Some damage control by US forces

[Noahfingway]

Originally Posted by teerts

more of an open-faced flame sandwich.

Also, not what noah or ooda said.

Thanks for the expanded vocabulary....

[Rock Hardbuns]

Originally Posted by slugymay

Conspiracy theorists have too much free time on their hands and give the "government" too much credit

That's not so much a conspiracy theory as the a part of the job description for the NSA and the CIA.

[slugymay]

Originally Posted by Rock Hardbuns

That's not so much a conspiracy theory as the a part of the job description for the NSA and the CIA.

People give the NSA and CIA too much credit

Most likely reason for the release was because there was not enough space and more people need to go in the clink, or that the records for why they were even there were lost.

But you guys are right, the CIA and NSA have nothing to do but publicity stunts with people that are of no threat to national security

[ozdog]

Originally Posted by spooky

wow, so you were FOR Chirac, then? i think that pretty much ruins any credibility you may have had up to this point.

And we thank France for helping every bad guy in the world, in weaponizing all the bad things we do not want in this world. Thanks to the Germans too.


For bailing France out of every conflict in the 20th century, this is what we get.

two words

FUCK FRANCE

[lickmyballssuckmy]

Are you an expert on what these agencies do? You know about the NRO and what they do? I'm curious what you were trying to say without saying it.

Originally Posted by Rock Hardbuns

That's not so much a conspiracy theory as the a part of the job description for the NSA and the CIA.

[lickmyballssuckmy]

MrBigDeal,

Are you saying they should have kept these people locked up? What makes this a smoke screen? I don't know one way or the other from this article.
Maybe some of these guys were innocent. Maybe all of them were. I doubt it, but maybe they were. Who knows? I'm curious what you think happened here.

Originally Posted by MrBigDeal

"A little smoke screen to calm tensions"

Hundreds of prisoners released

New claims against US troops
Iraq to release 2 500 prisoners
Iraqi cops find severed heads
Gunmen kidnap 50 in Iraq

Baghdad - Some clutching the Koran and kissing the ground, the first batch of a planned mass release of 2 500 prisoners walked free in Iraq on Wednesday as part of efforts to heal sectarian wounds and defuse an insurgency.

Vice president Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab leader, said a total of 562 detainees had been let out from "US occupation prisons", a day after new Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced the move to help foster national reconciliation.

It was one of the biggest such releases of prisoners held in Iraqi or American jails since US-led forces invaded the country three years ago to topple Saddam Hussein.

Sunni rebellion

Many of those in detention - estimated at more than 28 000 - are believed to be held on suspicion of involvement in a Sunni rebellion against the US-backed, Shi'ite-led government.

The move by Maliki also appeared to be an attempt to shore up his own authority at a time when rivalries within his ruling Shi'ite Alliance have cast doubt over his effectiveness.

Looking exhausted, some of about 100 let free in Baghdad told of how they had spent months - sometimes more than a year - in jail without being formally charged.

"I was detained for almost seven months because the US military accused me of launching rockets at their forces," said Sunni Arab tribal leader Ra'ad Talal Hikmat from the western desert province of Anbar, a rebel stronghold.

"We suffered from bad food and illness," he added.

Many not formally charged

Three buses brought the prisoners to Baghdad's main bus station under US and Iraqi security. As they stepped out, some wept while others smiled and waved at waiting families.

"I spent 16 months in jail without any specific reason. They only questioned me once, accusing me of funding terrorism," said Youssef Khidr, 38, adding he had been arrested by Iraqi forces and then handed over to the US-run Abu Ghraib prison.

Maliki, under intense pressure to end violence, said on Tuesday that the prisoner release would free those who had no clear evidence against them or had been detained mistakenly.

But "Saddam loyalists" or "terrorists" would stay in jail.

It was not clear how many of those to be released were in Iraqi custody and how many were held by the US military.

[deuce]

Originally Posted by lickmyballssuckmy

MrBigDeal,

Are you saying they should have kept these people locked up? What makes this a smoke screen? I don't know one way or the other from this article.
Maybe some of these guys were innocent. Maybe all of them were. I doubt it, but maybe they were. Who knows? I'm curious what you think happened here.

I will tell you what happened there. This article just shows a very real facet in this war which sucks ass. The waves caused by the exposure of the Haditha incident and fearing upheaval from local insurgents, the Government compromises everyone's safety by releasing these prisoners in order to appease them. Big win for the insurgents. Its flip flopping moves like these which makes me continue to ask why should this mess be up to the US to sort out? Fuck them, Let them get their own act together, we did our best, they are no threat to anyone now, "sort it out, Iraqis"

[lickmyballssuckmy]

You could be right.

Like I said before, I don't think there is a single action we could ever take to make more or less people hate us, so I don't completely buy that just yet.

I still want to hear what MrBigDeal and Rock think happened here.

I haven't formulated an opinion yet. Since the Sunni are causing most of the problems, maybe there was a backroom deal between our government and their leaders. Wouldn't surprise me. We can say all we want that we don't negotiate with terrorists but saying that is a form of negotiation so...

/shrug&research

[Rock Hardbuns]

I was responding to this:
"the covert tentacles of the US into the rest of the world is what saddens me."

It's no secret that you guys are involved and have been involved in alot of countries. I could name about ten, that the CIS or NSA have tried to manipulate. Anything from subtle economic incetives to the right people to assasinations.
Hell, everyone should be able to name 5 countries in South America that fit that description.

And I would guess that I probably don't know about all of them.

[slugymay]

Originally Posted by Rock Hardbuns

It's no secret that you guys are involved and have been involved in alot of countries. I could name about ten, that the CIS or NSA have tried to manipulate. Anything from subtle economic incetives to the right people to assasinations.
Hell, everyone should be able to name 5 countries in South America that fit that description.

No argument about that, but that was because it was in the interest of national security or american supremacy that these operations were enacted. Releasing a few hundred prisoners is not damage control, nor is it the work of any of these agencies for two reasons.

1) there is no national security benefit for keeping or releasing them and

2) the CIA, NSA, DIA, NRO, and any other agency do not care what people think about them

they don't need to appease any "civilian" and that's why they don't care about "publicity stunts"