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The United States once had Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi in custody at a detention facility in Iraq, but president Barack Obama let him go, it was revealed on Friday. Al Baghdadi was among the prisoners released in 2009 from the U.S.´s now-closed Camp Bucca near Umm Qasr in Iraq, The Telegraph reports. It is unclear why the U.S. let the merciless al Qaeda leader slip away, however, one theory is that al Baghadadi was granted amnesty along with thousands of other detainees because the U.S. was preparing to pull out of Iraq.

UMM QASR, Iraq, Dec. 4, 2009 – When the city of Basra was particular unstable between 2006 and 2008, the port of Umm Qasr was left to tread water as a contributor to Iraq’s economic development. Workers at Port of Umm Qsar load bags of grain from a cargo vessel that entered the port Nov. 23, 2009. The Joint Interagency Task Force-Iraq and Iraqi partners are working to gain International Ship and Port Facility Code certification to entice more maritime business to Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Master Sgt. David Bennett   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Now, however,...

The latest addition to the Iraqi Navy fleet, Patrol Ship “The Fatah,” arrives at the Port of Umm Qasr, June 21. Courtesy photo. UMM QASR — Leading a procession of Iraqi Navy (IqN) ships and escorted by three MI-17 helicopters, the latest addition to the Iraqi fleet, Patrol Ship “The Fatah,” arrived in port here, June 21. Fatah is the first of four ships contracted from the Fincantieri Shipyard in La Spezia, Italy, and is being designated as the flagship of the IqN. The 34-member Iraqi crew sailed the Fatah here from La Spezia, completing a 5,100-nautical mile, 26-day voyage....

An Iraqi Sailor looks on from the pier as USS Firebolt transits the Khawr Abd Allah River towards the port of Umm Qasr, Iraq. As part of Iraq Navy Day celebrations, Firebolt made a port visit to Umm Qasr, Iraq, Aug. 13, marking the first visit by a U.S. ship to Iraq in more than 15 months. Photo by Lt. Nathan Christensen. UMM QASR — As part of Iraq Navy Day celebrations, USS Firebolt made a port visit to Umm Qasr, Iraq, Aug. 13, marking the first visit by a U.S. ship to Iraq in more than 15 months. “Our...

New Berth Increases Umm Qasr Port Capacity Army engineers oversee berth project that was designed and built by Iraqis. By Mohammed AliwiU.S. Army Corps of EngineersGulf Region South District BASRAH, Iraq, Sept. 28, 2007 — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has turned control over the newly completed “roll-on/roll-off” berth at Umm Qasr Port to the Iraqi Port Authority. "The Iraqi people can be proud of this project because it is theirs alone."Rebecca Wingfield, project engineer Known as a RoRo because it serves “roll-on/roll-off” ships that share the acronym, the $2.7 million berth project doubles the number of the...

Iraqi Coast Guard Commordore Tariq Jabbar Hammodi and COL Gary Johnston cut the ribbon to officially open the Umm Qasr Iraqi Coast Guard Forward operating Base. PORT OF UMM QASR -- The Iraqi people recently received a new $3.26 million Forward Operating Base at the port of Umm Qasr, courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The base will aid Iraqis in securing waterways and creating stability.“Stability is something that Iraq is trying very hard to accomplish,” said Colonel Gary Johnston, Commander, USACE, Gulf Region South. “They won’t be able to do that unless they have all the elements...

  Dave Gaubatz A former U.S. federal agent and counter-terrorism specialist deployed to Iraq before the war says he waged a three-year, unsuccessful battle to get officials to search four sites where he believes the former Saddam regime buried weapons of mass destruction. Dave Gaubatz, an Arabic linguist who now serves as chief investigator with the Dallas County Medical Examiner, told his story to Ryan Mauro of WorldThreats.com. Gaubatz said the suspected sites have never been searched by the Iraq Survey Group, the fact-finding mission dispatched by the U.S.-led multinational force. Two sites are within the city limits of Nasariyah,...

The Bush administration's pro-business domestic priorities look set to be mirrored in the reconstruction of Iraq. By Andrew Tait, ISN News Editor A US stevedoring company that was at the forefront of last year’s lockout at ports on the west coast of the US has been awarded the US$4.8m contract to manage Umm Qasr port in southern Iraq. The flow of food, medicine and other supplies through the port is considered by US war planners to be essential to their effort to win over the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. Stevedoring Services of America (SSA) "will provide an...

BASE CAMP ADDER, Iraq (Army News Service, Dec. 21, 2005) – With help from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Iraqi seaport of Umm Qasr is closing in on final certification to become fully operational as an international transfer point for shipping goods. For Iraq to be a competitor in the global market place, the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code certification is necessary. Certification requires port facilities to have security assessments, security plans, trained security staffs, security drills, coast guardsmen, and communication links to ships. A coast guard forward operating base, security operation center, electrical upgrades, and...

A package is in the mail on its way to Sgt. Steve Morin in Iraq. The Eagle Scout, husband and father of two won't know the joy of opening it as his mother imagined when she wrapped a recorded video of a Dallas Cowboys game into the package after talking with the sergeant Sunday. On Wednesday, Morin was killed west of Umm Qasr, Iraq. According to a Thursday announcement from the U.S. Department of Defense, an improvised explosive detonated near his military vehicle, overturning it. "He said he would get bored some days on his days off," said Audrey Morin...

UMM QASR, Iraq - (KRT) - The weight of a fuel truck collapsed the roof of an escape tunnel being dug out of Camp Bucca, where more than 6,000 suspected terrorists and insurgents are being held. Prison authorities said Sunday the shaft was discovered Thursday when one of the truck's tires plunged into the earth between the two main fences on the camp's perimeter. No one escaped. A small number of ringleaders involved in the attempt were placed in isolation, authorities said. The 300-foot burrow, about wide enough for a man to crawl through, was four feet underground and poorly...

LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet accused a Dubai-based ferry operator Tuesday of breaking U.N. sanctions by smuggling banned chemicals into Iraq that it said could be used to make high-grade explosives. It said the industrial-grade alcohol and polymers, which can also be used for industrial cleaning agents and cosmetics, could also be used to manufacture chemical weapons agents. Naif Marine Services had been caught shipping the chemicals aboard ferries it operates into Umm Qasr, close to the Kuwaiti border in recent months, said Fifth Fleet public affairs officer Lt. Garret Kaspar. "In the wrong hands, quantity aside,...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 10/20/04 -Samarra, Fallujah, Ramadi, Baghdad, Sadr City, Bile, Umm Qasr, Al Asad Air Base, USS John F. Kennedy BREAKING: Samarra - Fighting Terrorists BREAKING: Fallujah, Ramadi - Search for Terrorists BREAKING: Baghdad, Sadr City - Iraqi children freed by the USA attend classes BREAKING: Bile - Kurds freed by the USA BREAKING: Umm Qasr, Al Asad Air Base, USS John F. Kennedy QFN ==== QUAGMIRE-FREE NEWS Exclusive to FReerepublic PICTURES YOU MAY NEVER SEE IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA (PR Arm of the DNC) ========= Samarra ========= In Samarra, ~125 kilometers north of...

TEN Royal Australian Navy personnel were welcomed home by family and friends today after eight months in Iraq training and rebuilding the country's maritime forces. Based in the port of Umm Qasr, the Iraqi Coastal Defence Force Training Team played a key role in rehabilitating the Iraqi navy. Working with other coalition partners including the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy and the Netherlands, the team trained the new Iraqi Coastal Defence Force (ICDF) to take over responsibility for policing its coastline and waterways in the Northern Arabian Gulf. The ICDF will protect the ports of Umm Qasr and Az...

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran said it was interrogating and could prosecute eight members of Britain's Royal Navy who strayed into Iranian waters on the border with Iraq (news - web sites), as the incident threatened to spiral into a major crisis. Rejecting appeals from Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw for the sailors and Royal Marines to be freed quickly, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi replied that Iran had yet to finish questioning the trespassers. "After interrogating these people and after we are sure of how this matter happened, we will take the necessary measures," Kharazi said in a statement. State television,...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Suicide attackers detonated explosive-laden boats near oil facilities in the Persian Gulf on Saturday, killing two U.S. Navy sailors in a new tactic against Iraq's vital oil industry. Elsewhere, violence across Iraq killed at least 33 Iraqis and four American soldiers. It was the first such maritime attack against oil facilities since U.S. troops invaded Iraqi more than a year ago. The blasts resembled attacks in 2000 and 2002 - blamed on al-Qaida - against the USS Cole and a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen that killed 17 American sailors and a tanker...

Three suspected suicide speedboats have launched attacks on Iraq's key Basra offshore oil terminal. The boats exploded near an oil platform and two oil tankers off southern Iraq. The first blast came when a Coalition warship patrolling the Gulf sighted a small boat near an oil platform. The warship sent a team to the boat, but when they boarded it, the vessel exploded. The other boats exploded alongside two oil tankers near the Abbott oil facility south of Iraq's main port, Umm Qasr. The extent of the damage or casualties is not known. Iraq is completely dependent on the Basra...

BASRA (Reuters) - At least one boat attacked Iraq's main oil terminal offshore in the Gulf on Saturday, a British military spokesman said. Asked about an unconfirmed report that two boats exploded at the Basra terminal in suicide attacks, Major Ian Clooey told Reuters: "We are just getting reports that there has been an incident at the Basra offshore terminal. There are no firm details yet but we know of at least one vessel involved."

Umm Qasr, Iraq — Fadi Wasi may the luckiest man in Umm Qasr. A year ago, the 18-year-old was terrified and near starvation. Conscripted into Saddam Hussein's army, he deserted from his army unit in the early hours of the war and ran into hiding in an empty building in Umm Qasr with his brother. After eight days with almost no food or water, they surrendered to a Globe and Mail reporter, thinking that his jeep was a military vehicle. They were skinny and miserable and resigned to years in prison. A few weeks after the war, he was released...

354th Civil Affairs Brigade Wraps Up its Baghdad Mission BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The 354th Civil Affairs Brigade officially concluded its role in rebuilding Iraq during transfer-of-authority ceremonies Feb. 28. The 354th, a U.S. Army Reserve unit based in Riverdale, Md., provided civil affairs command and control in the Baghdad area of operations for the 3rd Infantry Division and the 1st Armored Division. The brigade is comprised of the 490th Civil Affairs Battalion, 422nd Civil Affairs Battalion and the 414th Civil Affairs Battalion. The brigade worked with the divisions' maneuver brigades, the Government Support Team, the Coalition Provisional Authority, international...