CPTnet
September 22, 2003
IRAQ:Visiting the imprisoned
by Jerry Stein

[Note: this release is a follow-up to the September 13, 2003 CPTnet posting,
"Sorry. Just a mistake."]

I drove with Dr. Taleb, and his wife to Um Qasr. We left Baghdad at 6:15
a.m. and arrived at the prison at noon. We found nothing near the prison
but an area completely in the sun where people had to wait if they wanted to
be "walk-ins" that day (e.g. if other people failed to appear for their
scheduled visits.)

A sargent told us we probably wouldn't be able to visit until next week. I
could see he took down the wrong numbers for the three brothers, but I
couldn't get him to change. I wondered how he was communicating with the
long-suffering Iraqis waiting there. He told us to wait for an answer,
which we did with the rest of about eighty Iraqis in the hot desert sun.
Some people had been there for two days, from early in the morning to 4:00
p.m., when the prison visits shut down.

After two hours, some soldiers brought water to people waiting. Then others
came in military vehicles. One soldier got out and talked to several
Iraqis, while a crowd gathered around him. Some entered a truck after
soldiers searched them. Several times I heard a soldier say something about
"the priest", so I knew they noticed us. At last, he called us over,
searched us and helped us aboard the truck. Meanwhile, the soldier took
down the brothers' numbers again and still didn't get them right. We
proceeded to the visiting tent, where the soldiers took the brothers'
numbers two more times before the proper ones were recorded.

An hour before the reunion, Major Kathy Gerety visited with each of the four
Iraqi families. When she came to us, she asked me to explain the story of
the three brothers. She seemed concerned and said the situation must be
rectified right away. She said she would recommend that the brothers be
released and thought they would be get out of prison in two or three weeks.

We waited another hour before the three young men arrived to a highly
emotional greeting. They seemed in good spirits and said they were treated
well. Obviously they had missed their family. Major Gerety visited us again
as the visit neared its end at 5:00 p.m. She said she would immediately
order the brothers to reside in the same unit, since at the moment the
oldest one was separated from the other two. She also mentioned that some
of the other things the military told us in Baghdad were wrong.

As we left, I remembered that the doctor had brought a complete statement of
the soldiers' attack on his home, so I gave one to the soldier driving, who
said he would get it to Major Gerety. This whole story is but one example
of the difficulties Iraqis are experiencing under a military occupier that
did little planning for what would happen after the war.