Four years ago, Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison was center-stage amid allegations of detainee abuse, and coalition forces suddenly cast as conquerors instead of liberators, losing the trust of the Iraqi people.

Conscientious decisions and new detainee programs have helped the coalition turn the corner on the road to regaining that lost trust, Multinational Force Iraq’s commander of detainee operations said yesterday in a Baghdad news conference.

“Today, we are still trying to regain that trust, and I want to tell you once again there was no justification for what happened at Abu Ghraib,” Army Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone told reporters. “True apologies, though, must be followed by actions which right the initial wrong, and over the past year, we have made great efforts to correct our past mistakes.”

A multifaceted approach, including providing better health care and being more culturally sensitive, have led to an improved situation for those in detention, Stone said. Assessing detainees to identify and isolate extremists from the general population is an important step that allows moderate detainees to live free from fear and intimidation, he added.

The practice is proving successful. The reduction of detainee-on-detainee violence over the past six months has been dramatic, Stone said. It also has opened doors to engage the more moderate population and address some of the issues that, initially, may have contributed to their detention.

Addressing Social Causes of Insurgency

“They show us that detainees gravitated toward the insurgency because they were underemployed, undereducated, and in need of supplemental sources of income,” Stone said. “To address these social problems and to promote good citizenship, we now offer detainees an array of voluntary programs to help serve as a deterrent to insurgent activity.”

Programs offered to the detainees include education, vocational training, civics, Islamic discussion, and pay-for-work programs that empower moderate detainees and effectively marginalize violent extremists. Among the most important skills detainees can learn are the abilities to read and write, he said.

“Through such programs, we aim to not only peacefully reintegrate moderates into the Iraqi society, but we also encourage them to become willing and active partners in Iraq’s reconstruction,” Stone said. “The large number of former detainees who have returned to our facilities to help teach programs shows that we are succeeding.”

Detainee Population Falling

It seems that’s the only way most former detainees return to detention centers — as teachers to their fellow Iraqis. The detainee population has fallen from a peak of 26,000 in the summer of 2007, to over 21,000 now.

In fact, as of February, release rates have overtaken intake rates, Stone said.

“Today we are releasing, on average, about 50 detainees each day, compared to an average daily intake of only 30 detainees,” he said, adding that “miniscule re-internment” rates show the right people are being released.

“Since our engagement programs began in earnest last September, we have … released [nearly] 10,000 detainees, but just 33 have returned to our custody.”

Transparency during this transformation is key to its success as well, Stone added. Detention facilities have been open to inspection by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights, which also has had private discussions with detainees about facility conditions.

“We also have increasingly opened our gates to the international media from Western newspapers and radio to pan-Arab news outlets and satellite networks,” Stone said. “We want people to see – not just to read and not just to hear about – what goes on inside detention.”

Family Visitation for Detainees

Amid all the changes to improve detainee care and treatment is the realization that detainees’ families also are affected. Visitation programs are in place at Camp Cropper and Camp Bucca, and on average, more than 2,000 visits occur a week.

In fact, for the many families who can’t reach Camp Bucca, a video-conferencing center has the capability to unite detainees and their loved ones, Stone said.

“Ultimately, we realize that no matter how much we have revolutionized the conduct of detainee operations over the past year, at the end of the day, detention is still detention,” he said, adding that he believes detention is a critical task serving both U.S. and Iraqi interests.

“By prioritizing population protection inside our detention centers,” Stone said, “we are ensuring that violent extremists remain isolated – both physically and ideologically. With their marginalization, we can begin to reintegrate the vast majority of detainees who are moderate back into society in a safe and secure manner.”

The hope is that reintegrated detainees who have participated in training and other programs offered in detention facilities will aid in the creation of a “vibrant and a robust civil society” in Iraq, the general said.

DoD
By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service

Sewers, water, electricity, trash and fuel are services vital to any city in the United States, and urban populations simply cannot function effectively without proper city management oversight.

