-Caveat Lector-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/
AR2007091802203.html
U.S. Working to Reshape Iraqi Detainees
Moderate Muslims Enlisted to Steer Adults and Children Away From
Insurgency
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; Page A01
The U.S. military has introduced "religious enlightenment" and other
education programs for Iraqi detainees, some of whom are as young as
11, Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, the commander of U.S.
detention facilities in Iraq, said yesterday.
Stone said such efforts, aimed mainly at Iraqis who have been held
for more than a year, are intended to "bend them back to our will"
and are part of waging war in what he called "the battlefield of the
mind." Most of the younger detainees are held in a facility that the
military calls the "House of Wisdom."
The religious courses are led by Muslim clerics who "teach out of a
moderate doctrine," Stone said, according to the transcript of a
conference call he held from Baghdad with a group of defense
bloggers. Such schooling "tears apart" the arguments of al-Qaeda,
such as "Let's kill innocents," and helps to "bring some of the edge
off" the detainees, he said.
As a result of the increased U.S. troop presence in Iraq this year,
the number of Iraqis in U.S. detention has swelled from about 10,000
last year to more than 25,000. The effort to reshape attitudes among
the growing detainee population is aimed at addressing a problem that
has vexed U.S. troops in Iraq for the past four years: Military
detention facilities have served as breeding grounds for extremist
views, transforming some prisoners into hard-core insurgents,
according to military analysts.
Stone said he wants to identify "irreconcilables" -- those detainees
whose views cannot be moderated -- and "put them away" in permanent
detention facilities. Psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors and
interrogators help distinguish the extremists from others, he said.
After reassessments and interrogations, Stone said, some detainees
are recommended for release. "If a detainee is an imperative security
risk . . . then I'm going to reduce that risk and I'm going to
replace that destructive ideology," he said. "And then when he's
assessed to no longer be a threat, I'm going to release the detainee
being less likely to be a recidivist."
Since May, Stone said, he has released about 2,000 detainees "and
we've not had any coming back." He said his goal is to keep those who
are released from harming U.S. troops or anyone else. "They're not
going out of here unless I can feel comfortable about that," Stone
added. "I'm not doing mass releases."
Other initiatives at the facilities include vocational training and
basic education programs for about 7,000 detainees. Stone said he
believes his approach is "compelling because it's how you win this
war, not only the one in Iraq, but the one on a greater basis." He
quoted Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi as saying that "America
could win the war if they just applied the exact process that you're
putting in detention to the rest of the entire nation," in Stone's
words.
The 25,000 detainees now being held in U.S. facilities in Iraq
include more than 820 juveniles, Stone said, most of whom are held in
the House of Wisdom, which opened last month and is located at the
Camp Victory military base near Baghdad's airport. He said that six
additional young people had been sent to him just yesterday, and that
"the trend is towards the youth," including 11-, 12- and 13-year-
olds. He described older juveniles -- the 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds
-- as "harder nuts" and said that 50 to 60 of them have been removed
from U.S. detention facilities and turned over to Iraqi authorities
for trial.
Stone said that youths grow up to become insurgents by starting out
as messengers, guards and even planters of makeshift bombs. He said
his staff members include a specialist in Islamic youth programs and
he has also put together "a positive program that has been proven in
Islam to actually turn the kids around to sort of reject some of
these other things." Stone, who speaks Arabic and said he reads the
Koran daily, noted that his facilities have 30 classrooms staffed
with teachers and counselors. He has also started "four very large
soccer programs" aimed at young detainees.
The new religious training, Stone said, helps U.S. forces pinpoint
the hard-core extremists. "I want to know who they are," he said.
"They're like rotten eggs, you know, hiding in the Easter basket."
Stone said his staff conducts polygraph tests for detainees who
promise to change after undergoing the religious training program.
"We were trying to figure out if they're messing with us. . . .
You're not talking about radicals going to choirboys." But he also
added that they're succeeding in countering extremists in the
facilities. "We're busting them down, we're making whole moderate
compounds that didn't exist before."
Stone described a sort of religious insurgency that occurred at one
detention facility on Sept. 2. "We had a compound of moderates for
the first time overtake . . . extremists. It's never happened before.
Found them, identified them, threw them up against the fence and
shaved their frickin' beards off of them. . . . I mean, that is
historic."
Jack Holt, the spokesman for the Pentagon's new media operations,
said that 60 people were invited to join the Stone interview
yesterday but that only four bloggers did so. Of those four, at least
two appear to be active-duty military, but as of yesterday evening
none so had discussed Stone's presentation online.
Other elements of Stone's program are being developed. He said he has
created a "transition-out barracks" where detainees being released
discuss civics and human rights. He has also begun a "huge,
expensive" Rand Corp. research study on detainee motivation and
morale and has plans for a major communication campaign.
He said he also wants to provide jobs for released detainees. "I'm
not naive," Stone said. "If they don't have any income, they're going
to go back" to the insurgency.
Correspondent Joshua Partlow in Baghdad and staff writers Karen
DeYoung and Rachel Dry in Washington contributed to this report.
www.ctrl.org
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'âwith its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsâis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
<A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
