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| Iraq |
| Radicalization fears over Abu Ghraib |
| 2006-02-15 |
| American commanders in Iraq are expressing grave concerns that Abu Ghraib prison has become a breeding ground for extremist leaders and a school for terrorist foot soldiers, as the time in confinement allows detainees to forge relationships and exchange lessons of combat against the United States, its allies and the new Iraqi government. As a result, a number of officers said, they no longer automatically send every suspect rounded up in raids to the prison and instead release those who are thought not to be hardened fighters against the American troops and the Iraqi government. The perception of the notorious, overcrowded prison as an incubator for more violence is the latest shift in how Abu Ghraib has been seen - once a feared dungeon of the old regime, then the center of the storm over abuses of prisoners by the Americans, and ever since a festering symbol of the unsolved problems with how the Americans and the Iraqis alike are handling criminals, terrorists, rebels and holdovers from the Baathist era. "Abu Ghraib is a graduate-level training ground for the insurgency," said an American commander in Iraq, explaining the new approach. "These decisions have to be intelligence-driven, on holding those who are extreme threats or who can lead us to those who are," said another American officer in Iraq. "We don't want to be putting everybody caught up in a sweep into 'Jihad University."' Officials at the Pentagon say these concerns have been raised by General George Casey Jr., the senior American commander in Iraq, and by Major General John Gardner, commander of the American-run prison system there. General Gardner has ordered a number of steps to deal with the problem, with the goal of isolating suspected terrorist ringleaders from the broader detainee population, and of limiting clandestine communications among those in custody. "We are clearly concerned about the potential for extremists and insurgents to use our detention facilities as recruiting and networking centers and are aggressively taking actions to disrupt their efforts," said Lieutenant Colonel Guy Rudisill, a spokesman for General Gardner. "Central to our program is a continuous and systemic analysis of the population inside each compound to identify extreme negative influences and corresponding actions to separate the insurgents and extremists from the general population," Colonel Rudisill said. "We also attempt to reduce illicit communications between detainees in separate compounds to disrupt their ability to network and recruit." The role of Abu Ghraib as a new center of terrorist networking and education is the latest chapter in a sordid history of a prison that once served as a place where the Saddam Hussein regime incarcerated and tortured its political enemies. The prison became internationally known following the release of photographs showing American military jailers abusing Iraqi detainees after the fall of Baghdad. But plans to turn the detainees, and the detention center, over to the new Iraqi government have been stalled despite concerns of American commanders that the detainee mission saps personnel and continues to blot the American image in Iraq and around the world. After a series of raids on Iraqi-run detention centers late last year uncovered scores of abused prisoners, commanders of the prisons under American control said that no detainees, nor the centers themselves, will be handed over to Iraqi jailers until American officials are satisfied that the Iraqis are meeting international standards for care of detainees. In the meantime, the prison population under American or allied control continues to swell, and stood at 14,767 this week. At present, Iraqis may be freed from the American-run detention centers only after review by a special panel called the Combined Release Board. Detained Iraqis are turned over to Iraqi jailers only if they are convicted by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, American officials said. The problem of insurgent networking and instruction inside the detention system in Iraq is part of a broader problem in the American counterterrorism effort. American military and intelligence officers say that Iraq has become a magnet for violent extremists from across the Islamic world who want to fight U.S. policies; these American officials also warn that violent extremists who are not killed, captured and held or persuaded to give up the struggle will emerge battle-tested, and more proficient at carrying out terror attacks around the globe. Although no historic comparison is perfect, some officers warn of a parallel to the Soviet experience in Afghanistan, when radical Islamic fighters drawn to fight the Soviet occupiers forged strong relationships with religious extremists from within Afghanistan and across the Islamic world. Among those anti-Soviet mujahedeen fighting in Afghanistan was Osama bin Laden, whose original Al Qaeda network has been severely disrupted by American military and intelligence operations, but who still is the figurehead and inspiration for more than 30 new terrorist groups that have sprung to life since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to senior military officers. "The opportunity for networking and training inside the detention centers is certainly one that is a concern," said another U.S. officer in Iraq. "That's something the detainee operations people look at closely. They look at behavior of groups inside the camps, and are constantly rotating people around to get the right dynamics - which means lessening the hostile dynamics." The task of monitoring detainees is made more difficult by the chronic shortage of Arabic speakers available to the American military; it is all but impossible to thoroughly screen private conversations and written communications among all the detainees. Rudisill said that along with efforts "to mitigate the negative influence of extremists" inside the camps, American officers have launched programs "designed to prepare detainees for potential reintegration into Iraqi society" pending their release. "Our reintegration program is designed to help prepare those potentially scheduled for release for reintegration back into a different society that includes a freely elected government and increasingly capable Iraqi Security Force," he said. The program, he said, includes "speeches and presentations provided by prominent community, political and religious leaders, access to objective TV, radio and print media highlighting the changes in Iraqi society, and a sponsorship program directed at integrating released detainees back into their respective communities." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 I've heard they hired the guy who created the societal reintegration projects for pedophiles to recreate his success with the Jihadis. |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-02-15 12:00 |
| #1 "...launched programs "designed to prepare detainees for potential reintegration into Iraqi society" This is a load of CYA horseshit designed to be intentionally vague and create an illusion of a corrective response. The fact that the “general population” is chumming it up with the hard-boyz is no doubt a real problem. But it is simply a by-product of a more complex failed system. Seems to me the military is now playing catch-up for a poorly planned and ineffective ran component of a post-combat situation. Reintegration Program...that outta do it...yeah right. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2006-02-15 11:49 |