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Documents Show Army Seized Wives As Tactic
AP on Yahoo ^ | 1/27/06 | Charles J. Handley - ap

Posted on 01/27/2006 10:58:26 AM PST by NormsRevenge

The U.S. Army in Iraq has at least twice seized and jailed the wives of suspected insurgents in hopes of "leveraging" their husbands into surrender, U.S. military documents show.

In one case, a secretive task force locked up the young mother of a nursing baby, a U.S. intelligence officer reported. In the case of a second detainee, one American colonel suggested to another that they catch her husband by tacking a note to the family's door telling him "to come get his wife."

The issue of female detentions in Iraq has taken on a higher profile since kidnappers seized American journalist Jill Carroll on Jan. 7 and threatened to kill her unless all Iraqi women detainees are freed.

The U.S. military on Thursday freed five of what it said were 11 women among the 14,000 detainees currently held in the 2 1/2-year-old insurgency. All were accused of "aiding terrorists or planting explosives," but an Iraqi government commission found that evidence was lacking.

Iraqi human rights activist Hind al-Salehi contends that U.S. anti-insurgent units, coming up empty-handed in raids on suspects' houses, have at times detained wives to pressure men into turning themselves in.

Iraq's deputy justice minister, Busho Ibrahim Ali, dismissed such claims, saying hostage-holding was a tactic used under the ousted Saddam Hussein dictatorship, and "we are not Saddam." A U.S. command spokesman in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, said only Iraqis who pose an "imperative threat" are held in long-term U.S.-run detention facilities.

But documents describing two 2004 episodes tell a different story as far as short-term detentions by local U.S. units. The documents are among hundreds the Pentagon has released periodically under U.S. court order to meet an American Civil Liberties Union request for information on detention practices.

In one memo, a civilian Pentagon intelligence officer described what happened when he took part in a raid on an Iraqi suspect's house in Tarmiya, northwest of Baghdad, on May 9, 2004. The raid involved Task Force (TF) 6-26, a secretive military unit formed to handle high-profile targets.

"During the pre-operation brief it was recommended by TF personnel that if the wife were present, she be detained and held in order to leverage the primary target's surrender," wrote the 14-year veteran officer.

He said he objected, but when they raided the house the team leader, a senior sergeant, seized her anyway.

"The 28-year-old woman had three young children at the house, one being as young as six months and still nursing," the intelligence officer wrote. She was held for two days and was released after he complained, he said.

Like most names in the released documents, the officer's signature is blacked out on this for-the-record memorandum about his complaint.

Of this case, command spokesman Johnson said he could not judge, months later, the factors that led to the woman's detention.

The second episode, in June 2004, is found in sketchy detail in e-mail exchanges among six U.S. Army colonels, discussing an undisclosed number of female detainees held in northern Iraq by the Stryker Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division.

The first message, from a military police colonel, advised staff officers of the U.S. northern command that the Iraqi police would not take control of the jailed women without charges being brought against them.

In a second e-mail, a command staff officer asked an officer of the unit holding the women, "What are you guys doing to try to get the husband — have you tacked a note on the door and challenged him to come get his wife?"

Two days later, the brigade's deputy commander advised the higher command, "As each day goes by, I get more input that these gals have some info and/or will result in getting the husband."

He went on, "These ladies fought back extremely hard during the original detention. They have shown indications of deceit and misinformation."

The command staff colonel wrote in reply, referring to a commanding general, "CG wants the husband."

The released e-mails stop there, and the women's eventual status could not be immediately determined.

Of this episode, Johnson said, "It is clear the unit believed the females detained had substantial knowledge of insurgent activity and warranted being held."

___

On the Net:

First document: http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/t2614_2616.pdf

E-mail exchange: http://www.aclu.org/projects/foiasearch/pdf/DOD044843.pdf


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: army; documents; iraq; seized; tactic; wives
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1 posted on 01/27/2006 10:58:27 AM PST by NormsRevenge
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To: NormsRevenge

The next outrage du jour from the left.


