Guards 'helped' mass prison-break in Iraq

[Sunlei]

Guards working in Abu Ghraib and Taji prisons helped hundreds of inmates break out of the jails, interior ministry says. The ministry said in a statement that its senior officials along with senior Ministry of Defense officials had briefed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on the attack on the Abu Ghraib and Taji prisons.

More than 50 people, including 26 guards and Iraqi soldiers were killed in gunmen attacks accompanied by suicide bombers late Sunday.

"There has been a conspiracy between some of the guards of both prisons and the terrorist gangs that attacked the prisons. That was one of the main reasons for the escalation of events which led to these consequences," the statement read.

The Ministry of Justice said 260 prisoners escaped from Abu Ghraib, on the western outskirts of Baghdad. Officials said yesterday 500 had originally been freed but security forces managed to recapture about 150 of them. A manhunt is still under way for tens of inmates, including high-ranking al-Qaeda members, most of whom received death sentences.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/07/20137221126181914.html

imagine if the trillions spent in our federal funds had been spent on the American infrastructure. imagine how many people would be alive, healthy and whole today.

[geckosfeet]

1. Yup. More money funneled to government contractors to enrich the rich. Crony politics at work.

imagine if the trillions spent in our federal funds had been spent on the American infrastructure. imagine how many people would be alive, healthy and whole today.

duh

And it continues today with the feds mega billion $ bond buying program (quantitative easing - or quantitative fleecing as I like to call it). Billions going to rich Wall Street banks to buy bonds that they willingly bought and in some cases issued during the buSh era housing market feeding frenzy. All this to prop up the banks, inflate the stock markets, and make the economy look like it it healthy and recovering - for the richest of the rich.

I say - use the money for employment and jobs programs and yes American infrastructure. Use the money for easing underwater mortgage debt. Use the money for education (instead of raising student load interest rates), food stamps, housing, health care and bolstering promised municipal pension programs. Then the money will go to people who will shoot it right back into the economy. Want to see a stimulated economy? Feed the people.

[bemildred]

2. I thought that had to be an inside job. nt