Free Republic

Fort Suse, Iraq, Asharq Al-Awsat- A number of Arab prisoners serving sentences in Fort Suse prison near Sulaymaniyah in Kurdistan, northern Iraq, demanded to be extradited to their native countries arguing that they are not terrorists or individuals who seek to destroy the country and that they came to Iraq for various reasons. Asharq Al Awsat newspaper, the first source of media to enter the prison, met a number of detainees who explained that they entered Iraq for various reasons before they were arrested. The aforementioned prison today holds 1609 prisoners, including over 200 non-Iraqi Arabs, 56 of whom are...

WASHINGTON - The 82nd Airborne Division is sending about 700 soldiers to Iraq to provide extra security for detainees, whose numbers have doubled over the past year, officials said Wednesday. The 1st battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, based at Fort Bragg, N.C., has begun preparing to deploy over the next two months. It will be the battalion's second tour in Iraq; the first was from September 2003 to April 2004. Before that the battalion was in Afghanistan from July 2002 to January 2003. An announcement at Fort Bragg on Monday gave no information about the battalion's new mission in Iraq,...