Iraq ministry expects US to free Iraqi women

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060122/ts_nm/iraq_women_detainees_dc&printer=1;_ylt=AqneQLQyCB2lPKRqh1923WJg.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
Iraq ministry expects US to free Iraqi women

By Mariam Karouny
2 hours, 39 minutes ago

Iraq's Justice Ministry said on Sunday it still expects U.S. forces to release six Iraqi women prisoners this week, despite U.S. comments to the contrary.

The issue of the detainees has become central to the release of kidnapped U.S. journalist Jill Carroll, whose abductors have threatened to kill her unless all female prisoners are freed.

Iraqi officials have since been at odds with their U.S. counterparts over the release of the six, among eight women terrorism suspects in American custody. The Justice Ministry said last week the six were about to be freed, but U.S. officials have insisted no releases are imminent.

A Justice Ministry official said on Sunday a review board, which comprises six Iraqi officials and three U.S. officers, met on January 17 and agreed to release the six women within days......

[rodeodance]

1. This is a serious 'culture clash"--(women in prison)--that we can not win.

......Many in the once-dominant Sunni Arab minority, which has fostered the insurgency against the U.S.-backed, Shi'ite-led government, resent the detentions system and say thousands are held on flimsy evidence without recourse to the law.

"Like all detainees, females are held because a determination was made in each case that the individual poses an imperative threat to the security of Iraq," the U.S. military said in a statement last week.