2 posted on 01/27/2006 10:59:56 AM PST by zarf (It's time for a college football playoff system.)
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To: zarf

Makes sense to me.


3 posted on 01/27/2006 11:00:36 AM PST by Coop (FR = a lotta talk, but little action)
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To: NormsRevenge

So what!! How many of those wives would have shot our soldiers if they had the chance. What makes them exempt from being terrorists!


4 posted on 01/27/2006 11:02:07 AM PST by areafiftyone (Politicians Are Like Diapers, Both Need To Be Changed Often And For The Same Reason!)
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To: NormsRevenge
Documents Show Army Seized Wives As Tactic

Why would any leftist complain about this.
The French do this all the time as leverage in going after terrorists.

This was on the David Ensor special on CNN a month or so ago.
5 posted on 01/27/2006 11:02:14 AM PST by VOA
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To: NormsRevenge

Ya, but did we put panties on their heads??? that would be an outrage....


6 posted on 01/27/2006 11:02:36 AM PST by Pondman88
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To: NormsRevenge

I guess they should not have married a terrorist.


7 posted on 01/27/2006 11:02:51 AM PST by frankjr
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To: NormsRevenge
The U.S. Army in Iraq has at least twice seized and jailed the wives of suspected insurgents in hopes of "leveraging" their husbands into surrender, U.S. military documents show...

And the problem is?

8 posted on 01/27/2006 11:02:54 AM PST by aligncare (No one says, "I liked the movie but, there wasn't enough cursing")
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To: NormsRevenge

If this crap were true or not:

"If it saves one life, its worth it!"


9 posted on 01/27/2006 11:03:47 AM PST by brainstem223
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To: NormsRevenge

But documents describing two 2004 episodes tell a different story as far as short-term detentions by local U.S. units.



Here we are in 2006 and they try to bring this back up again? My word, even I understand that Iraq isn't the same now as when I was there in 2003-2004.

What clowns.


10 posted on 01/27/2006 11:04:19 AM PST by SFC Chromey (We are at war with Islamofascism)
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To: NormsRevenge

They left the terrorists with too many other options, unless they took the goats too.


11 posted on 01/27/2006 11:04:38 AM PST by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: NormsRevenge
Is this the latest scandal of the week?
12 posted on 01/27/2006 11:05:01 AM PST by Indy Pendance
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To: zarf

Yup...

Watch how quickly they discover the sanctity of marriage now.


13 posted on 01/27/2006 11:05:01 AM PST by Pessimist
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To: NormsRevenge

this story being floated convinces me Jill Carroll is likely a willing participant in her "kidnapping".


14 posted on 01/27/2006 11:06:17 AM PST by oceanview
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To: NormsRevenge

This was done in many wars and in many places, including our Revolutionary and Civil wars. No wonder they demanded that all women were released or they'd kill that woman hostage. We're too close to some of them.


15 posted on 01/27/2006 11:06:17 AM PST by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: NormsRevenge
 

Does anyone else think that people just make this crap up because it's impossible to prove a negative?

I saw Senator Kerry buttering Senator Clinton's biscuit the last time they were together!!!  Now let's see the proof I'm wrong.


16 posted on 01/27/2006 11:06:23 AM PST by HawaiianGecko (Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.)
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Thw wives should have just been taken into "Protective Custody".


17 posted on 01/27/2006 11:06:40 AM PST by vollmond (Careful with that axe, Eugene!)
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To: zarf

If true these sound like isolated cases. More drip, drip, drip from the MSM.


18 posted on 01/27/2006 11:08:02 AM PST by GeorgefromGeorgia
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To: NormsRevenge

And Saddam and his worthless sons used to seize women all the time. The women were then raped and tortured (actual torture not this Abu-Ghraib B.S.) before being killed.
Ummm, so yeah, Saddam good, America & George Bush bad, ok...


19 posted on 01/27/2006 11:08:58 AM PST by chae (R.I.P. Eddie Guerrero He lied, he cheated, he stole my heart)
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To: NormsRevenge

Alls fair in love and war.


20 posted on 01/27/2006 11:09:08 AM PST by One Proud Dad
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