In Iraq, Chaos Feared as U.S. Closes Prison

[G_j]

Source: Washington Post Foreign Service

In Iraq, Chaos Feared as U.S. Closes Prison
Ex-Inmates Reanimate Sunni, Shiite Militias

By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, March 22, 2009; Page A01

GARMA, Iraq -- The release of hundreds of prisoners from Camp Bucca, a U.S.-run prison in southern Iraq, has facilitated the revival of Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents in Basra, Baghdad and the borderless expanse here along the Euphrates, according to police chiefs, intelligence officials in the Interior Ministry and residents.

Although none of them predicted a return to the anarchy and sectarian carnage of 2006-2007, when scores of bodies might show up in the street on any day, officials suggested that the groups were preparing for the onset of a U.S. military withdrawal.

Their warnings make for an irony at the beginning of the end of the American presence here. As the United States dismantles Bucca, viewed by many as an appalling miscarriage of justice where prisoners were not charged or permitted to see evidence against them, freed detainees may end up swelling the ranks of a subdued insurgency.

In hardscrabble Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad, some former inmates of Bucca speak of revenge. Others talk of their own conversion there: as prisoners, giving their support to militiamen loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, an anti-American cleric whose forces were routed in Baghdad and Basra last year. A sense of uncertainty reigns in the forlorn stretches around Garma, a wind-swept town as parched as it is lawless, as Sunni residents brace for the return of dozens of fighters and such men as Col. Saad Abbas Mahmoud, the police chief here, openly admit to being overwhelmed by their influx.


...more..

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/21/AR2009032102255.html

[EFerrari]

1. Obama still has Bush foxes in the henhouse, imho. n/t

[L. Coyote]

3. Indeed. Consider the souce of this fear mongering.

[EFerrari]

4. I think we're doing much better at getting Arabic speakers on our payroll

except they all seem to be working for our owners, as Gore Vidal would say.

[Traveling_Home]

2. I think that part of the reason to release them now .....

while American troops are still active, is to give these former inmates of Bucca the chance to decide if they want to become part of new Iraq or do they want to cause trouble and face Iraqi and American firepower. There is a reason the Muqtada is long gone.

[EFerrari]

6. Well, that's an interesting idea. n/t

[DCKit]

5. Disaster Military/Industrial Complexism

Do these morans not understand that Obama's dog has a higher IQ? That Obama, himself, isn't so fascinated with 'American Idol' that he doesn't pay attention to what's going on? That he installed a staff even HE thought was smart to deal with the daily BS?

I don't know what's worse: the fact that we had eight years under *, or that the Republic, Homelander NeoCons can't imagine that Obama is smarter than what they've become used to.

It's all just so damn sad.

[ConcernedCanuk]

7. Invade my country, throw me in jail for for no good reason - ya just made a new enemy

.
.
.

And if you killed some of my family and friends while I was locked up?

You made yourself a real DANGEROUS enemy.

USA and their allies should get the fuck outta my country cuz I'd try to kill any foreign soldier I saw . .

SIX YEARS the USA has been in Iraq, ruined millions of Iraqi lives.

Never-mind the hyperbole about what Saddam MIGHT have done

The Iraqis see what the USA has done, and is still doing . .

killing them

USA can't blame any of the Iraqis problems on Saddam anymore

USA is the occupier, they are responsible

Iraqis know it . . .

[saigon68]

8. Well Put

I've been saying the same thing for years here.

[peace_to_world]

9. well said!