Free Republic

BAGHDAD — Multi-National Force - Iraq (MNF-I) and the Government of Iraq (GoI) march steadily closer to ending the Coalition detainee operations mission as the total detainee population has fallen below 12,000. In accordance with the Security Agreement between the GoI and the U.S., all detainees in Coalition custody will be released or transferred to the Iraqi legal system. As an early sign of success in this GoI/MNF-I detainee affairs relationship, the Ministry of Justice has issued about 400 detention orders or arrest warrants following their review of the files of the first 4,500 low-threat detainees considered for release. Since...

In one of the new joint American-Iraqi security stations in the capital this month, in the volatile Ghazaliya neighborhood, Capt. Darren Fowler was heaping praise on his Iraqi counterparts for helping capture three insurgent suspects who had provided information he believed would save American lives. “The detainee gave us names from the highest to the lowest,” Captain Fowler told the Iraqi soldiers. “He showed us their safe houses, where they store weapons and I.E.D.’s and where they keep kidnap victims, how they get weapons, where weapons come from, how they place I.E.D.’s, attack us and go away. Because you detained...

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer 18 minutes ago WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court put the Bush administration's military commissions for terrorist suspects back on track Friday, saying a detainee at the Guantanamo Bay prison who once was Osama bin-Laden's driver can stand trial. A three-judge panel ruled 3-0 against Salim Ahmed Hamdan, whose case was halted by a federal judge on grounds that commission procedures were unlawful. "Congress authorized the military commission that will try Hamdan," said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The protections of the 1949 Geneva Convention do not apply...