Mega Prison In Iraq’s Anbar Province
Jan 21, 2008
By Omar Al-Faris | Jihad Unspun

Keeping with the Bush administration’s policy of rounding up scads of Muslims who are often victims of torture at the hands on their American captoves in what appears to be terrorizing the population into accepting the occupation, the US is planning to build a brand new Mega prison in Iraq that will house thousands of Iraqis.

According to a Yaqen news agency report issued Saturday afternoon, the US intends to build the giant prison in Anbar province that will facilitate thousands of Iraqi prisoners currently being held in Camp Bucca in Basra, at Saddam International Airport in Baghdad, and at Susa in Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq.

Yaqen quoted informed sources in the security services of the province as saying that the US military had discussed the matter with local authorities and with the puppet regime in Baghdad. The Americans are said to have obtained the agreement of all parties to construct the new super prison partially due to the fact that 90% of the prisoners detained by US forces in Iraq are arrested in Anbar province where resistance to the US occupation ran high immediately following the 2003 invasion.

International human rights organizations have estimated that there are about 35,000 Iraqi prisoners in US jails in Iraq, most of them at Camp Bucca near Basra but all the major US-run detention facilities in the country are said to be nearing capacity as the US continues to hold Muslims illegally and without recourse. It is widely viewed that this latest facility will help to free up other US prison in Iraq so that prisoners can be held inside the country and away from the controversial torture facilities in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay that have become thorns in the side of the American administration.

Afghanistan bears the hub of a global network of detention centers as the so-called frontline in America's 'war on terror', a country where arrests can be random and allegations of torture are commonplace. Afghanistan is said to be “one big US jail, with 20 more facilities in outlying US compounds and fire bases in addition to the major "collection centre" at Bagram air base where some 630 prisoners are held in limbo. The CIA has one facility at Bagram and another, known as the "Salt Pit", in an abandoned brick factory north of Kabul. More than 1,500 prisoners from Afghanistan and many other countries are thought to be held in these jails, although it’s anybody’s guess as the US military declines to comment on the matter. All but about 30 of the prisoners in Afghanistan are said to be Afghans, most of them accused of being Taliban Mujahideen.

Adding to the overall total, there are still 275 illegal detainees being held at Guantánamo despite call after call for the closure of this notorious facility that has become synonymous with torture. Combined with a worldwide network of hidden prisons where more than 3,000 alleged members of Al-Qaeda are said to be held without trial in a dozen different countries, with many subjected to torture, more of the Muslim population languishes behind bars.

From the time the US and its key allies began this invisible network of prisons and detention centers, thousands of suspects have simply disappeared into the “system”. In the past three years alone, thousands of Muslims have been transferred around the world by American, Arab and Far Eastern security apparatus, often in secret operations that by-pass extradition laws and often handed over to the host country for money.

From Guantanamo Bay to naval vessels in the Indian Ocean, with bulging prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, the number of Muslims held without rights or trial is staggering and with a new mega facility in Iraq, America is signaling that it intends to continue to deny Muslims anywhere due process. (JUS)