'Deprogramming' Iraqi Detainees (American contractors teaching an Iraqi how to be an Iraqi)

[Robbien]

Source: Washington Post

Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, the commanding general in charge of detainee operations in Iraq, is seeking reinforcements from a contractor as he continues to wage what he has called "the battlefield of the mind" and win over the roughly 25,000 Iraqi prisoners under his control.

In a proposal put out for bid Dec. 15, the Joint Contracting Command is seeking a team of professionals, including "teachers, religious and behavioral science counselors," who will "execute a program that effectively reintegrates detainees, particularly those disposed to violent, radical ideology through education and counseling," according to the statement of work.

. . .

The team, according to the proposal, must be led by an American with 10 years of experience in leadership and management, and holding a security clearance at the "secret" level. It is strongly desirable for this person to have worked with Iraqis or third-country nationals and have five years of experience analyzing Middle Eastern religions, politics and culture. A master's degree in psychology or behavioral science is also desired.

The No. 2 in the group is to be a "lead analyst," who must also be a U.S. citizen, have a secret clearance and management experience. This person must also have five years of background in intelligence gathering and interrogation.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/23/AR2007122301598.html?hpid=topnews

[boricua79]

1. WHy waste all that money?

Remove the U.S. occupation and the arguments of radical Islamists will ring hollow. People will naturally choose more moderate ideologies of life when opposing targets are not present (the U.S.), and when they're tired of living under the heel of Islamist extremism.

Leave...and let the Iraqis experience the absolute tyranny of Shiite extremism...then...and only then, will they learn how to develop a social system/balance that is to their liking.

No money expenditure on our part needed.

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. That's just the problem - they want them to be amenable to the occupation

because they have no intention of ending it. We can't control the oil without boots on the ground.

[boricua79]

13. and that's their fatal flaw

you can't make a person be amenable to their chains. If they only knew what frantz fanon wrote about.

[LynnTheDem]

2. Jesus wept.

American arrogance & total utter stupidity on full worldwide display.

[happyslug]

3. security clearance at the "secret" level???? Couldn't make it lower???

A Secret Security Clearance is as low as you can get. I do not think the Government does anything but check their own records. I had a "Secret" Security Clearance, and only found out about it when it was withdrawn in the 1990s during a period when the Pentagon decided it was about time to withdrawn some Security Clearances for book-keeping purposes.

There is NOTHING lower than "Secret", "Top Secret" is not much harder, they might even interview someone. Higher levels of Security is on a need to know basis, i.e. you have to have the Security Clearance to have the names and types of Clearance above "Top Secret".

My point is the Pentagon is NOT asking for much, but sounds like they are.

[candymarl]

7. When it comes to Top Secret that's not true

I'll leave it at that.

[happyslug]

8. That might be true, I never had a urge to get a Top Secret Clearance.

But the Article made it sound like Secret Clearance something special, when it is the bottom of the list of Clearances.

[tblue37]

I know someone who worked at the Pentagon with just

that level of security clearance. He told me that the toilet paper in the building had the exact same clearance that he did--and he wasn't joking, because it had to be screened, too.

[tblue37]

10. I know someone who worked at the Pentagon with just

that level of security clearance. He told me that the toilet paper in the building had the exact same clearance that he did--and he wasn't joking, because it had to be screened, too.

[nealmhughes]

9. Top Secret and Q are very different animals.

Classified is nothing, Secret is not much better. Q even involves psychological testing. Top Secret did involve at least a nominal reference or two and complete background check.

I'm sure in our new and improved "security awareness" or whatever they call it these days, that the requirements have been raised.

[magellan]

4. Rehabilitation? But we put those types to death here!

There's a huge disconnect going on in this, and I suspect it's driven by $$.

[bananas]

5. The military put out an RFP for an enlightenment program?

And they say military intelligence is an oxymoron...

[grytpype]

6. How Maoist.

[Barrett808]

14. Our very own neo-con re-education camps

I guess it was inevitable.

[Trillo]

12. The top two paragraphs are mind blowing, at least to me.

Dualism in action?