US transfers control of notorious Abu Ghraib prison

[Barrett808]

US transfers control of notorious Abu Ghraib prison
by Jay Deshmukh

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US military has transferred control of Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib jail to Iraqi authorities and the "prison is now empty of any detainees or prisoners," a government spokesman said.

"The Abu Ghraib prison has been officially handed over yesterday by the coalition forces to the Iraqi forces and the prison is currently under the Iraqi administration," Ali al-Dabaqh told reporters.

A US military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry, said: "Coalition forces transferred operations of Abu Ghraib on September 1 to the Iraqi ministry of justice, effectively ending detainee operations."

Dabaqh said detainees at the prison had suffered human rights violations "during the former regime and also under the US forces" and that Iraq will decide what to do with the facility in the future.

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060902/pl_afp/iraqusprisonabughraib

[Spazito]

1. That headline looked eerily familiar and, lookee here, this is why....

Shamed US to hand over Abu Ghraib prison to Iraqis

US to hand over Abu Ghraib jail to Iraqis

Michael Howard in Baghdad
Thursday March 10, 2005

American forces have agreed to hand over control of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison to the newly elected Iraqi authorities in an attempt to draw a line under one of the most shameful episodes of the Iraq war.
Iraq's human rights minister, Bakhtiar Amin, yesterday told the Guardian that the US had agreed to the pullout at the four main detention facilities, including Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, the prison at the centre of the abuse and torture scandal.

Two other locations in the centre of Iraq and a British-run prison in the south will also be handed over to Iraqi control, although no deadline has been set, Mr Amin said.

snip

"We have discussed and asked that the detention centres be transferred to the Iraqis. They agreed to that," the human rights minister said. "It is an important sign of Iraq's new sovereignty that the new authorities take charge of its detainees and its detention facilities."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1434264,00.html

NOTE the date of this article!

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

2. So they handed over an empty building. Big deal.

The detainees have NOT been released- merely transferred to other facilities. The work goes on without pause.

[struggle4progress]

3. " .. Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim told The Associated Press ..

.. last week that the detainees at Abu Ghraib had been moved to a new, $60-million US detention facility that has been built as part of Camp Cropper, near Baghdad International Airport. <Lt.-Col. Keir Curry, U.S. spokesman for detainee operations> confirmed that most of the detainees were transferred to Camp Cropper last month after the coalition completed 'an expansion and extensive renovations meant to provide increased security, and improved detainee care and custody.' He said coalition authorities still had about 13,000 detainees in their custody .."

Iraqi authorities officially take over notorious Abu Ghraib prison
By RAWYA RAGEH
September 2, 2006
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2006/09/02/1795884-ap.html

Of course, this is not exactly what the Iraqis have been seeking.

Iraqis furious after new prisoner abuse footage
17.02.06 1.00pm
By Michael Georgy
.. "We are very worried about the Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib. The multinational forces and the British forces should hand them over to the (Iraqi) government," <Iraq's Human Rights Minister Zuhair al-Chalabi> told Reuters in an interview. "The Iraqi government should move immediately to have the prisons and the prisoners delivered to the ministry of justice" .. http://subs.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=590&ObjectID=10368842

Iraq Wants U.S. To Transfer Control Of Iraqi Prisoners
16 February 2006 -- .. U.S. forces are holding about 14,000 detainees at several prisons around Iraq .. http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/02/4286b094-3cb7-47b7-9a03-e2836b81bd18.html

[MissWaverly]

4. Not just other facilities but other US run facilities

we went to Iraq to "liberate" the Iraq people, freedom is on the march!

[leesa]

5. All evidence has been destroyed...