US tells UN it detains about 500 juveniles in Iraq, 10 in Afghanistan Bagram base

[maddezmom]

Source: UPI

NEW YORK: The U.S. military is holding about 500 juveniles suspected of being "unlawful enemy combatants" in detention centers in Iraq and has about 10 detained at the U.S. base at Bagram, Afghanistan, the United States has told the United Nations.

A total of 2,500 youths under the age of 18 have been detained, almost all in Iraq, for periods up to a year or more in President George W. Bush's anti-terrorism campaign since 2002, the United States reported last week to the U.N.'s Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Civil liberties groups such as the International Justice Network and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) denounced the detentions as abhorrent, and a violation of U.S. treaty obligations.

In the periodic report to the United Nations on U.S. compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the United States confirmed that "As of April 2008, the United States held about 500 juveniles in Iraq."

"The juveniles that the United States has detained have been captured engaging in anti-coalition activity, such as planting Improvised Explosive Devices, operating as lookouts for insurgents, or actively engaged in fighting against U.S. and Coalition forces," the U.S. report said.



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/19/america/NA-GEN-US-Jailed-Kids-Iraq-Afghanistan.php

[MetaTrope]

1. Sounds like a deluxe spa for visiting Republican senators

And has Rush announced any plans to report from Iraq yet?

[magellan]

2. Well, BushCo has no problem bombing and shooting children

Actually catching them up to something and detaining them is probably considered letting them off lightly by this regime.

:puke:

[Indenturedebtor]

3. If they are actually child soldiers I don't know how I feel

We need to leave, but until we do I'd rather these kids be "detained" than shot. Or shooting someone else. Now torture is another matter.

[magellan]

4. Holding them for a year or more

I can't agree with that, child soldier or no. Who knows what's being done to them? They should be charged or released.

[Virginia Dare]

6. They're brainwashing them..

among other things, probably.

[ohio2007]

10. They need their brains washed if you see the alternative choices they have

Pakistan lifts veil on Waziristan war
(Reuters)

20 May 2008



SPINKAI RAGHZAI, Pakistan - The hospital was used for assembling bombs and suicide jackets.


The government school in Spinkai Raghzai was used to train young boys to blow themselves up.

There was another class for suicide bombers in Kotkai, a village 20 minutes down a road winding through the Mehsud tribal lands of Pakistan's South Waziristan.

'This is one area where they were training very, very young boys aged between 9 to 13 years,' said Pakistan Army Brigadier Ali Abbas, in a briefing given on a hilltop overlooking Spinkai Raghzai with Kotkai just visible in the distance.

People of villages like these were made to pay for letting militants loyal to Baitullah Mehsud take over their community.

snip
One section showed about a dozen young boys in a classroom, all wearing white scarfs denoting their commitment to martyrdowm. Their instructor in the art of suicide attacks was masked, and was flanked by another bearing an assault rifle.

The projectionist failed to hear an officer's order to stop the video there because the next scenes were too gory.
.........


http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2008/May/subcontinent_May580.xml§ion=subcontinent&col


Maybe it's a good thing they learn to kill in the name of this alla guy. Taliban were very good at it back in the day.
Now that class is out,maybe they are ready to take that "spring ofensive break" and final exam.



They gamble for a money shot to turn their fortunes around.

Really, they are desperate.
as ear the bitter end for Germany, Hitler sent out children and old men to fave the meat grinders the invaders war machines brought to bear on him....

of course,no media was there to shoot it so in that sense, history doesn't repeat.

[ohio2007]

9. Parents of some of those kids actually want to US to keep them detained.

US custody.... the safest way they get an education for their children

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/24/2197197.htm





While AQ offers children up in sacrifice to their god

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/06/iraq/main3797487.shtml?source=related_story

[Virginia Dare]

5. They're being held in re-education camps..

that was reported months ago.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/AR2007091802203_pf.html

[classysassy]

7. A Christian nation

If we ever were,that was in the past.George,Dick and Nancy are evil beyond belief.

[ohio2007]

8. Boy, 12, Beheads Man In Al Qaeda Video ( six yr olds carry mortar rounds)

AQ is running out of adult males....Guess they've gone on to their 72 virgin reward promised them in the Qran.

Now AQ is showing the dark side of their religious child abuse

U.S.: Al Qaeda In Iraq Training Children
Seized Videotapes Show Young Boys Learning How To Kill And Kidnap, Officials Say

(CBS/AP) Videotapes seized during U.S. raids on suspected al Qaeda in Iraq hide-outs show the terror group training young boys to kidnap and assassinate civilians, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Wednesday.
We believe this video is used as propaganda to send out to recruit other boys ... and to send a broader message across Iraq to indoctrinate youth into al Qaeda," he said.

........

Kids have often been used as props and pawns, reports Strassmann. In one jihadi video, a boy carries a mortar round. He's 6 years old - too small to reach the mortar without a boost.

Other scenes from the Khan Bani Saad video showed masked boys forcing a man off his bicycle at gunpoint and stopping a car and kidnapping its driver along a dusty country road. At one point the boys - wearing soccer jerseys with ammunition slung across their chests - sit in a circle on the floor, chanting slogans in support of al Qaeda.

Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari told reporters that militants are kidnapping more and more Iraqi children, though he could not offer details or numbers.

"This is not only to recruit them, but also to demand ransom to fund the operations of al Qaeda," al-Askari said.

snip
video
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/20/cbsnews_investigates/main4110408.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_4110408