Tuesday, February 24, 2015

How A U.S. Prison Camp Help Spawn The Islamic State

Yuri Kozyrev/NOOR

Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan, Daily Beast: ISIS Used a U.S. Prison as Boot Camp

In an excerpt from their new book on ISIS, Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan show how jihadists used a U.S.-run Iraqi prison to coordinate with al Qaeda.

In ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, American journalist Michael Weiss and Syrian analyst Hassan Hassan explain how these violent extremists evolved from a nearly defeated Iraqi insurgent group into a jihadi army of international volunteers who behead Western hostages in slickly produced videos and have conquered territory equal to the size of Great Britain. Beginning with the early days of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of ISIS’s first incarnation as “al Qaeda in Iraq,” Weiss and Hassan explain who the key players are—from their elusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to the former Saddam Baathists in their ranks—where they come from, how the movement has attracted both local and global support, and where their financing comes from.

The following excerpt concerns Iraq midway through the first decade of this century.

WNU Editor: A depressing read .... they had a very good idea on who the bad actors were .... but they released them anyway. This is why prisoners of war are kept in prison until the war is over (even if the war may last for years) ..... but former Iraqi PM Maliki and his government though otherwise, and the U.S. did not care because they were leaving Iraq by the end of 2011 anyway.

4 comments:

Jay Farquharson said...

WNU Editor,

They were not Prisoners of War,

Some were a made up, imaginary category that does not exist in the Geneva Conventions, called " Unlawful Combatant",

Or just "Detainee".

Adhereing to the Geneva Conventions was inconvenient for the Neo-Con dreams of an Imperial Presidency,

So like cops who don't follow procedure, nothing's admissable in Court, the perp walks and gets a big payout from the Civil Lawsuit,

And the innocent are brutalized by the experience, get a big payout, but no justice.

Unknown said...

"Some were a made up, imaginary category that does not exist in the Geneva Conventions, called " Unlawful Combatant","

Did the Geneva convention cover all possible events/possibilities in armed conflict.

Certain groups during WW2 took pains to be recognized as lawful combatants by wearing armbands when they rose up against the NAZIs ahead.

Osama calculated that the economic damage from 911 would be orders of magnitude greater than the loss of the planes, the people and the Twin towers. He was right.

Prosecuting all these terrorists in civil court I think would also break the bank. There would be the outright cost and there would be the giving up sources and methods.

If we put them in regular POW camps and the war does not end I expect to hear Jay scream 1st.

As it has worked out I would not accept one person from the Pakistanis. Let these people sit in Pakistani jails for however short that might be.

Visitors to Mall of America were threatened. Heck Tom Clancy predicted that back in the 1990s. So you hold a civilian trial and you did not expect a hostage taking/ massacre event to spring the people brought to court?

That would be coy or totally oblivious.

Jay Farquharson said...

Aizino,

In response to your question, yes, the Geneva Conventions did envision all possible varaitions on on war and created legal structures and strictures do addess that.

Unknown said...

I certainly do not remember it from training.

After so many years not sure if we read the short version or the full document.