A tip from a local villager brought soldiers earlier this month to a hidden room inside a house in Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Thursday. Graffiti on the building proclaimed “Long Live the Islamic State”—a reference to the Islamic governance, or caliphate, sought in Iraq by Sunni extremist groups that include al-Qaida.

The room was a dirt floored dungeon complete with blood splattered walls, chains hanging from the ceiling, and swords on the killing floor.

One of the most chilling aspects of the room is what was scrawled above the bed. A Quranic phrase in Arabic normally used to welcome a guest: “Come in, you are safe.”

Scrawled in white paint above a bed in the torture area was a Quranic phrase in Arabic normally used to welcome a guest. But the context suggested only sadistic mockery: “Come in, you are safe.”

The floor was littered with food wrappers, plastic soda bottles and electric cables that snaked to a metal bed frame, presumably where detainees were shocked, according to the U.S. account of the discovery during a Dec. 8-11 mission.

The rooms “had chains, a bed—an iron bed that was still connected to a battery—knives and swords that were still covered in blood,” said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, the top U.S. commander in northern Iraq.

To make matters worse, nine mass graves were found nearby with the remains of 26 people in them. Villagers apparently knew about the torture site for some time, but did not tell authorities for fear of reprisals.

Both Sunni insurgents and Shiite militia death squads regularly torture their captives before killing them—sometimes with power drills. Most of the hundreds of bodies that have turned up in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq show signs of torture.

Chances are you won’t hear much about this story from the far-left, because in their world the only group that tortures is America. When a terrorist is waterboarded for information the left howls with protest comparing the Bush Administration to Nazi war criminals, but when Al-Qaeda tortures people to death you never hear a word about it.

-Chris Jones