Iraq Says Abu Ghraib Prison Is Closed

[jakeXT]

Source: NY Times

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government said Tuesday that it had closed the Abu Ghraib prison, the site of a notorious prisoner abuse scandal during the American occupation of Iraq, because of fears that it could be overrun by Sunni insurgents who have gained strength over the last year.

In a statement, the Justice Ministry said it had moved 2,400 prisoners to other high-security prisons in central and northern Iraq, adding that Abu Ghraib’s location — west of central Baghdad and on the edge of insurgent-controlled areas of Anbar Province — had become a “hot zone.”

It was not clear whether the closing was permanent, or if the prison might reopen if the Sunni insurgency is tamed. But it nevertheless underscored the rapid deterioration of security in Iraq since the beginning of the year, when insurgents captured Falluja, a short drive from the prison, from which hundreds of inmates escaped last year.

Abu Ghraib, a proud tribal and farming community when Saddam Hussein was in power, is now famous for its prison, and its painful legacy.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/world/middleeast/iraq-says-abu-ghraib-prison-is-closed.html?_r=0

[Spitfire of ATJ]

1. "Sunni insurgency"

Oh yeah,...the guys WE supported many of which flooded over the border from Saudi Arabia.

[The Stranger]

2. I'll never forget the whole Abu Ghraib story.

Early on, the Iraqis kept bombing the prison, yet it was housing Iraqis. I guessed that it just wasn't supposed to make sense: Why would they bomb their own inside the prison?

Then the fog of war seemed to close in on Abu Ghraib. That is, until pictures began surfacing of what was going on there. And the lowest depths of humanity began spilling into those who could maintain consciousness through the fusillade of military and pro-war propaganda.

Torture. Something I had never thought would ever be used in the same sentence with my country. I could sense the old soldiers I had known and who fought for this country turning in their very graves. Torture. It didn't seem possible. Not from the nation that had fought for passage of the Geneva Conventions and anti-torture practices.

The very roots of this civilization changed that day. At least for me, and I would suspect many others.

And then I began to apprehend why the Iraqis were bombing a prison and their own people inside.

[gussmith]

3. Yes?

We heard the prison was closed a few years ago. Did Iraq reopen and use the same name?

[marble falls]

4. That was quick. We certainly teach some bad stuff to emerging <coff coff> "democracies".

[nilesobek]

5. Maybe they will demolish it to rewrite and hide history.