US frees 500 Abu Ghraib prisoners

[Christa]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/85FDF6C2-AB5F-4406-9288-3BE3B6C96ECA.htm

"In the spirit of Eid al-Fitr, a day that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, the Iraqi government requested a special release board and worked with Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I) to expedite the release of approximately 500 security detainees from Abu Ghraib," a military statement said.

Iraqi human rights ministry spokesman Hisham al-Suhaili said: "Five hundred and sixty-five detainees will be freed from Abu Ghraib on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr."

"These detainees were selected for release following a careful and thorough review of their files by a special Iraqi-led review board which determined they had not committed serious crimes against Iraqi Forces, the citizens of Iraq or coalition forces," the US statement said.

Excluded were those convicted of violent crimes such as bombing, torture, kidnap or murder.

[matt819]

1. No trial, no hearing, just out of the goodness of their hearts

Let's see. That would mean these people did nothing wrong. So the statement should have read, "Whoops, wrong guys, you can go now, sorry it's taken a couple of years." If they weren't enemy combatants before, they sure would be now, don't you think?

[Christa]

2. I wonder how many were tortured :-( nt.

[Up2Late]

3. Did a double take, thought you meant GTMO for a second...

...that would have been most of them.

[rsmith6621]

4. Where Is The Photos