U.S. holding Iraqis at notorious prison

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.majority.com/news/prison.html

Families are barred from Abu Ghraib and very few inmates have been allowed to see lawyers

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq -- Once one of Iraq's notorious prisons where Saddam Hussein had political prisoners tortured and hanged, Abu Ghraib has become a makeshift jail at the heart of the U.S. military's struggle to give Iraqis a new sense of justice.

About 500 Iraqis are detained here and, like detainees in U.S. prison camps across Iraq, none has been allowed family visits. Only one out of 10 has been allowed to see a lawyer.

The five compounds in the prison were ransacked after Hussein freed virtually all of Iraq's prisoners last October, so the detainees are penned in tents behind rolls of razor wire. On some days, the camp roasts under a midday sun that produces temperatures as high as 130 degrees.

On Monday, dozens of Iraqi detainees sprinted from their tents at the sight of a group of journalists in a convoy and began screaming.

"What did we do? We didn't do anything!" a shirtless inmate shouted.

"We want to leave from here!" another yelled.

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[Zero Gravitas]

1. No Justice, No Peace

We are doing EVERYTHING wrong in Iraq! We are ailinating Iraqis who kmkight otherwise support (for a short time) the occupatiopn of their country if it lead to a truly democratic state, but no, we are using the symbols of the old regime and heavy handed tactics to surpress opposition which can only be counter-productive.

Here is quote (in the NYT article about the car-bombing in Baghdad) from a US Army Officer to Iraqis rounded up as suspected member sof the Iraqi resistence and then later released:

"If you fight against your government, we will hunt you down and kill you"

Now what was that about "Supporting the Troops" again?

[phgnome]

2. Long live freedom

<sarcasm>Long live this freedom our troops are dying for...</sarcasm>

[NNN0LHI]

3. If you fight against your government...

When the Iraqis hear this they must say to themselves what government? The nice little government the Americans appointed for us? That government? Hell, they had a govenment like that before and didn't like it. These Iraqis must laugh their asses off when they get away from guys (morans) like this.

Don

[Neutrino]

4. What Iraqis say to the media--and what they feel in their

hearts--is a billion light years apart. Whether it be Sunni, Shite,
all Iraqis love their country, and their anger runs deep--for the
destruction of all they held dear. If Bush were "deposed" by some
foreign Govt, and our nation destroyed, our people imprisoned, our
spirit ripped out of us, how would WE feel? Films were shown of
awful Iraqi prisons where Saddam Hussein held prisoners--now these
are the U.S. gulag. Shameful.

[northzax]

5. meet the new boss

better than the old boss, but still the boss.