Home pagePress CenterIn the Media Anthony Cordesman, the CSIS Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy, was quoted by the USA Today, "Iraq Frees, Pardons Detainees."
In the Media | Detail
Anthony Cordesman, the CSIS Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy, was quoted by the USA Today, "Iraq Frees, Pardons Detainees."
Mohammed Hussain Ghafur dabbed his watery eyes moments after his two young sons jumped into his waiting arms. In the 20 months he languished in jail without charges, this had been his dream.
His crime? Ghafur, 37, says he sold a car that was later used in a terrorist bombing. "They traced the address to me, and that was it," he said. He says he cooperated with police after he was arrested by U.S.-led coalition forces, but despite his pleas, "they never allowed me to defend myself or see a lawyer."
Last summer's U.S. troop increase or "surge," which packed coalition and Iraqi jails, also poses a headache for those whose job is to hold them, says Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"Overcrowded facilities filled with a mix of real insurgents, part-timers and the innocent … become breeding grounds and training centers for the insurgency," he said. "The amnesty and release procedures are probably doing more good than harm, but much depends on what happens when young men return home."
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions; accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in these publications should be understood to be solely those of the authors.
