Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
April 22, 2008
Pg. 4
122 absolved in Kirkuk ceremony as part of effort to unburden prisons
By Andrea Stone, USA Today
KIRKUK, Iraq — Mohammed Hussain Ghafur dabbed his watery eyes moments after his two young sons jumped into his waiting arms. In the 20 months he languished in jail without charges, this had been his dream.
His crime? Ghafur, 37, says he sold a car that was later used in a terrorist bombing. "They traced the address to me, and that was it," he said. He says he cooperated with police after he was arrested by U.S.-led coalition forces, but despite his pleas, "they never allowed me to defend myself or see a lawyer."
Ghafur was among 122 detainees released from an Iraqi-run prison in Sulaimaniyah and given their freedom at a ceremony here Monday as part of the largest wave of prisoner releases since the war began. The Iraqi government set them free to reintegrate men into society who were accused of relatively minor crimes, and ease the strains on a prison system operating well beyond its capacity.
The men marched into a courtyard at Kirkuk's police academy, each carrying a red silk rose and a shopping bag with their few possessions. Their families pelted them with candies. Children ran to greet them as old women in black abaya head scarves and with tattooed faces crooned in joy. Later, detainees, guards and tribal leaders danced to Arab and Kurdish music.
Most of those released were Sunnis who had been low-level army officials or former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. They were among thousands of Iraqis who were arrested without charges by coalition and Iraqi forces. The discharges signal "a return to some sense of normalcy," said U.S. Army Col. David Paschal, commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division, who attended the ceremony. "At some point, the fighting must stop."
Kirkuk is one of Iraq's quietest provinces. Yet even in Baghdad, where fighting rages in Sadr City, Iraqi officials plan to release detainees on Thursday.
The prisoners are being freed under an amnesty law passed by Iraq's parliament in February. More than 52,400 detainees in government custody have applied for their freedom. Of those, nearly 78%, or more than 40,000, were granted amnesty. More than one in five, though, were denied because they are being held for crimes not covered by the law. These include killing, kidnapping, rape, embezzling government funds, selling drugs and smuggling antiquities.
The amnesty law does not cover more than 23,000 Iraqis who are in U.S. custody. Still, Air Force Capt. Rose Richeson, spokeswoman for coalition detainee operations, says nearly 8,000 detainees held at two coalition detention centers have been released since September, an average of 52 a day. "It is reasonable to expect that rate of release will continue," she said.
Last summer's U.S. troop increase or "surge," which packed coalition and Iraqi jails, also poses a headache for those whose job is to hold them, says Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"Overcrowded facilities filled with a mix of real insurgents, part-timers and the innocent … become breeding grounds and training centers for the insurgency," he said. "The amnesty and release procedures are probably doing more good than harm, but much depends on what happens when young men return home."
Before they are released, detainees must sign and swear a loyalty oath to the Iraqi government that they will "promise to maintain peace" and not attack security forces, incite sectarian strife, damage or destroy government property or kidnap hostages.
"I can't predict what they might do in the future, but we hope that they take this opportunity to do positive things," said Abdul Rahman Mustafa, governor of Kirkuk province, who spoke at the ceremony.
Cordesman says many detainees took part in attacks only "for the money or some kind of status in an environment where over half of the young men had no meaningful employment opportunity."
Indeed, Richeson says, few insurgents captured by coalition forces cited sectarian rivalries as a motivating factor. "Money, fear and lack of education are the main motivators," she says.
To discourage newly freed men from resorting again to violence, the Iraqi government plans to pay former detainees to attend school and learn a trade. In June, Kirkuk province will start Iraq's first large-scale training program for former detainees when it aims to enroll 1,200 men in classes to learn welding, carpentry, cellphone maintenance and other skills. The province also will hire ex-detainees to work on road repair, trash removal and other services.
At 63, Mwaffak Mustafa was among the oldest released. Surrounded by his wife, daughter and grandchildren, he said he spent two years in prison "for nothing. … They told me I was harboring criminals, but the suspects were all released immediately."
Regarding his own release, prison guards kept telling him: "Today, tomorrow, today, tomorrow," Mustafa sighed. "Red tape."
Emad Ibrahim was a first-year college student and about to get married when U.S. troops arrested him in Hawijah a year and a half ago. He says Kurdish security forces "beat me up to admit" he was an insurgent, but he says he was innocent. Now, he hopes to study computers and resume his life.
His father, Ibrahim Al Mahmoud, 52, said he also has plans. "I am going to get my son married and keep him at home," he said with a wide grin. "I will not let him out of the house."
Many of the detainees ignored Farouq Ameen Othman, a Kirkuk investigative judge, as he read the oath of allegiance they had just signed. They had other things on their mind.
"This is sort of a new life," Othman said. "Terrorism started and now it is ending. A new life is coming, God willing."
April 22, 2008
Pg. 4
122 absolved in Kirkuk ceremony as part of effort to unburden prisons
By Andrea Stone, USA Today
KIRKUK, Iraq — Mohammed Hussain Ghafur dabbed his watery eyes moments after his two young sons jumped into his waiting arms. In the 20 months he languished in jail without charges, this had been his dream.
His crime? Ghafur, 37, says he sold a car that was later used in a terrorist bombing. "They traced the address to me, and that was it," he said. He says he cooperated with police after he was arrested by U.S.-led coalition forces, but despite his pleas, "they never allowed me to defend myself or see a lawyer."
Ghafur was among 122 detainees released from an Iraqi-run prison in Sulaimaniyah and given their freedom at a ceremony here Monday as part of the largest wave of prisoner releases since the war began. The Iraqi government set them free to reintegrate men into society who were accused of relatively minor crimes, and ease the strains on a prison system operating well beyond its capacity.
The men marched into a courtyard at Kirkuk's police academy, each carrying a red silk rose and a shopping bag with their few possessions. Their families pelted them with candies. Children ran to greet them as old women in black abaya head scarves and with tattooed faces crooned in joy. Later, detainees, guards and tribal leaders danced to Arab and Kurdish music.
Most of those released were Sunnis who had been low-level army officials or former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. They were among thousands of Iraqis who were arrested without charges by coalition and Iraqi forces. The discharges signal "a return to some sense of normalcy," said U.S. Army Col. David Paschal, commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division, who attended the ceremony. "At some point, the fighting must stop."
Kirkuk is one of Iraq's quietest provinces. Yet even in Baghdad, where fighting rages in Sadr City, Iraqi officials plan to release detainees on Thursday.
The prisoners are being freed under an amnesty law passed by Iraq's parliament in February. More than 52,400 detainees in government custody have applied for their freedom. Of those, nearly 78%, or more than 40,000, were granted amnesty. More than one in five, though, were denied because they are being held for crimes not covered by the law. These include killing, kidnapping, rape, embezzling government funds, selling drugs and smuggling antiquities.
The amnesty law does not cover more than 23,000 Iraqis who are in U.S. custody. Still, Air Force Capt. Rose Richeson, spokeswoman for coalition detainee operations, says nearly 8,000 detainees held at two coalition detention centers have been released since September, an average of 52 a day. "It is reasonable to expect that rate of release will continue," she said.
Last summer's U.S. troop increase or "surge," which packed coalition and Iraqi jails, also poses a headache for those whose job is to hold them, says Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"Overcrowded facilities filled with a mix of real insurgents, part-timers and the innocent … become breeding grounds and training centers for the insurgency," he said. "The amnesty and release procedures are probably doing more good than harm, but much depends on what happens when young men return home."
Before they are released, detainees must sign and swear a loyalty oath to the Iraqi government that they will "promise to maintain peace" and not attack security forces, incite sectarian strife, damage or destroy government property or kidnap hostages.
"I can't predict what they might do in the future, but we hope that they take this opportunity to do positive things," said Abdul Rahman Mustafa, governor of Kirkuk province, who spoke at the ceremony.
Cordesman says many detainees took part in attacks only "for the money or some kind of status in an environment where over half of the young men had no meaningful employment opportunity."
Indeed, Richeson says, few insurgents captured by coalition forces cited sectarian rivalries as a motivating factor. "Money, fear and lack of education are the main motivators," she says.
To discourage newly freed men from resorting again to violence, the Iraqi government plans to pay former detainees to attend school and learn a trade. In June, Kirkuk province will start Iraq's first large-scale training program for former detainees when it aims to enroll 1,200 men in classes to learn welding, carpentry, cellphone maintenance and other skills. The province also will hire ex-detainees to work on road repair, trash removal and other services.
At 63, Mwaffak Mustafa was among the oldest released. Surrounded by his wife, daughter and grandchildren, he said he spent two years in prison "for nothing. … They told me I was harboring criminals, but the suspects were all released immediately."
Regarding his own release, prison guards kept telling him: "Today, tomorrow, today, tomorrow," Mustafa sighed. "Red tape."
Emad Ibrahim was a first-year college student and about to get married when U.S. troops arrested him in Hawijah a year and a half ago. He says Kurdish security forces "beat me up to admit" he was an insurgent, but he says he was innocent. Now, he hopes to study computers and resume his life.
His father, Ibrahim Al Mahmoud, 52, said he also has plans. "I am going to get my son married and keep him at home," he said with a wide grin. "I will not let him out of the house."
Many of the detainees ignored Farouq Ameen Othman, a Kirkuk investigative judge, as he read the oath of allegiance they had just signed. They had other things on their mind.
"This is sort of a new life," Othman said. "Terrorism started and now it is ending. A new life is coming, God willing."