700 More Troops to Be Sent To Iraq...to Bolster Prison Operations

[Rose Siding]

Responding to an appeal for more forces in Iraq to help manage a rising number of detainees, the Pentagon is dispatching an additional 700 troops from 82nd Airborne Division, defense officials said yesterday.

The previously unscheduled deployment is intended specifically to bolster prison operations, the officials said. It is not part of a temporary increase in U.S. troop levels in Iraq that commanders have said is likely to enhance security for a planned constitutional referendum in October and governmental elections in December.
...
"They're going to assist however they're needed," Venable said. "But it's best to think of them as a security force, not as prison guards, although some things they might do could bring them into proximity with prisoners."

Crowded conditions at the U.S.-run prison camps and what commanders describe as an increasingly hard-core inmate population have produced a combustible mix, confronting U.S. forces with a growing risk of prison violence. Camp Bucca, a sprawling detention facility in the southern Iraqi desert near the Kuwaiti border where the majority of prisoners are held, experienced two large riots earlier this year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/17/AR2005081701676.html

I wonder if they've been trained as prison guards...er, I mean as a security force that could be brought "into proximity with prisoners".

[rodeodance]

1. "It is NOT part of a temporary increase in U.S. troop" because of election

this is very signigicant!!!!!


.....It is not part of a temporary increase in U.S. troop levels in Iraq that commanders have said is likely to enhance security for a planned constitutional referendum in October and governmental elections in December.

[rodeodance]

2. gawd--we are building UP troop levels!!! --not down!!

[rodeodance]

3. more than 10,800 now,

The number of prisoners held in U.S. military detention centers in Iraq has more than doubled since the autumn, climbing from 5,400 in September to more than 10,800 now, according to the latest Pentagon figures. The surge has filled existing prisons to capacity and prompted commanders to embark on an unanticipated prison expansion plan.

Military officials have attributed the influx of detainees to intensified counterinsurgency operations by Iraqi as well as U.S. forces. But the burgeoning prison population also appears to reflect the persistence of the insurgency itself.

A formal request for more security forces came in May, officials said, and approval was granted last month. An announcement by the 82nd Airborne Division's headquarters at Fort Bragg, N.C., on Monday saying that the 1st battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, will be going to Iraq contained no information about the unit's mission.

Pentagon officials said the unit will not necessarily provide prison guards but rather engage in a number of detention-related operations, such as securing the area around a prison compound or transporting detainees from one prison to another.

[Rose Siding]

5. Karpinski told the BBC she'd been told not to release anyone.

snip>
Brig Gen Karpinski said US commanders were reluctant to release detainees, an attitude she called "releasophobia".

In her interview, she said Maj Gen Walter Wodjakowski, then the second most senior army general in Iraq, told her in the summer of 2003 not to release more prisoners, even if they were innocent.

"I don't care if we're holding 15,000 innocent civilians," she said Maj Gen Wodjakowski told her. "We're winning the war."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4339511.stm

[Old and In the Way]

6. Interesting that the Iraqi police don't have control of their prisons.

That should tell us something. We cannot trust the Iraqi's to guard their own....hmmmmm.

[cliss]

12. You noticed that too?

After 5 long years of watching this administration, I have come to a very important conclusion: These folks are not trainable. They are absolutely cut off from reality.

How many times does this shit get reported in the news, and they do nothing about it? For God's sake, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. And here they are, untouched by all of this.

You look at them, and they look like somewhat sane, functioning adults. That's where I make my mistakes. Do NOT let appearances deceive you, Cliss.

They are absolute maniacs. They have NO connection with reality as we know it.

[bpilgrim]

4. doubt that will satisfy the DLC

http://media.globalfreepress.com

peace

[barbaraann]

7. It's revenge for not clapping at Bush's speech.

n/t

[Sgent]

8. And we all know

that the 82nd Airborne has more expertise at being prison gaurds and police than jumping out of planes anyway.

Barf....

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

18. I agree

Rumsfeld is a fucking idiot.

:argh:

[NYC]

9. So, are we decreasing troop levels?

...The previously unscheduled deployment is intended specifically to bolster prison operations, the officials said. It is not part of a temporary increase in U.S. troop levels in Iraq that commanders have said is likely to enhance security for a planned constitutional referendum in October and governmental elections in December...

[Rose Siding]

10. They can spin it however they want, but more troops is a build up.

[Barkley]

11. US troops are NOT trained to be prison guards!

This war is completely insane.

[Solly Mack]

13. Actually prison guard is an MOS - 31E correction specialists (95C)

but as it is a specific MOS and job, naturally only those who opt for that MOS are trained for it.

http://www.us-army-info.com/pages/mos/police/police-mos.html

[rodeodance]

14. whatever---we have more going instead of coming home!!--that is the

problem.

[rodeodance]

15. I have a name--Mission CreepUP.

[Solly Mack]

16. and I just wouldn't be aware of that would I?

[Javaman]

17. They drip the troops in a little at a time, so no one notices...

then they can announce a big troop reduction, but in reality there will be no change in the numbers or more than likely the amount of troops in Iraq, will actually be higher.

colossal failure*