Approximately 30 members of Oklahoma’s 1st Battalion, 160th Field Artillery, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team face these same challenges in the middle of a desert in southern Iraq. The Guard members manage a facility with a population of more than 26,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, contractors, Department of Defense civilians and detainees at Camp Bucca, Iraq. The camp sits starkly in the middle of the desert — all commodities and goods must be trucked into the desolate base camp.

“We are running a city,” said 160th Rear Area Operations Center commander, Lt. Col. David Jordan, of Midwest City.

Many of Oklahoma’s 45th soldiers work in the Theatre Interment Facility, which holds about 20,000 detainees. The detainees are being detained as an imperative threat to the country’s security in accordance with a United Nations Security Council resolution.

In addition to managing services and life support for the camp, the soldiers will also work to improve living conditions at the facility. “We’re going to increase our gym space to 5,700 square feet,” said Jordan. Other projects include a multi-sport field, boxing ring, new office space, ice factory, wastewater treatment plant, improvements to the chapel and a new housing area called Knoxville.

Among the numerous projects to be supervised and managed by the RAOC soldiers are 1,000 new beds for service members — many soldiers currently live in tents. “The goal is to provide more containerized housing units on our base,” said Jordan.

“We have several couples waiting on the new housing in Knoxville,” said Sgt. 1st Class Mitchell Brickey, of Mustang, who supervises the housing of all troops in and out of the base camp. The camp’s married couples serve together, but can’t live together due to a lack of married housing.

The Oklahomans work hand in hand with Iraqi contractors to oversee the construction of all new projects. “We still function on time, on target in the field artillery; any projects we”ve got are focused on time and on target. We will continue to get things done on time – deliver fire at the right time and right place,” said executive officer Maj. Woody Elmore, of Chandler.

The camp’s concrete brick making facility is run by Iraqi contractors, and the bricks are used throughout the various construction projects on the camp. “The local Iraqi men are good to work with, and we have great cooperation with them. They take great pride in their work; it’s their reputation,” said Sgt. 1st Class Rafe Cummings, of Chandler.

“It’s very beautiful – a system for everything, we work through the process and get what we need to do the project with the correct assets,” said Ali Jihad, an Iraqi project manager. The Iraqi company lacked modernization during Saddam’s reign. “Now we are bringing construction up to new standards,” he added.

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Multi-National Force – Iraq provides multiple opportunities for more than 24,000 detainees in its care and custody to participate in educational, vocational and religious programs while detained in Theater Internment Facilities (TIF) here.

Upon arrival to a TIF, detainees are evaluated to determine their education and training levels, work experience and work interests, and religious alignment. The evaluation provides a better understanding of the individuals in detention and their potential for inclusion in detainee reintegration programs.

The evaluation process consistently reveals that many detainees have had little or no education, are under-employed and have only a basic understanding of their Islamic faith. The programs are designed to address deficiencies in these areas and work to disengage detainees from violence.

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Approximately 60 detainees graduated during an afternoon ceremony Dec. 12 at Camp Bucca’s Hasty School Complex.

The detainee students spent seven weeks studying Arabic, English, math, science, geography and civics at a first to third-grade level.

Lt. Col. Andrew Wichers, 391st Military Police Battalion commander, Col. Jim Brown, Task Force Bucca commander; and Sheik Abdul Sattar, Bucca cleric and program designer, were keynote speakers.

“This is a great day for Iraq,” Brown said. “You will be able to leave here with a graduation certificate and you will know that your time here at Bucca was productive for your future and the future of Iraq.”

The Hasty School Complex is part of a Task Force 134 program designed to educate detainees in order to help them obtain the tools necessary to continue their education upon reconciliation and to better themselves through learning.

“Many of those we hold in the detention facilities are illiterate, disillusioned and angry, and some have become security threats to Iraq because they felt they had no other way to make a living or were influenced by radicals,” said Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone, the Commanding General of Task Force 134. “The educational programs can provide detainees with a basic education and an opportunity to succeed when they are released. We are helping them learn to read, write and be productive in a non-aggressive environment.”

The ceremony marked the first graduation from the complex, where the detainees attended classes in the facility they helped build. Construction began Oct. 7, when classes were held in tents with desks and stools made by the detainees. The school then moved into a building made from a combined effort of Coalition forces and detainees.

“For the U.S. Soldiers, this experience has been very rewarding,” said Cpl. Chris Cowgill, 181st Field Artillery Battalion. “The detainees have expressed how appreciative they are of the opportunity they have and the amount of effort they put in to get the school up and running.”

Other educational initiatives include the Inner-Compound School which is taught by both hired and detainee teachers in 17 compounds to more than 3,000 detainees at Camp Bucca, and a work and vocational training program that enables detainees to send money home to support their families.

MNF-I
By John Connor, Gulf Region South district

The construction site of the Basrah Children’s Hospital is a hotbed of activity these days, with an average of 750 workers on the job each day, according to Navy Lt. Cmdr. Chad Lorenzana.

And this number likely will jump to 1,000 or more workers a day as the hospital project enters new phases, said Lorenzana, the resident engineer overseeing the project for the Basrah Office of the Gulf Region South district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The lieutenant commander provided these figures on a day when he guided a group of visitors around the high-profile project, whose list of patrons is headed by First Lady Laura Bush. Among the visitors were Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Dorko, who will assume command of USACE’s Gulf Region Division on Oct. 10; Col. Dale Adams, the GRD deputy commanding officer; and Col. Steve Hill, the GRS commander.

After the visitors walked through the site and surveyed the progress being made, the general said that “it’s a magnificent project and I can’t wait to come back and see it when it’s finished.” Construction is now 66 percent complete, Lorenzana said.

The 94-bed hospital, which will focus on oncology, is targeted to open in January 2009. Once badly foundering, the project has been moving ahead steadily since USACE assumed responsibility for its management and a new contractor was brought in.

In addition to eventually helping children in an area with an abnormally high incidence of cancer among youngsters, the project is providing “a lot of jobs” for Iraqis and is putting money into the local economy, said the GRS commander. The overall cost of the project is estimated at $163 million.

Dorko cast a professional engineer’s eye on the construction work and pronounced it “decent.” He said hospital construction is very hard to begin with, and added that “I can’t imagine how much harder it is” in place that has had to cope with oppression, war and violence.

The general asked how the hospital’s ongoing operations will be funded once it’s up and running. Lorenzana said that will be the responsibility of the Iraqi Ministry of Health.

The Basrah Children’s Hospital is only one of a number of job sites the general is visiting before taking command of GRD. He said pictures are great but that there is nothing like walking a job site to get a real feel for what is going on and what the issues are.

Messages delivered by Brig. Gen. Dorko as he visited different USACE offices and job sites throughout Iraq included these: Corps of Engineers people are doing a great job; he’s fortunate to follow such a strong leader and “great guy” as Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh, the current GRD commander, and to have an opportunity to familiarize himself with the tasks and challenges before assuming command; and “we’re here to enable you to do better.”

Among the projects visited was a new “RoRo,” standing for Roll On, Roll Off Berth, at the port of Umm Qasr. Hill said it basically doubles the port’s capacity.

The $2.7 million RoRo facility constitutes “a gateway,” said Brig. Gen. Dorko, who noted that it was planned years earlier and thus represents a link between Iraq’s past and its present and its future.

Dorko also visited the sprawling Camp Bucca, where 20,500 detainees are housed. Some 130 projects are under way there, including big ticket internment facilities and many other things such as ice and water treatment plants. The visit there included a frank discussion initiated by Col. Hill as to what can be done to make the construction of certain internment facilities move more quickly. The answer, in part, was effective communication with construction firm management.

Upon departing Camp Bucca, Adams, the GRD deputy commanding officer, made a point voiced elsewhere by his colleagues, saying “there’s absolutely no substitute” for visiting a job site and eyeballing what’s going on.