[News] US to expand its prisons across Iraq

[News at freedomarchives.org]

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>US to expand its prisons across Iraq
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>Monday 27 June 2005 8:05 PM GMT
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>The United States is spending $50 million to build new prisons to house 
>the thousands of suspected fighters its forces are capturing in Iraq.
>
>With anti-US violence in Iraq continuing to rage, American forces are now 
>holding more than 10,000 people they classify as "security detainees" in 
>their three main jails in Iraq.
>
>This is nearly double the number they held a year ago.
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>The new constructions will give the United States the capacity to hold up 
>to 16,000 people in Iraq, military spokesman Lieutenant Guy Rudisill said.
>
>US forces will build a new prison at a former military barracks in 
>Sulaimaniya, 330km north of Baghdad, and add room for 2000 more prisoners 
>at Camp Cropper near Baghdad airport, which now holds just 125 detainees 
>including former President Saddam Hussein.
>
>Abu Ghraib
>
>The biggest US-run prison, Camp Bucca near Umm Qasr in the south, will 
>also be expanded to hold an additional 1400 detainees.
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>Abu Ghraib - Saddam's most notorious prison which also became the focus of 
>a scandal for US troops after pictures emerged showing them sexually 
>abusing detainees there - has just been expanded to house 400 more 
>detainees and will get room for another 400.
>
>"All security detainees held by the multinational forces are considered a 
>threat to the security and stability of Iraq"
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>US officials said after the scandal that they hoped to close Abu Ghraib. 
>Rudisill said the plan is to move prisoners from there to Cropper after 
>that camp is expanded.
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>The US-run camps are for "security detainees" held by Iraqi and US-led 
>international forces as suspected "insurgents". Ordinary Iraqi criminals 
>are held in regular Iraqi jails.
>
>Rudisill said the expanding US-run prison camp population in Iraq is a 
>result of "successful military operations against the insurgency and 
>terrorists by coalition forces and the Iraqi special forces".
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>'Harsh conditions'
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>However, US authorities in Iraq have come under harsh criticism for 
>conditions in their jails and also for the alleged incarceration of 
>innocent people there.
>
>In a recent report, New York-based Human Rights Watch said "harsh and 
>coercive interrogation techniques such as subjecting detainees to painful 
>stress positions and extended sleep deprivation have been routinely used 
>in detention centres throughout Iraq".
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>The US army told Aljazeera.net that "all security detainees held by the 
>multinational forces are considered a threat to the security and stability 
>of Iraq".
>
>An army spokeswoman said: "To ensure detainees receive due process, a 
>board of Iraqi and US officials looks at each security detainee's case 
>within the first 90 days of their detention to see if they no longer pose 
>a security threat and are eligible for release. Detainees' cases are then 
>reviewed every 180 days."
>
>She added that the US will release detainees when they are no longer 
>deemed a security threat, have no further intelligence value, and do not 
>merit criminal prosecution.
>
>Aljazeera + Agencies
>By
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>You can find this article at:
>http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6F71BADB-3C79-4131-84FF-044CECA7C39A.htm 
>
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