Iraq Project
About CPT Iraq
CPT initiated a long-term presence in Iraq in October 2002, six months before the beginning of the U.S. led invasion in March of 2003.
The primary focus of the team for eighteen months following the invasion was documenting and focusing attention on the issue of detainee abuses and basic legal and human rights being denied them.
The deteriorating security situation in Baghdad seriously affected CPT's presence. In November 2005, four CPT personnel were taken hostage, resulting in the murder of CPTer Tom Fox and the rescue of the remaining three in March 2006.
Following an evaluation phase, CPT relocated its violence reduction work to the Kurdish north of Iraq in late 2006, based in Suleimaniya.
Latest Updates
Snapshots of Real People in Iraq
CPTer Peggy Gish
Two brothers, Jamal and Khalid, were arrested randomly in a raid of their neighborhood by Iraqi Special Police Forces, the Palestinian ghetto in Baghdad. They were tortured and forced to confess on a television program to acts of terror they didn't commit. Other Palestinian refugees have been dragged out of their homes and killed... [MORE]
Bloodshed in Northern Iraq
CPTer Michele Naar-Obed
A View from Inside Kurdistan
CPTer Michele Naar-Obed
Iraqi Kurdistan: 'I Cry All Day Long'
CPTer Peggy Gish