Military briefing on Fallujah battle, 'torture' discoveries

• published: 21 Jul 2015
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1. Wide shot press briefing at Camp Fallujah 2. Close-up map on wall 3. SOUNDBITE (English): Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Wilson, US military spokesman: "From studying his (the enemy) plan for the past several months that he was prepared for us to attack from the south and attack up to the north this way here and most of his defences were oriented in that direction. He had over 200 prepared defences out there. We knew the orientation, some of them very well prepared with overhead head cover. He clearly had the time and he was ready for us to attack. So we used that knowledge to attack from the north and to attack quickly and to attack hard so it would disorganise and disrupt his command and control and prevent him from conducting any type of organised attack against us once we got going. It worked. The plan actually in execution exceeded our wildest expectations. Normally a plan falls apart the minute you kick it off, in this case it went better than what we expected as planners." 4. Close-up slide 5. Wide shot Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Wilson at briefing 6. Cutaway journalist 7. SOUNDBITE (English): Major Jim West, US Military Intelligence: "These thugs depend on fear and intimidation to maintain their ranks and to maintain the ability to strike out and so basically if you're not going to go along with what they say they try to scare everyone else to go along with what they say through chaining people to walls and torturing them. People inside Fallujah... hearing screaming as people are being tortured right next door. That gets around and people, and that will motivate others to listen to what the insurgents are asking or demanding the rest of the citizens to do." 8. Various slides showing alleged torture sites, knifes and hoods, bloodstained walls 9. SOUNDBITE (English): Major Jim West, US Military Intelligence: "The atrocity sites; a few less than 20 that are depicted up here. But we are still finding some as we go back through the city looking for insurgents in the city. As you go through looking for weapons, you come across an area something does not look right to the Marines in that building, as they start digging they actually found as couple false walls, gone in behind the false walls into to basements and found the sites that way. In one site sand was used to help clean the blood up by the insurgents. It was the bloody sandbags that cued the Marines in that structure and to search that site." 9. Wide shot military and press STORYLINE US military officials have presented more details of their recent battle against insurgents in Fallujah, claiming the discovery of numerous makeshift torture chambers. They said the campaign had been a success and that it had "exceeded their wildest expectations". Lieutenant-Colonel David Wilson said the US military were now concentrating on rooting out small pockets of resistance fighters still left in the city. Major Jim West of US Military Intelligence, claimed the insurgents had used fear to intimidate the local population. To press home their intimidation, West surmised that the screams of their torture victims would be heard in the streets of Fallujah. He briefed the press on Sunday on the discovery of approximately 20 "atrocity sites" that had been uncovered by US forces searching the war-torn city for the last fighters. The inference given was that knives and hoods found in hidden basements were torturer's paraphernalia. No independent verification of the claims has so far been forthcoming. US and Iraqi government forces launched the offensive against Fallujah, hoping to destroy resistance in the insurgents' strongest centre ahead of elections imposed in January. Many militants are believed to have fled the city to continue attacks elsewhere. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/1716a908c2acbbf7497b93bf4eeb4a4b Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork