BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military will close Abu Ghraib prison, probably within three months, and transfer some 4,500 prisoners to other jails in Iraq, a military spokesman said on Thursday.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/iraq_abughraib_dc

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/iraq_abughraib_dc

I see no reason to celebrate. This is PR plain and simple. The prison itself was never the problem.

 

This is like buying a new car for someone after they totalled one during a DUI accident, and hoping they will be more careful.

And it's poor PR, too, since the Scandal was several years ago...

Canada's government is like "sweet! we never had to publically call for the place to close".

I see no reason to celebrate.  This is PR plain and simple.  The prison itself was never the problem.

 

This is like buying a new car for someone after they totalled one during a DUI accident, and hoping they will be more careful.

 

There's no celebratory aspect to the post, and yes the detainees are getting transferred to other installations (at least it seems like the don't need to be extraordinarily renedered any palce).

 

But using a place that was already burned in the Iraqi psyche as a site of attrocities under Saddam as a prison was not the smartest idea, even if we hadn't gone and commited our own attrocities there. It was an ignorant insult to the Iraqi people, IMO.

As long as we keep making sure to send prisoners with "high information" status to Gitmo, I have no problem with it. :rolly

There's no celebratory aspect to the post, and yes the detainees are getting transferred to other installations (at least it seems like the don't need to be extraordinarily renedered any palce).

 

But using a place that was already burned in the Iraqi psyche as a site of attrocities under Saddam as a prison was not the smartest idea, even if we hadn't gone and commited our own attrocities there.  It was an ignorant insult to the Iraqi people, IMO.

I guess I took the exclamation point in the thread title as such. Once again the electronic medium deceives me.

Just like the first time people started saying we were going to close Abu Ghraib...This whole story appears untrue.

 

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.