$25 and a Koran as inmates leave Iraq's Abu Ghraib

[sabra]

http://www.maconareaonline.com/news.asp?id=12084

25 and a Koran as inmates leave Iraq's Abu Ghraib

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Clutching new Korans and given $25 apiece, about 500 Iraqi prisoners were released from the U.S. military's Abu Ghraib jail on Saturday in a goodwill gesture ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"I want you to go back to your families and say hello to them ... go back as good Iraqi citizens," Deputy Prime Minister Abed Mutlak al-Jibouri told the men, urging them to take part in a October 15 referendum on Iraq's new constitution.

"Don't listen to those who tell you don't vote -- vote! You are an Iraqi, and you have the right to participate."

The U.S. military agreed to an Iraqi government request to free more than 1,000 prisoners from Abu Ghraib in stages before the start of Ramadan around October 4, selecting detainees found by an Iraqi-led review board not to have committed serious crimes.

[tainowarrior]

1. here you go

sorry for that 3 years in captivity thing, but hey, you can buy yourself 2 or 3 Happy Meals with those 25 bucks! Be careful with the tomato sauce...it can stain that new Koran you have....what is it that you say? Something about Mormon on the Green Koran's cover...oh pay it no mind, it's just a word we Americans use for Islamic texts...

:sarcasm:

[WhiteTara]

2. oh I feel sick!

:puke: what kind of inhuman creatures would do such a thing to the people they have tortured?

[neweurope]

3. Please read the following: MUST READ:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4934050

----------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[sabra]

5. A must read - very intense.

[neweurope]

6. Please help to keep it kicked - everybody should read this...

because it shows that the torture is systemic.

Because it shows that perpetrators can be victims, too.

Because it is one of the best journalistic pieces I have read in recent years.

--------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[frylock]

4. they didn't give them a new suit?

bastards.

[booksenkatz]

7. Are those Korans urine-soaked, or plain? nt

[Judi Lynn]

9. Hey, it wasn't deliberate, they may have, uh, "fallen" into the urine

buckets, but the guards didn't do it on purpose, according to authorities.

We're not heathens, after all........ :eyes: We're way cool! Everyone's just envious of our freedoms.

[Charles19]

8. It is nice the US military agreed to the request (n/t)

[DrZeeLit]

10. Didn't Saddam used to let out prisoners before an election, too?

What makes us any different?
Do you think the American people see that similarity at all?

I figure all these guys got the secret Al Queda handshake and password. When they find their way back to villages that no longer exist and families that died in another "mistaken" bombing, yeah, they're gonna vote.

With a suicide bomb.

[drb]

11. Don't they even get a tube of...

....Preparation H to take care of that nagging problem they acquired while in prison, courtesy of those American lightsticks?

[struggle4progress]

12. "If somebody doesn't like me he will write something and I will end up ..

.. here again," a .. man shouted ...

[Davion]

13. One thing that stood out to me

Even in Iraq, released prisoners are not only allowed but encouraged to vote.

I guess since they can't vote against the GOP, that makes it ok.