By Christopher Kuttruff, t r u t h o u t
The United States is, once again, expanding the size of its largest detention center in Iraq. According to an October 31 report by the military paper Stars and Stripes, US forces will be increasing the capacity of detainees at Camp Bucca from 20,000 to 30,000. (1)
An ever-increasing prison population has put extreme pressure on detainment facilities as well as on Iraq’s fragile, developing judicial system. The New York Times reported on February 14 that more than half of the 26,000 detainees in US custody are still awaiting trial – many having been imprisoned for years. (2)
For example, Bilal Hussein, a photographer from The Associated Press, has been detained by the US military since April of 2006, while no evidence or charges have been brought forward against him in court. (3)
Bilal Hussein is one of many individuals urgently seeking a just and expedient manner to challenge their detainment.
Most of the prisoners held by the Iraqi and American governments are Sunni Arabs, accused of fueling the insurgency. (4) This sectarian imbalance has created controversy, with many Iraqis in the Sunni minority accusing Iraqi and American forces of foul play.
These individuals often reference the precedent set at the detention centers at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan as well as at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Filmmaker Alex Gibney explores these abuses in his new documentary, “Taxi to the Dark Side.” While much of his film examines the mistreatment of prisoners at locations such as Bagram and Guantanamo, Gibney also focuses on the process by which these individuals are often taken into custody. One such US policy involves offering financial compensation to Afghani warlords and Pakistani forces for the capture of Iraqi “insurgents.” Gibney notes that these bounties accounted for 93 percent of the population at Guantanamo. (5)
These detainees have encountered what many civil rights groups have deemed brutal and inhumane conditions.