| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Freedom Fries" |
| Date: |
10 May 2005 07:26:03 PM |
| Object: |
America, the Great Builders of Prisons |
Looks like the redumblicans have the same approach to handling Iraqis as
they do with handling blacks in America, just throw them in prison. More
young blacks in America today are in prison than in universities. This was
not the case 25 years ago and wouldn't be the case now if not for the
fraudulent war on drugs which is actually a war on black people and a way to
control the profits from drugs. The question is when will the Americans
build a prison that is free from prisoner abuse.
U.S. to Expand Prison Facilities in Iraq
By Bradley Graham
BAGHDAD, May 9 -- The number of prisoners held in U.S. military
detention centers in Iraq has risen without interruption since
autumn, filling the centers to capacity and prompting commanders to
embark on an unanticipated prison expansion plan.
As U.S. and Iraqi forces battle an entrenched insurgency, the
detainee population surpassed 11,350 last week, a nearly 20 percent
jump since Iraq's Jan. 30 elections. U.S. prisons now contain more
than twice the number of people they did in early October, when
aggressive raids began in a stepped-up effort to crush the
insurgency before January's vote.
Anticipating continued growth in the detainee population, U.S.
commanders have decided to expand three existing facilities and open
a fourth, at a total cost of about $50 million.
The steady influx of prisoners has also required additional U.S.
military police officers to guard the detention centers. Commanders
had hoped to use the MPs to help train Iraqi police, but management
of the detention centers has taken priority.
"We've got a normal capacity and a surge capacity," said Maj. Gen.
William H. Brandenburg, who oversees U.S. military detention
operations in Iraq. "We're operating at surge capacity."
Last month at Abu Ghraib prison, on the outskirts of Baghdad, the
detainee population had grown so large that U.S. authorities decided
to stop accepting new arrivals for a few days, Brandenburg said.
Instead, detainees were held longer at field camps before being
moved to Abu Ghraib. Tents there that normally house 20 inmates now
hold 25 to 30, the general said.
The large number of detainees and uncertainty about their fates have
become a political issue, with representatives of Iraq's Sunni Arab
minority demanding that the inmates be tried quickly or released.
More than three-fourths are Sunnis, a fact that U.S. military
officers here say reflects the dominant role Sunni groups have
played in the insurgency.
Brandenburg said he has argued for allowing the cases to work their
way through a process that includes a review board staffed by six
Iraqis and three members of the U.S.-led multinational force. As of
last week, he said, the board had looked at 10,000 cases and
approved the release of about 6,000 people.
But Brandenburg acknowledged that the prisons were filling up faster
than cases could be reviewed. "We're still getting more detainees in
than we're getting rid of," he said.
A second review board is being established this week to relieve some
of the strain on the reviewers, who are facing a heavier workload.
Together, the two boards should be able to handle 650 to 700 reviews
a week, Brandenburg said. Iraq's Central Criminal Court, created a
year ago, has also picked up its pace. It handled 87 trials and 50
pretrial investigative hearings in March.
Various indicators, however, point to a detainee population that is
increasingly hard-core and therefore likely to remain locked up.
Before January, for instance, the review board had ordered releases
in about 60 percent of the cases it considered. In recent months,
the figure has dropped to 40 percent.
Similarly, since January, 88 percent of those detained have been
rated "high risk" under a six-point system that takes into account
the circumstances of capture, severity of the alleged offense and
affiliation with known insurgent groups.
Other profiling information provided by Brandenburg shows that 96
percent of those in the detention camps are Iraqis and about 60
percent are either from Baghdad or Anbar provinces -- two areas
where much of the insurgency has been concentrated. Only five
detainees are female. Nearly three-fourths of the inmate population
is between the ages of 20 and 40, and about 60 percent of the
detainees have less than a high school education.
Crowded camp conditions and tougher inmates present a combustible
mix, confronting U.S. forces with a growing risk of prison violence.
Camp Bucca, a sprawling detention facility in the southern Iraqi
desert near the Kuwaiti border where the majority of prisoners are
held, has experienced two large riots within two months.
As of Friday, Camp Bucca's detainee population had reached 6,370.
Another 3,538 are now at Abu Ghraib, the U.S. military's primary
interrogation center and the site of highly publicized detainee
abuses. Camp Cropper, near the Baghdad airport, houses 114 detainees
who are labeled "high value." Another 1,331 suspected insurgents are
being held for initial screenings at military brigade and
division-level detention facilities, according to military figures.
To cope with the continuing influx, Brandenburg said Camp Bucca,
which has eight compounds, is adding two, enough to accommodate
about 1,400 additional prisoners. Space for another 800 detainees is
being built at Abu Ghraib.
Camp Cropper is also expanding, from a current capacity of about 120
prisoners to 2,000 by the end of this year. U.S. authorities also
plan to turn a Russian-built former Iraqi military barracks near the
northern city of Sulaymaniyah into a prison for 2,000 inmates and
call it Fort Suse.
After briefing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld last month on
the new construction plans, Brandenburg received word that the
Pentagon had approved $12 million to finish the Camp Bucca expansion
and $30 million to enlarge Camp Cropper. Another $7.5 million had
been authorized earlier to build Fort Suse. The additional capacity
at Abu Ghraib will cost less than $1 million, Brandenburg said.
"I think we'll be all right," he said. "But we are very tight."
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| User: "Spike" |
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| Title: Re: America, the Great Builders of Prisons |
10 May 2005 07:27:20 PM |
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On Tue, 10 May 2005 20:26:03 -0400, "Freedom Fries"
<FrenchFriesAren'tFrench@dumbamericans.com> wrote:
Cut it out, Frod.
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