Why are inmates left largely to run their blocks? Why are Sunnis scrupulously kept apart from Shia, but no one cares to keep seasoned jihadists away from people picked up in security sweeps? Is this a fallout from Abu Ghraib, with the Americans so careful not to appaer to be brutal that we end up being played -- yet again -- for a fool by our enemies?
"Insurgents transform US military jails into ‘terror training camps,’" by James Hider for the Times, with thanks to Sr. Soph:
America’s high-security prisons in Iraq have become “terrorist academies” for the most dangerous militant groups, according to former inmates and Iraqi government officials.Inmates are left largely to run their blocks, which are segregated on sectarian lines. The policy has created a closed world run by Iraq’s worst terrorists and militias, into which detainees with no links to insurgent groups are often thrown.
Inmates from Camp Cropper, the US prison at Baghdad airport, described to The Times seeing al-Qaeda terrorists club to death a man suspected of being an informer. Others dished out retribution with razor wire stolen from the fences.
Captain Phillip Valenti, a US officer responsible for prisons, said he knew of at least three cases of prisoners being murdered by inmates. “We are very concerned about insurgent efforts to recruit and convert detainees,” he said.
US officials said yesterday that they were investigating the suspicious death of another Camp Cropper inmate.
Saad Sultan, the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry’s official for prisons, said: “It looks like a terrorist academy. There’s a huge number of these ‘students’; they study how they can kill. And we protect them, feed them, give them medical care. The Americans have no solution to this problem.”
Vying factions often feed fake tips about their enemies to US forces, meaning just about anyone can end up in jail. While the US military is scrupulous about separating Sunnis from Shia, they pay less attention to keeping seasoned terrorists apart from people picked up in security sweeps.
Read it all.
Prisoner releases are absolutely the key issue in Anbar right now.
The locals tell patrols, We give you information, you capture the Mujahideen and then you...let them go. You don't have to read too many pages of Patai to see this is an enormous problem. We're applying 21st Century post-modernist juvenile sentencing to POWs who, as this article points out, use their time in "detention" to hone their skills and spread the new technological understanding that the Iranians are gleefully providing.
Americans have been killed by jihadists who have been in U.S. custody on multiple occasions.
The man to read on this topic is Bing West.
If you're going to write a real live, ink and paper letter to the editor about anything in your life, please let it be this.
To me, of course, the answer is to keep no prisoners. Segregation for each one remaining alive. Solitary confinement really has an ability to "open up dialog".
I'm beginning to doubt that they really care about what happens in Iraq, just the political results back home.
"The Americans have no solution to this problem."
Here one who does.
Wall, blindfold, cigarette, lead.
Next problem.
This is 100% totaly TRUE. I spent 10 months of my last tour working with detainees. It was a jihaidi breeding ground. Plenty of times we had detainees come up and complain they were being recruited or threatened by the hardline insurgents. One detainee actualy said another had his whole family killed while he was in prison because he wouldn't join the other's group. Two weeks later they released the terrorist guy as part of some "make nice" program and the guy who had his family killed was still detained. I have no doubt that he was back on the street killing Americans a week later.
When I first got there the camp was run by an infantry officer. There was no BS. He said from day one "they're going to have to learn to live together (meaning shia and sunni) eventually so why not start now." I'd follow that officer to hell and back. Next commander... not so much.
Then after a few months the Military Police take over. They claimed to be the "experts". Now we have a female MP in charge. Cells are immediately segregated by sect (because it's easier that way), prisoners *cough, cough* I mean detainees were given increased privlidges like nightime snacks and the guards were micromanaged almost out of a job. Basically the dicipline built up by the hardline infantry guys was all lost almost imediately. No more drawing the line, then sticking to it... we had a moving line and usually in the detainees favor. We had more violent attacks on guards and other detainees than ever. If ever there was a lesson on the frutility of pushing our justice system on the Iraqis... this was it.
Bottom line, it was disgusting. I seriously considered getting out of the Army. I don't think detainees should be abused... I just think that what we consider "abuse" is anything less than the Holiday Inn Express. When you smile and hold the hand of someone who wants to cut your throat... eventually he is going to cut your throat. The Iraqis just think we're nuts and they may be right.
