Posted on 03/09/2006 3:52:56 PM PST by SandRat
WASHINGTON, March 9, 2006 – The United States always has planned to transfer authority for all detention facilities in Iraq to the Iraqis, but announcements regarding the imminent closure at the Abu Ghraib prison are premature, defense officials said today. News reports that the U.S. military intends to close Abu Ghraib within the next few months and to transfer its prisoners to other jails are inaccurate, officials said.
There's no specific timetable for that transfer or for closure of the Baghdad prison, they said. Decisions regarding Abu Ghraib and other detention facilities in Iraq will be based largely on two factors: the readiness of Iraq's security forces to assume control of them and infrastructure improvements at the facilities.
The Abu Ghraib facility, which houses about 4,500 prisoners, became notorious after isolated reports of prisoner abuse were made public in 2003. Defense officials condemned the actions sharply, insisting that detainee abuse is not tolerated. All allegations of detainee abuse are aggressively investigated, and anyone convicted of or involved in abuse is held accountable, they said. Six soldiers at the Abu Ghraib facility were tried on abuse charges.
All detainees are treated humanely in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and receive military medical care similar to what deployed U.S. servicemembers receive, officials said.
Correcting LSM Lies and Misstatements.
Great. So now we will have an entire weekend of repeats of the mis-reporting of this non-story.
"Great. So now we will have an entire weekend of repeats of the mis-reporting of this non-story."
Yep. This is bad. I was surprised we would use facilities so closely associated with Sadaam's torture in the first place. The misdeeeds there made it worse and this just brings it all up again.
Reported on abc/nbc also
I heard tonight that we are going to give it back to the Iraqi government. Then some good old fashioned TORTURE of terrorists can begin in earnest!
LLS
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.