The White House says that our War on Terror in Iraq is “[e]ncouraging reconciliation and human rights.” Torturing an LGBT activist doesn’t sound like encouraging human rights.

The police tried to get Hani to admit he was a member of our Iraqi LGBT group, but he refused to say so, which is when the torture began,” he said, adding: “But Hani had his cell phone with him, and on that phone he had my cell phone number – which is listed on our Web site – and the phone numbers of a number of journalists, including one from the Washington Post. The police demanded to know why Hani had these phone numbers if he was not a member of our organization, and why he was in contact with journalists if he was not a member, and also threatened him with rape if he did not admit it.” While Hani was in police custody, he heard several different voices speaking English with American accents coming from somewhere outside the room in the detention center where he was being held.

As Helen Boyd points out,

Just to reiterate: he was tortured by the Iraqi Police Force, that is, “the good guys.”

Considering our own country’s opposition to human rights for LGBT people, this shouldn’t be surprising. From laws prohibiting gay marriage to the failure to protect LGBT people from hate crimes the US isn’t doing enough to encourage human rights within our own country – how could we expect the US to encourage them somewhere else?