US officials said they were holding 10,000 prisoners in Iraq, double the number previously reported, and count among the security cases six inmates claiming to be Americans and two who say they are British. They didn’t fit into any category,” Brigadier General Janis Karpinski said Tuesday of the 3,800 extra people who have now been classified as “security detainees.” “We got an order from the Secretary of Defense (Donald Rumsfeld) to categorise them” about a month ago, she said, but gave few details about who these detainees were. “We were securing them. We didn’t want people to be confused” about their status, she said. They were being held in the area of north-central Iraq controlled by the US Army’s 4th Infantry Division, said Karpinski, speaking at Abu Gharib prison, 20 kilometres (12 miles) west of Baghdad. Asked if they had any rights or had access to their families or legal help while they were being “secured”, she said: “It’s not that they don’t have rights … they have fewer rights than EPWs (enemy prisoners of war).” Full Story
About OODA Analyst
OODA is comprised of a unique team of international experts capable of providing advanced intelligence and analysis, strategy and planning support, risk and threat management, training, decision support, crisis response, and security services to global corporations and governments.