Abu Ghraib relatives rail against US as prisoner release continues

[Spazito]

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq (AFP) - Several buses carrying more than 400 prisoners left Iraq (news - web sites)'s notorious Abu Ghraib prison on Monday but many relatives were left waiting in the searing heat for news of detained loved ones.

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Many complained bitterly that their relatives, many of whom were rounded up by coalition forces after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, were being kept without charge or access to lawyers.


Jawad Kadom, 44, a merchant from the Aadumya area of Baghdad, said his 15-year-old son was arrested a month ago while playing with friends.


"The Americans are arresting kids from our streets -- is that American power?" he said, adding that he had only seen his son once since his detention.

more

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1514&e=7&u=/afp/iraq_prisoners_release

[bluestateguy]

1. I'm amazed that that place hasn't exploded like Attica in 1971

I think that's the reason for the releases, as much as for the publicity, it also may ease simmering tensions in that hellhole.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. There is evidence that it already has

Remember those mortar attacks where a bunch of Iraqis got killed inside the Abu Ghraib prison? Apparently, at least a few of those supposed mortar attacks didn't happen. What happened is that there was an uprising and when the soldiers got all the prisoners back in their tents, they proceeded to shot up all the tents and killed and injured a large number of prisoners.

This is the story that Mazan Dana was trying to document and this is why the US troops felt compelled to kill him. Nothing like military sanctioned mass murder.

[Southsideirish]

2. What was the name of the French prison in "Papillon", with Steve

McQueen? I always envision that place when I think of Abu Ghraib - without the water, of course.

[TahitiNut]

3. Devil's Island ... notorius French penal colony in French Guiana

[struggle4progress]

5. Detainees leave notorious prison with harsh words for Americans

<snip>
Despite temperatures soaring past 100 degrees before 10 a.m., prisoners walked freely and chatted with the other inmates in the scorching desert sun. Some exercised, kicking up clouds of dirt.
Reporters were not allowed to ask questions. But they were allowed to listen and several of the men volunteered their stories.
<snip>
Monday's release the fifth major one since the scandal over U.S. abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib came one day after the U.S. military pledged that as many as 1,400 detainees will either be released or transferred to Iraqi authorities by the June 30 handover of power. The Americans will continue to hold between 4,000 and 5,000 prisoners deemed a threat to the coalition.
<snip>
''It feels like getting out of hellfire into heaven,'' said Ali Majid, 34, a former pilot detained for two months after being picked up in a military sweep.
<snip>
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/166/world/Detainees_leave_notorious_pris:.shtml

Iraqi artists depict anger over Abu Ghraib
<snip>
The abuse at Abu Ghraib generated intense rage and calls for revenge throughout Iraq and much of the Arab world. But a handful of Iraqis have forsaken the passion of street protests and demonstrations and instead channeled their anger into producing works of art, a creative protest of the Abu Ghraib scandal.
"It is our duty as artists to feel what our countrymen are feeling and suffering," says Qasim Alsabti, the deputy chairman of the Iraqi Union of Artists.
Mr. Alsabti was one of 25 Iraqi artists who have produced a series of sculptures, paintings, and installations depicting the horrors of Abu Ghraib. The exhibits are being shown at the Hewar Art Gallery in the Wazerieh district of central Baghdad.
He created a life-size figure of a woman wrapped in a bloodstained white shroud. It symbolizes the rape of women detainees in Abu Ghraib, says Alsabti, who heard of allegations of women prisoners being raped at Abu Ghraib five months before the scandal broke.
<snip>
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0615/p07s01-woiq.html