More than 10,000 detainees released in Iraq

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military said Saturday it has released more than 10,000 detainees in Iraq so far this year _ more than in all of 2007 _ as it continues to try phase out its running of Iraqi prisons.

The military said about 21,000 people remained in custody, and it is currently releasing about 45 detainees and detaining 30 a day.

The United States wants to transfer the detainees to Iraqi control. Reaching that goal has been slowed partly by the lack of adequate Iraqi prison space and trained guards. More than 8,900 people were released from detention last year.

The U.S. military separated moderate detainees from extremists and instituted religious, educational and vocational programs over the past year to try to rehabilitate less dangerous prisoners. It also increased releases under amnesty programs.

"Due to changes in the conduct of detainee operations and programs to prepare detainees for reintegration into society, we have not only gone over 10,000 releases, but our re-internment rate is less than 1 percent," said Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

The U.S. military says its detention system is authorized by a U.N. resolution under which the Iraqi government allows U.S. troops to arrest people at will. U.S. military attorneys say it also complies with international laws covering warfare and was created in "the spirit" of the Geneva Conventions.

Commanders say they are entitled to hold any prisoner until the detainee is no longer considered a threat to U.S. forces. Local law and court rulings do not apply, they add.

Rights groups have criticized U.S. detention policy as a misrepresentation of international law, which they say requires some form of legal process to detain someone.

The right of the U.S. to detain Iraqi citizens has been one of the contentious areas of debate with the Iraqis over a new security agreement that would keep U.S. forces in the country after a U.N. mandate expires at year's end.

Many Iraqi officials want the country's courts to have sole responsibility for arresting and detaining Iraqi citizens.

The average detention time is 330 days, the military said on Saturday. About 17,000 of the inmates, including some of the most dangerous, are held at Camp Bucca _ a facility in southern Iraq.

The military has increased control over prisons to correct widespread U.S. prison abuses that sparked international criticism.

Allegations of abuse at U.S. prisons escalated in 2004 with the release of pictures of grinning U.S. soldiers posing with detainees at the Abu Ghraib facility west of Baghdad. Some were naked, being held on leashes or in painful and sexually humiliating positions.

That prison has since been closed, and 11 U.S. soldiers were convicted of breaking military laws. Five others were disciplined in the scandal.

Comments

[Meatball1]

Wow, You People, oops, I said it again. Darn it! I know how You People, Dang! Hate It when someone paints You People, crap! , with a "Broad Brush" like that!

Sorry, but I just notice that most, I mean all of you, seem to hate the United States and her Troops. Dang! That broad brush again! Sorry.

What is it about this place? I just can't say anything without offending someone!

Well, I give up! Anyway...

There is a cure for "Cranial Rectal Inversion Syndrome"! (If you're interested)

Just go to http://www.djgoski.com

[separatingwheatfromchaff]

The average stay is less than a year?They must be hardened criminals.........Did something really bad to almost spend a year in prison?What BS.How many people have "died" in prison?How many were completely innocent?

[ChiGuy]

Someone else mentioned it below...

How many of these people, forever damaged and bitterly, bitterly angry, will volunteer to put on a C-4 vest, for a cause they had no interest in before they were wrongly imprisoned?

[JiminNC]

Republicans soft on terror and crime in the same breath. My goodness.

[BobSF94117]

"The United States wants to transfer the detainees to Iraqi control. Reaching that goal has been slowed partly by the lack of adequate Iraqi prison space and trained guards. More than 8,900 people were released from detention last year." Uh.... what exactly is stopping us from turning the prisons over to Iraqi guards? If they "don't have space", it's only because we're KEEPING OUR HANDS on dozens and dozens of military and/or security sites.

[antiquity]

The identification and treatment of those labeled detainees has been and continues to be one of the more egregious examples of what is wrong with this war. Such things are police activities, not military activities, and the complications of knowing who you have in your "possession" and why you have them create such vast uncertainty that it almost defies description. The best thing I can say in that regard is this - The Catch is dependent on the Net, and not on the Fish. That's not too hard for anyone to understand. What it means is simply that the error component, the slop factor if you will, is simply huge when you cannot state with certainty that what you have is who you are supposed to have, and not merely someone else unlucky enough to have walked on the wrong street, had a similar name, been on the wrong side of a bad debt or other past grievance. With no laws to follow but one's own, anyone, soldier or common jailer, may act out in the worst way; no one is watching, no one is listening to the protestations of the detained, and no one is there to care what happens at all. In other words, the worst possible conditions you would ever hope to have your son or daughter exposed to. Men, women and children, it should be remembered, were all swept up in this net, and releasing them doesn't make it an example of justice at its finest.

[Kaos911]

They never should have been held. in this country you can only be detained in jail for a maximum of 48 hours before they have to get you to a judge. But "detainees" get to rot with no proof that they committed any crimes. And the Republicans can't figure out why everybody outside of the US hates our guts.

I hate our deplorable behavior as well.

[cdnnewsjunky]

Pretty sad that you can be held against your will if you haven't been charged with a crime.

[ibivi]

Don't forget that US law does not apply to these prisoners. The military rounds up these men as possible enemy combatants. They are deprived of the usual rights detainees have and possibly subjected to torture. The one positive is that the military tried to sort out their status and gave rehabilitation to the less dangerous.

[Destin]

Nice to see Bush pulling Castro's old tricks of the "mass release" of prisoners to dump on their neighbors and surrounding areas.

[larry278]

The USA has freed 10,000 prisoners it held in Iraq in this year, 2008, very good. How many dead Iraquis has the USA risen from the grave & restored to life & health since 2003? If the USA could do that for 1 dead Iraqi, that would be a miracle.

[darthdarcy]

Winning hearts and minds all over the world...

[Destin]

Hehe, Bush is using Castro's old trick for the coming election. The good old "prison release" deluge to both make him appear compassionate, and at the same time, flood nearby peoples and neighbors with criminals and refugees of every type, just look at Miami, for example. ;)

[Irons]

They ain't coming to the USfrickinA and fights us here are they?

[cdnnewsjunky]

Who in their right mind wants to go to the USA?

[Sonoma]

I hope the army has had the presence of mind to thank them for taking it all in stride.

[helonias]

And how happy will they be with us?

[Tom95134]

This sounds an awful lot like they don't want anything setting around for the next administration to find (expecting it will be an Obama President).

Typical cover up? "Move along now, there's nothing happening here. Nothing to see."