US says to close Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison

[muriel_volestrangler]

Updated with a bit more info:

The U.S. military will close Abu Ghraib prison, probably within three months, and transfer some 4,500 prisoners to other jails in Iraq, a military spokesman said on Thursday.
...
"We will transfer operations from Abu Ghraib to the new Camp Cropper once construction is completed there," Lieutenant Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry told Reuters.
...
It currently houses only 127 "high-value" detainees, among them Saddam himself. U.S. military officials say a purpose-built prison at Camp Cropper will provide better conditions for Iraqis detained on suspicion of insurgent activity.
...
At present, U.S. forces are holding 14,589 people in four jails in Iraq. More than half are at Camp Bucca, in the south.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-03-09T174648Z_01_L0915476_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-ABUGHRAIB1.xml&archived=False

[skylarmae]

1. transfer the prisoners to other 'jails' or other 'prisons'?

what's going on over there....how does this make sense?

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. WTF? Thought a lot of $$$ was spent to improve, update the structure

Seems to be more "hard work" of people "working hard" to create greater distance from the shame and crimes of illegal torture first exposed at Abu Ghraib. :mad:

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. jr promised to do that 3 years ago.

And then changed his mind. He voted for torture before voting against it.

[rodeodance]

6. i recall lots of articles not long after the scandel broke out.

[saigon68]

4. They are using Halliburton to build NEW SECRET PRISONS

The kind where electric shock and torture are the rule of the day.

[peacetalksforall]

5. Quick. Learn the names of the other prisons and frame them.

We need an umbrella name for them unless one stands out that is powerful in itself and can be referred to as 'xxxx and the other prisons'.

(The reason for closing this prison is to help George and southerners - they had trouble pronouncing Abu Graib.)

The real reason is psychological. Some lemmings will tell you that we no longer have prisons in Iraq because they never really listen and think and what they know is handed down verbally from a reverend.

Now is the time to start finding out exactly where the prisons are that are outside Iraq.

And we should ask - are Iranian prisoners going to be moved to Iraq prisons are are we going to create prisons in Iran?

And we can wonder if the Pentagon creatures have argued about whether there will be more or less pressure from Amnesty style organizations because it's Iranians who are being killed and tortured over Iraqis. Cynical? Yes. Meant to by cynical out of anger for spreading death and torture and imperialist rule.

[central scrutinizer]

7. lipstick on a pig

you can change the name and location but is anything of importance being changed? Probably not, since the Geneva Conventions are now considered "quaint" and oh-so-twentieth century, doncha know.

[ckramer]

8. Therefore close a chapter of shamefulness and disgrace in US history n/t

[wookie294]

9. Nearly ALL of those prisoners are INNOCENT

The Red Cross reports that 70% to 90% of Iraqi prisoners in U.S. custody are INNOCENT....

http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/dailystar/21552.php

A former U.S. Army interrogator said 90 percent of the Iraqi prisoners in U.S. custody are innocent...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10882510/

The U.S. military admits that the evidence against prisoners is justified in only one in four cases....

http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/37/11468

But the military is torturing these Iraqis everyday....

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/03/28/2003248098

And the U.S. military is torturing Iraqis TO DEATH....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4355779.stm

One soldier's account: "Guys in my unit, particularly the younger guys, would drive by in their Humvee and shatter bottles over the heads of Iraqi civilians passing by. They'd keep a bunch of empty Coke bottles in the Humvee to break over people's heads."

"Mr. Delgado said he had witnessed incidents in which an Army sergeant lashed a group of children with a steel Humvee antenna, and a Marine corporal planted a vicious kick in the chest of a kid about 6 years old. There were many occasions, he said, when soldiers or marines would yell and curse and point their guns at Iraqis who had done nothing wrong."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/050205X.shtml

[Judi Lynn]

10. U.S. Says Abu Ghraib's Successor to Open By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS, Associated Pr

Via: The Raw Story

U.S. Says Abu Ghraib's Successor to Open By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS, Associated Press Writer
3 minutes ago

The American military said Thursday its new lockup near Baghdad airport to house security prisoners now held at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison should be ready within three months.

Once the U.S. moves prisoners to the new prison at Camp Cropper, a process that will take months, Abu Ghraib will be returned to Iraqi prison authorities, said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.

Completion of the new prison at Camp Cropper would set the transfer in motion, said Lt. Col. Kier-Kevin Curry, a spokesman for U.S. military detainee operations.

"We will transfer operations from Abu Ghraib to the new Camp Cropper once construction is completed there. No precise dates have been set, but the plan is to accomplish this (completion of construction) within the next two to three months," Curry said.
(snip/...)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060309/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_abu_ghraib&printer=1;_ylt=AvOq2iNwJ0ZtmHdGUJRqmKQUewgF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

[librechik]

12. exactly--sure we'll close it--no problem.

just to go deeper in hiding.

[coalition_unwilling]

11. "Camp Cropper"??? Interesting etymological choice

From www.word-detective.com:

"To come a cropper" does indeed come from the world of horse riding and racing. The original phrase was "neck and crop," describing a fall from a horse where the rider is thrown headlong over the horse's head.

Or maybe it's a *-oid malapropism and it should read "Camp Crapper," with obvious references to various scatalogical functions.

[HuffleClaw]

13. they've said this before

14k in US 'jails'? 'suspicion of insurgent activity' things like running from the scene of a car bomb (really, who just STANDS there after a BOMB goes off?), or having the gall to 'resist' when a gang of armed soldiers kick in yer door at three a.m. ('resisting' means yelling and struggling while the soldiers manhandle your grandmother to the ground, or asking for a lawyer).

[Roland99]

14. Abu Ghraib won't be closed. It will be turned over to the Iraqis.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss (times 2)