US military shutting largest prison camp in Iraq - freeing or transfering all prisoners

[HamdenRice]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/17/AR2009091700721.html

U.S. military shuts largest detainee camp in Iraq

Thursday, September 17, 2009; 5:00 AM

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military Thursday closed down its largest detention center in Iraq as it continued to release or hand to Iraqi authorities the thousands of people it has held since the 2003 U.S. invasion.

The closure of Camp Bucca, a sprawling prison complex in Iraq's southern desert near Kuwait, was agreed to under the bilateral security pact signed last year obliging U.S. forces to wind down their massive detention program in Iraq.

Bucca once housed as many as 14,000 detainees, the majority held for months or years without any charges made against them and with no access to a lawyer. Some were kept in steel shipping containers with a toilet and air conditioning.

The number of detainees dwindled before the camp's formal closure at 3:22 a.m. (0022 GMT), when a transport plane carrying the last group of 180 detainees left Basra for another military prison in Baghdad, a U.S. military statement said.

The security pact, which also calls for all U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq by 2012, obliges the United States to release U.S. detainees who do not face Iraqi arrest warrants or detention orders. Since January, 5,703 U.S. inmates have been released and 1,360 were transferred to the Iraqi government.

<more at link>

[dionysus]

1. no one responds to good news?

:shrug:

[HamdenRice]

2. Obama cancelled European "star wars" this morning, and barely a peep

Good news doesn't sell.

[SpartanDem]

3. The LBN thread has over 100 post

[dionysus]

6. our local RW radio dipshit is blubbering on how we have just handed eastern europe to the russians.

it would be funny except he's dead serious... :crazy:

[grantcart]

4. good news

would love to see an announcement that they are speeding up the withdrawal.

[dionysus]

5. delete - wrong spot

[lunatica]

7. This news is excellent but now we deal with the fallout

of the hatred Bush created with these prisons. I do hope someday to be able to get respect back in the humanitarian issues. I'm not holding my breath but I'm sure the Middle East is aware that Obama isn't Bush. He's following through on trying to bridge differences. This I agree with.

[LiberalAndProud]

8. It is good to see that we are on schedule for the draw down.

Thank God!