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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Army Report Indicates Disputes About Releasing Iraqi Prisoners |
| 2004-05-30 |
| From The New York Times Hundreds of Iraqi prisoners were held in Abu Ghraib prison for prolonged periods despite a lack of evidence that they posed a security threat to American forces, according to an Army report completed last fall. The unpublished report, by Maj. Gen. Donald J. Ryder, reflects what other senior Army officers have described as a deep concern among some American officers and officials in Iraq over the refusal of top American commanders in Baghdad to authorize the release of so-called security prisoners. .... General Ryder, the Army’s provost marshal, reported that some Iraqis had been held for several months for nothing more than expressing "displeasure or ill will" toward the American occupying forces. The Nov. 5 report said the process for deciding which arrested Iraqis posed security risks justifying imprisonment, and for deciding when to release them, violated the Pentagon’s own policies. It also said the conditions in which they were held sometimes violated the Geneva Conventions. .... General Ryder’s report .... warned that the continuing influx of prisoners being arrested as the American-led occupation forces fought a persistent insurrection would strain the system set up to review each case every six months, as required by international law. .... In interviews, senior Army officers have described senior officers on General Sanchez’s staff as having been the major obstacle to releasing prisoners from Abu Ghraib. The officers have said in particular that Brig. Gen. Barbara Fast, the top Army intelligence officer in Iraq, often ruled last fall against the release of prisoners, even against the recommendation of a military police commander and military intelligence officers at the prison. .... Tensions between American officials at the prison, including Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, and senior American officers in Baghdad, including General Fast, over the release of prisoners from Abu Ghraib last fall were first described publicly in the investigative report into the abuses by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, which emerged last month. That report described General Fast, who headed a three-member detainee release board, as sometimes vetoing recommendations to release prisoners that were made by General Karpinski, then the commander in charge at Abu Ghraib, and Col. Marc Warren, a top legal officer on General Sanchez’s staff. .... A confidential report in February by the International Committee of the Red Cross said that "military intelligence officers told the I.C.R.C. that in their estimate between 70 percent and 90 percent of the persons deprived of their liberty in Iraq had been arrested by mistake." .... In interviews since, a senior Army officer who served in Iraq criticized as overly cumbersome a process in which the Iraqi prisoners labeled as security detainees, as opposed to common criminals, could be freed only by the release board. In one incident described in detail by the senior Army officer, an aggressive roundup in September brought 57 Iraqis into custody. But a review by military intelligence officers at Abu Ghraib determined that only two had intelligence value and that the rest should be freed. An American general at the headquarters in Baghdad overruled that decision, and dictated that all 57 Iraqis be kept in custody. .... |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #2 The NYT is doing an "Augusta" on this story...and in the end it'll matter just about as much as that one did. Booooring! |
| Posted by: RMcLeod 2004-05-30 3:49:41 PM |
| #1 I'm sorry, but I just don't believe anything I read in the NYT and I believe the WaPo even less, if that's possible. Please comment, MS, or it's just like going to the NYT website! We know this needs Fisking, so why don't you? |
| Posted by: Jen 2004-05-30 7:50:59 AM |