Iraq Prison Break: Saddam, the Model

Remember that John Burns story in the New York Times? The dateline is especially ironic: “ABU GHRAIB, Iraq, Oct. 20 [2002]—Tens of thousands of Iraqi prisoners stormed out of their cells to freedom today after President Saddam Hussein declared an amnesty that appeared to have all but emptied a sprawling, nationwide network of prisons that have served as the grim charnel houses of one of the world's harshest police states. At the Abu Ghraib prison, a sprawling compound on the desert floor 20 miles west of Baghdad that has become a notorious symbol of fear among Iraqis for its history of mass executions and allegations of torture, the heavy steel gates gave way under the crush of a huge crowd of relatives who rushed to the jail within an hour of the amnesty broadcast. All semblance of order vanished as a cheering mob surged through the compound, in some cases joining prison guards in smashing cell-block walls to free weeping inmates. But some inmates were killed in the chaos today.” That was four years ago. Today’s New York Times, John Burns again: “Iraq’s new government said Tuesday that it would release 2,500 detainees, nearly 10 percent of those held in Iraqi and American detention centers, and that it would adopt a ‘national reconciliation’ plan to reintegrate former members of Saddam Hussein’s ruling Baath Party into society.” Read the rest…