US commanders in Iraq are expressing grave concerns that the overcrowded Abu Ghraib prison has become a breeding ground for extremist leaders and a school for terrorist foot soldiers.
The reason is that the confinement allows detainees to forge relationships and exchange lessons of combat against the US and the new Iraq government. "Abu Ghraib is a graduate-level training ground for the insurgency," said an US commander in Iraq.
The US military has halted transferring detainees to Iraqi jailers until the Iraqis improve their prisoner care. But concerns about the growing detainee population under US control have prompted a number of officers to stop sending every suspect rounded up in raids to Abu Ghraib and other prisons.
Many inmates might instead be released if initial questioning indicated that they were not hardened fighters against the US troops and the Iraqi government.
"These decisions have to be intelligence driven, on holding those who are extreme threats or who can lead us to those who are," another US officer in Iraq said. "We don't want to be putting everybody caught up in a sweep into `Jihad University.'"
The perception of the prison as an incubator for more violence is the latest shift in how Abu Ghraib has been seen -- once a feared torture dungeon of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's government, then the center of the storm over prisoner abuse by the US and ever since a festering symbol of the unsolved problems of handling criminals, terrorists, rebels and holdovers from the Baathist era.
Pentagon officials say the latest questions about the prison have been raised by General George W. Casey Jr, the senior US commander in Iraq, and by Major General John Gardner, commander of the US-run prison system there.
Gardner has ordered a number of measures to deal with the problem to isolate suspected terrorist ringleaders from the broader detainee population and to limit clandestine communications among those in custody.
Plans to turn over Abu Ghraib, three other prisons and their inmates to the new Iraqi government have been stalled despite US commanders' concerns that overseeing the detainees saps personnel and continues to blot the US image.
After a series of raids on Iraqi-run detention centers late last year uncovered scores of abused prisoners, commanders at US and allied prisons said neither detainees nor the centers would be handed over to Iraqi jailers until US officials were satisfied that the Iraqis were meeting international standards for detainee care.
Concerns voiced by military officers in Iraq have intensified in recent weeks, with a growing prison population at the four major detention centers under US and allied control. The overall detainee population stood at 14,767 this week, an increase from 10,135 in June and a significant jump even from the end of December, when the number was 14,055, according to US military statistics.
Abu Ghraib held 4,850 detainees as of Jan. 31, a steep increase from 3,563 in June but a slight dip from 4,924 in late December.
At present, Iraqis may be freed from the US-run detention centers after review by a special panel, the Combined Release Board. Detained Iraqis are turned over to Iraqi jailers only if they are convicted by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, US officials said.
The problem of insurgent networking and instruction in the detention system is part of a broader problem in the US counterterrorism effort. US military and intelligence officers say Iraq has become a magnet for violent extremists from across the Islamic world. The officials warn that violent extremists who are not killed, captured and held or persuaded to give up the struggle will emerge battle tested, and more proficient at carrying out terror attacks elsewhere.
Some officers warn of a parallel to the Soviet experience in Afghanistan, when radical Islamic fighters drawn to fight the Soviet occupiers forged strong relationships with religious extremists from within Afghanistan and across the Islamic world.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique