Iraqis jail many innocents, U.S. says

[rodeodance]

Source: USAToday



Iraqis jail many innocents, U.S. says
Posted 9h 32m ago

U.S. officials say Iraqi forces use a "dragnet" approach that results in arrests of all military-age males in the vicinity of an attack on miltary forces, or around a large weapons cache at the time of its discovery.
Enlarge image Enlarge AP

BAGHDAD — U.S. officers here say they are increasingly troubled by the high number of innocent Iraqis being detained and held — in some cases for many months — by the Iraqi army.

Several officers who serve as advisers to the Iraqis said at least half the people detained by the Iraqi army in Baghdad are innocent.

And the advisers say their close association with the units doing the detaining is placing the Americans on the horns of an ethical dilemma: On one hand, they are forbidden from taking unilateral action in order to free the prisoners; on the other hand, by not freeing innocent detainees being held by their close allies, they feel complicit in what some termed "a war crime."

In at least one case, a U.S. officer received a letter of admonishment from a general officer after taking it upon himself to free 35 prisoners he knew had been wrongly detained.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-05-06-iraqarrests_N.htm?csp=34

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I would bet many of these arrests get blamed on the US!

[babylonsister]

1. Hey, look over there! And BTW, who's in charge? nt

[magellan]

2. Pot, kettle

Unbelievable.

[MasonJar]

3. Well, as my mom always said, "That's the pot calling the kettle black."

[ovidsen]

4. The making of an insurgent/terrorist

Take one innocent man or woman. Jail him or her with real terrrorists/insuregents.

Let simmer in filthy cells with lousy food for several months. Do NOT add seasonings such as lawyers or court dates.

Release at an arbitrary time and date.

Run like hell.

[sutz12]

5. They're just trying to keep up with us.

:sarcasm:

[seriousstan]

6. I see Sadaam's practices die hard.

[IndianaGreen]

7. And we don't?

Like magellan said on this thread: pot, kettle.

[Catalyst]

8. Good

Some reasonable/temporary detaining of possible threats to ensure the safety of all should be a good idea for them.

[MLFerrell]

13. "Some reasonable/temporary detaining..."

And who is to decide what/how long "reasonable" is? Because according to the White House, et al., the prisoners at Gitmo are being held on these grounds:

"reasonable/temporary detaining of possible threats to ensure the safety of all".

[LynnTheDem]

9. Are Iraqis in charge of Gitmo? No, can't be.

The estimate is 70% - 80% innocent people being held at Gitmo, not just 50%.

[gratuitous]

10. Okay, so they haven't learned the lessons of democracy and freedom

But they've sure learned the lessons of the Bush administration in other ways.

[Solly Mack]

11. uh...uh...Are they playing the my shit don't stink game?

[RedSock]

12. my head just exploded (eom)