Hundreds set free from Abu Ghraib

[cal04]

THE US military today announced the weekend release of about 230 prisoners from the Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad, bringing the total freed so far this year to some 490.

"A review board consisting of six Iraqi officials and three senior officers of the Multi-National Force determined that these individuals no longer pose a security threat," a statement said.

It said 9000 prisoners were released last year, leaving a total of around 7100 detainees at Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca prison near the southern port of Umm Qasr.

Among those held are an estimated 350 foreigners, mainly Arabs, according to Iraqi officials.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11899237%255E1702,00.html

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

1. As Torture Boy and Bush Puppet Alberto Gonzales might say, "How Quaint."

They might not have been Al Qaeda when they went in...but Abu Ghraib has a way of changing people.

[DulceDecorum]

17. About the (recently updated) photo ......

The president-elect stands behind and to the side of Ann Veneman, his nominee for agriculture secretary. George W. Bush is slightly out of focus. His head is cocked to the left and tilted slightly backward, his mouth downturned in a perfect cartoonish crescent, the way a first-grader might draw a frown. His eyes are squinty.
Identical. Different tie, identical pose.

<snip>

Adam Shannon, the Washington communications consultant who first brought this matter to my attention, had a theory of his own: The Bush we know, the Bush we see, the Bush at the debates, the Bush on the campaign trail, the Bush we elected, the Bush whom J. Scott Applewhite and others have been photographing, is "an animatronic robot."

A machine?

"It's a fusion of a servo-motorized biofidelic shell and a sophisticated artificial intelligence module," Shannon theorizes.

What we are seeing in these photos, he postulates, is "a machine that has defaulted into standby mode." At a press conference in which attention is directed elsewhere, he said, the robot would "go into a temporary shutdown state in which it assumes a preprogrammed pose while waiting its turn to reactivate and begin speaking."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A52767-2000Dec26¬Found=true

[Just Me]

2. I wonder if any were forced to sign some "contract with America".

Do any come out with a salary?

Or,...are they actually being released because they were innocent of any crime from the get-go?

Gawd,...I have become so horribly skeptical (at moments, totally cynical) since this freakin' neoCONimperialist regime has take control of the USA.

[spooked]

3. Maybe they can't afford to feed them all anymore

Looking forward to the next round of witness accounts...

[DS1]

4. I'll bet some of them pose a security threat NOW!

I probably would :eyes:

[NYC]

5. "No longer pose a security threat" --

What does that mean? They used to pose a threat, and now they don't? How so? What changed? Have their intended targets been eliminated?

I don't believe they have been "rehabilitated" in anyway, so what changed? If they were criminals before, they are criminals now.

I think the wording should have been "never posed a threat in the first place, and we just figured that out" or "we can't lock up the whole country, so we're letting them go".

[TolstoyAndy]

8. Always were innocent of anything

You have a fine career decoding DOD newspeak if you want it, NYC.

I'll tell you, if that was me in there, I'd have been counting the days till I could get out and kill me some Crusaders. And I'd smile and bow sweetly all the way out the door, too. Maybe I'd volunteer for a job helping the Crusaders, until the time was right.

[NYC]

10. They are very likely thinking exactly the way you are.

An innocent person subjected to Abu Ghraib must truly want revenge.

[LiberalEsto]

12. Maybe they did lobotomies

on the prisoners before turning them loose.
I put NOTHING past the criminals running this war.

[NYC]

15. That is a possibility I hadn't considered.

It is also possible that they are in an extremely depleted physical condition.

I hadn't thought of those things.

[bahrbearian]

6. The Repug's are bringing out the vote.

[NYC Liberal]

7. What happened?

I was under the impression that all these prisoners WERE guilty -- no evidence, witnesses, or testimony, but nonetheless guilty. :o

Republicans distort the facts....nah, couldn't be!

[Earth_First]

9. While it is not my intention to downplay the release of these innocents...

it is to my belief that hundreds tends to bring to mind exactly that, hundreds. 230 is exactly that, two hundred and thirty people. Not the 'several hundreds' that the headline intends to portray.

As the war continues, there are still thousands of innocents which are still being held in Iraq, GuantanamoBay, Cuba, and worldwide.

[NYC]

11. On the other hand, it is 490 for this year, and this year is only 9 days

old.

...THE US military today announced the weekend release of about 230 prisoners from the Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad, bringing the total freed so far this year to some 490...

With that in mind, I would not object to the headline. (Unless I am reading something wrong.)

[Dimsdale]

13. How many have actually been released?

I'm inclined to doubt anything that this administration has to say. Lying sacks of shite have a way of continuing with old habits.

[Whoa_Nelly]

14. Will any of them speak out?

Are there any of the released who have stories that need to be told?

[despairing optimist]

16. Free the US troops too, while you're at it

I wonder if that's a fruitful tack for legal fights against involuntary extension of tours of duty, that the troops are in effect political prisoners of the administration. Hmm.

[leesa]

18. Good. I hope they all testify at Bush's war crimes trial.

[DoYouEverWonder]

19. Funny how none of these 'terrorists '

are ever brought to trial or convicted?

I don't think BushCo has convicted one single terrorist in the last four years?

At least Clinton, caught the guys that did the first WTC bombing and all of them got life sentences. They didn't even need torture or secret detentions.