.
Shiner became wealthy (the Telegraph says he “made his career”) by representing more than 1,000 Iraqis who said they were abused by British soldiers. The British government paid out millions of pounds to settle those claims, and Mr. Shiner’s firm (“Public Interest Lawyers”) was paid 3 million pounds by the Legal Aid Agency. MORE
I was there. at American and brit bases prisoners were treated with respect, given religion complaint meals, clean clothing allowed exercise time etc. At Iraqi bases prisoners were places in what amounts to a dungeon. When questioned three items were used, a wooden chair, duct tape and a wet of live electric wires. You can guess the rest.