US Army holding over 11,000 Detainees in Iraq

This is another expense for the US taxpayer but there is no hurry to relieve them of this burden. Imagine a foreign country holding 11,000 US citizens within the United States! One might get the idea that the United States was not really a sovereign nation if that happened.
Eventually Iraq will take over the prisoners or they will be released without compensation. But even then as the article notes although US combat troops will supposedly be withdrawn many will still remain but under other names.


US Army Holding Over 11,000 Detainees in Iraq
All Will Eventually Be Freed or Handed Over to Iraqi Govt, Statement Insists
by Jason Ditz, June 09, 2009
In a statement released today, the US army said it was still holding 11,057 people in detention in three camps in Iraq, and has insisted that all of them will eventually either be freed or turned over to the Iraqi government, as is required by the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).

US fulfillment of the requirement has been continuing at a snail’s pace. Over the past three months, the detainee population has dropped by less than 3,000, from 13,832. The military had previously touted that they were releasing an average of 50 a day, but that number has dropped to more like 30 a day in recent months.
At the current pace, the US will require just over a year to dispose of the remainder of the detainees, roughly the same time the Obama Administration intends to announce the official withdrawal of all combat forces from the nation. Of course it should be noted that US forces will continue combat operations past that date, but they will no longer be called combat forces.
The US currently operates three prison camps in Iraq: Camp Cropper and Camp Taji in Baghdad, as well as Camp Bucca in the nation’s south. The US intends to return Camp Bucca to Iraqi government control once the detainee population drops below 8,000 which will likely be late in the fall.