Inside Syria's Secret Prisons

[Cleon]

Al-Jazeera reporter Dorothy Parvaz was recently detained by the Mukhabarat, Syria's secret police. She was eventually deported to Iran, and then back to Qatar (AJ's based there).

She wrote about her experiences for Al-Jazeera...It's not pretty.

I was standing in two fist-sized pools of smeared, sticky blood, trying to sort out why there were seven angry Syrians yelling at me. Only one of them - who I came to know as Mr Shut Up during my three days in a detention center, where so many Syrians 'disappeared' are being kept - spoke English.

A man came to the door a couple of times before he took me from the cell, handcuffed and blindfolded me, and led me to what seemed like a courtyard.
He pushed me up against a wall and told me to stand there. As I did so, I heard two sets of interrogations and beatings taking place, about 10 meters away from me in either direction.
The beatings were savage, the words uttered by those beaten only hoarse cries – "Wallahi! Wahalli!" ("I swear to God! I swear to God!") or simply, "La! La!" ("No! No!").

I can't help but think of the thousands of people who continue to protest despite this level of repression.