Thanks for putting up with the BS. It started with Tailhook (John McCain went after the pilots by the way). Sounds like things are progressing on schedule. The British crew is a symptom.
The more I think about it, Islam may be a vaccine against ourselves.
My enemy is my friend in Teddy Kennedy policy which Hillary Clinton spewed.
When are there going to be Abu Gharib hearings on this where people are actually murdered by Democrat policy and not just had dog leashes around their necks claiming that is torture.
Funny thing is Iran did the same thing to the Brit hostages and not one word of TORTURE was printed by the leftist press.
Strength&Honor,
Wow, it's that bad. All I can say is thank you for putting up with this crap and an apology on behalf of those who caused this situation. Sorry that our politicians don't get it. Sorry that our president, who wants to do the right thing but is paralyzed by both sides, Dem and Repub, as well as his own ignorance about Islam. Sorry that your command also does not get it. Sorry on behalf of the American people who are not being told the truth, and are muddled and confused. It's amazing what you and your fellow soldiers have to put up with.
Strength&Honor, Let me add my profound thank you for all you have done and continue to do for our country. It sounds as if your first commanding officer had the right idea; the Sunnis and Shiites will have to live together. Period. If the US does nothing else, it should broadcast that message a dozen times a day, on the streets, on the radio and television. It is THEIR country, not ours. It is also interesting that you wrote that a female MP is now in charge and things are more touchie-feelie. If I remember correctly it was a female general who was in charge of the Abu Ghraib prison mess too, and then she tried to blame the whole thing on everyone else and their Aunt Lillian. Stay safe, with much appreciation.
The time has come to put a stop to such shenanigans from the US Islamic community. Although for the time being Islam remains legal in America and for now we are going to have to deal with Muslims pulling stunts like this, there is no reason on earth why we should have to tolerate such predatory behavior--and that is what Islam is doing in our prisons, preying on the unsuspecting and tricking our cons into become terrorists.
It is time for all of us to call our representatives in Congress and the Senate and explain to them that 1-)Islam teaches first degree murder of those people believed to be "unbelievers". 2-)This homicidal mentality is being perpetrated in US prisons (revenge is BIG in the Kuran, so cons are easy pickings for Islamic recruitment as many of them carry a chip on their shoulder); cons are apparently easy to persuade into committing homicidal activities). 3-)The real intention of these conversions is to convert US jailbirds into suicide bombers and perpetrators of other terror activities 4-)If and when these convicts are released into mainstream society, they will probably be far greater threats than they ever were before. 5-) Legislation is needed to bring this very dangerous situation under control ASAP. None of this should EVER have been allowed to happen in America. And of course Islam should NEVER have been allowed on US soil either, although that doesn't help with this issue in the short term.
The US government, by dint of its commitment to its war on terrorism policies, is obligated to stop Muslims from recruiting Islamist jihadist warriors through their wholesale converting of convict populations in US jail cells.
America will NOT be able to exterminate terrorism while Islamist terrorists continue to muliply by means of widespread conversions of its own convict populations. It is absolutely critical that the US government quickly ban Islamic clerics from visiting US prisons to convert any more of our convicts into Islamist terrorists (truthfully, they have few other valid reasons to visit them anyway).
There ought to be a LAW to stop these Islamist conversions of our convicts to Islam----and, if enough of us lobby hard enough, there will be; and, we can see to it that all such laws are enforced to the letter, too.
I thought this kind of thing was self-explanatory.
In my state (in Australia), about half of the prison population at any given time is made up of fine defaulters, not hardened criminals. The defaulters are usually in prison for only a few days, but you can probably guess that with so many defaulters, turnover is high. People picked up in security sweeps are no doubt the "fine defaulters" of Iraq.
What my state did was to construct a prison especially for fine defaulters. This had the benefit of allowing these prisoners a safe place to serve their sentences, without mixing with and/or being threatened by proper criminals.
Sunni and Shi'ite might have to learn to get along, but at least keep the hardcore terrorists away from the local blokes who just happened to get picked up for questioning.
Oh, the ideas for prison reform here could go on, but hey...