Prisoner Is Released Despite Evidence of Role in Bombing

[DoYouEverWonder]

November 25, 2005

In January, American military and law enforcement personnel discovered evidence connecting a 25-year-old Iraqi detainee, Abass Hussein Alwan al-Amry, to a roadside bomb that had detonated in Baghdad, wounding several Iraqis.

It was the first forensic match of a bomb and an insurgent bomb making suspect in Iraq, three Army officials said. Further investigation tied Mr. Amry to other bomb attacks, one of which is believed to have caused American casualties, another American official said.

But Mr. Amry soon went free.

He was mistakenly released in June after a sergeant failed to notice a small notation in his case file calling for him to be held indefinitely, the Army officials said.

The episode illustrates the difficulty the military faces, with a rapidly growing prison population that totals nearly 13,000 in American military custody and an additional 12,000 held by Iraqi authorities, in distinguishing insurgents from people rounded up who pose no security threat.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/25/politics/25prisoner.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1132913748-PGlLh+UG+oHOoes2RF9MrQ

Maybe if we weren't indiscriminately jailing so many innocent people, it would be easier to keep track of the bad ones?

[bklyncowgirl]

1. Loverly--they put a "small notification" on the guy's case file

They apparently put a "small notification" on the guy's case file saying hold indefinately. Someone didn't notice the "small notification" and this guy gets out and kills again.

Clearly our military is overwhelmed. They don't know what the hell they are doing, they don't understand the language or the customs. They've been put in a hell of a spot where they're rounding up thousands of mostly innocent people without the capacity to weed out the truly bad guys.

This occupation has been bungled since day one. This is just another screwup to add to the list.

[Gyre]

2. US Army isn't constituted from "the best and the brightest".

Doing that correctional officer thang is pretty much rock bottom in any uniformed-officer line of work.

Gyre