Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

20,000 Iraqis being held by the coalition forces

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion (Through 2005) Donate to DU
 
G_j Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-02-04 09:08 AM
Original message
20,000 Iraqis being held by the coalition forces
Edited on Sun May-02-04 09:24 AM by G_j
this didn't get much interest before the torture revelations perhaps it's significance will be more evident now.


http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0421-01.htm

Published on Wednesday, April 21, 2004 by the Inter Press Service

Iraq: Think of Those the US Has Detained
We have heard of the U.S. soldier captured by Iraqi fighters. Think of the 20,000 Iraqis being held by the coalition forces.

by Aaron Glantz

BAGHDAD - Private First Class Matt Maupin assigned to the U.S. Army Reserve's 724th Transportation Company based at Bartonville, Illinois, became the first prisoner taken by Iraqi insurgents since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The U.S. military is currently holding more than 20,000 Iraqis behind bars -- most of them taken during house to house searches by the U.S. military.

Take the village of Abu Siffa, an hour's drive north of Baghdad. Cattle graze on the side of the road and date palms sway in the wind. The mighty Tigris flows nearby.

Rejan Mohammed Hassen stands in front of the rubble that was her house and recalls the night last summer when the U.S. Army took her sons and destroyed her house.

..more..
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
radwriter0555 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-02-04 09:21 AM
Response to Original message
1. bush style version of LIBERATION. Think auschwitz.
*sigh*
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
NJCher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-02-04 09:23 AM
Response to Original message
2. 20,000 is mind boggling
I had no idea.


Cher
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
barbaraann Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-02-04 09:53 AM
Response to Original message
3. Also, a lot of the work is contracted out.
The prison industry is a great way for friends of Republicans to make even more money, both in the USA and around the world. And just think--they can hold suspected "terrorist" prisoners indefinitely and capture an eternal revenue stream!

I posted a few months ago that we now have a network of prisons AROUND THE WORLD to hold people in the "War on Terror."
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
9215 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-02-04 10:20 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. I'd like to see your topic on the prison network. I'd like
to check the links to Bushboy and Co.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Stone_Spirits Donating Member (586 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-02-04 10:41 AM
Response to Reply #4
6. Does Wakenhut have any current contracts in Iraq?
I'm also wondering if there are any current Bush administration ties to Wackenhut, the BFEE connections appear to be there.

http://www.prop1.org/legal/prisons/92wack.htm

SPY MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 1992

By 1966, Wackenhut could confidently state that it had secret files on 4 million Americans
SID -- a unit, known as founder and chairman George Wackenhut's "private FBI," that provided executive protection and conducted undercover investigations and sting operations. Once they arrived, they rented two gray Ford Taurus's and drove four hours to a desolate town on the Mexican border called Eagle Pass. There, just after dark, they met two truck drivers who had been flown in from Houston. Inside a nearby warehouse was an 18-wheel tractor-trailer, which the two truck drivers and the four Wackenhut agents in their rented cars were supposed to transport to Chicago. "My instructions were very clear," Ramirez recalls. "Do not look into the trailer, secure it, and make sure it safely gets to Chicago." It went without saying that no one else was supposed to look in the trailer, either, which is why the Wackenhut men were armed with fully loaded Remington 870 pump-action shotguns.

The convoy drove for 30 hours straight, stopping only for gas and food. Even then, one of the Wackenhut agents had to stay with the truck, standing by one of the cars, its trunk open, shotgun within easy reach. "Whenever we stopped, I bought a shot glass with the name of the town on it," Ramirez recalls. "I have glasses from Oklahoma City, Kansas City, St. Louis."
A little before 5:00 on the morning of the third day, they delivered the trailer to a practically empty warehouse outside Chicago. A burly man who had been waiting for them on the loading dock told them to take off the locks and go home, and that was that. They were on a plane back to Miami that afternoon. Later Ramirez's superiors told him—as they told other SID agents about similar midnight runs—that the trucks contained $$40 million worth of food stamps. After considering the secrecy, the way the team was assembled and the orders not to stop or open the truck, Ramirez decided he didn't believe that explanation.

Neither do we. One reason is simple: A Department of Agriculture official simply denies that food stamps are shipped that way. "Someone is blowing smoke," he says. Another reason is that after a six-month investigation, in the course of which we spoke to more than 300 people, we believe we know what the truck did contain—equipment necessary for the manufacture of chemical weapons—and where it was headed: to Saddam Hussein's Iraq. And the Wackenhut Corporation—a publicly traded company with strong ties to the CIA and federal contracts worth $$200 million a year—was making sure Saddam would be getting his equipment intact. The question is why.
<snip>

Wackenhut maintains an especially close relationship with the federal government in other ways as well. While early boards of directors included such prominent personalities of the political right as Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, General Mark Clark and Ralph E. Davis, a John Birch Society leader, current and recent members of the board have included much of the country's recent national-security directorate: former FBI director Clarence Kelley; former Defense secretary and former CIA deputy director Frank Carlucci; former Defense Intelligence Agency director General Joseph Carroll; former U.S. Secret Service director James J. Rowley; former Marine commandant P. X. Kelley; and acting chairman of President Bush's foreign-intelligence advisory board and former CIA deputy director Admiral Bobby Ray Inman. Before his appointment as Reagan's CIA director, the late William Casey was Wackenhut's outside legal counsel. The company has 30,000 armed employees on its payroll.
<snip>
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
9215 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-02-04 01:43 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. You misspelled it:
"Whackemhut".

That is another one I want to check out and its links Marvin Bush's Stratesec/Securocom, Titan, CACI International.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
G_j Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-02-04 04:21 PM
Response to Reply #6
9. I did some searching
but was so far not able to find anything about current contracts in Iraq.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Stone_Spirits Donating Member (586 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-03-04 12:07 AM
Response to Reply #9
10. too much baggage
as far as Iraq goes it seems.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
9215 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-03-04 07:41 AM
Response to Reply #6
11. Maybe Whackem' has changed names. I know Securacom
changed to Stratesec.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DUreader Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-02-04 10:27 AM
Response to Original message
5. This is a low ball #. Article says 'more than 20k' ...also...
Text only says 'behind bars' , how many are behind razor wire, how many have been 'held' and released .

And what percentage of them were 'softened up' prior to their

interrogation by the mercs?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DrWeird Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-02-04 01:51 PM
Response to Original message
8. If I may make a point...
I believe, according to the Geneva Convention, that the US is required to safely house their prisoners of war. Back in WWII, we used to ship german POWs back to prisons in the united states. We didn't stick them in prisons on the front line.

Now this Abu Ghraib prison is taking enemy fire. Twenty two prisoners allegedly died in a mortar attack. This is unacceptable.

Once again the US is treating brown skinned civilians worse then it's treating nazis.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
G_j Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-03-04 09:19 AM
Response to Original message
12. even if we don't hear them
I imagine there will many more stories from these people which will poison the waters for generations.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Sun May 05th 2024, 05:25 AM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion (Through 2005) Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC