Word: bucca
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...increase in suspected insurgent attacks was already apparent before the waves of former prisoners began emerging from Camp Bucca. Several Awakening leaders and officers in the Iraqi security forces interviewed by TIME say they do not believe that the former Bucca inmates are contributing to the rise in violence these days...
Much of the fear is based on what a U.S. withdrawal means practically. One example: U.S. military officials are in the process of closing Camp Bucca, the main U.S. military prison in Iraq. The closure, in line with the U.S.-Iraqi withdrawal agreement, has American officials handing some suspected insurgents to Iraqi authorities but letting hundreds of others go with no proper investigation or trial to determine their guilt or innocence. U.S. military officials have long acknowledged that some detainees held at Camp Bucca are likely innocent. But allegations of insurgent ties against many others will go largely unanswered...
...south of Baghdad and a member of the Sunni Awakening movement. Dozens of former prisoners have resettled in his area. Each time one arrives home Jabouri sits down with him for a chat. "We give a little lecture to anyone from our area who's been released from Camp Bucca and come back," says Jabouri, whose tribal fighters have been working with American troops against insurgents since 2007. "We tell them that if they behave well, there will be no problems. If not, they will be right back in prison...
...remains watchful, for good reason. The remaining insurgent fighters in Iraq have a particular interest in assassinating Awakening members, many of whom once cooperated with the insurgency before joining forces with the Americans. Jabouri says he has survived 51 assassination attempts, and believes at least some of the former Bucca inmates now returning to his area have been involved. "Some of them I know helped make bombs meant to kill me," he says, knowing that there may be more attempts. The quest for vengeance is Iraq's curse...
...problem is that Iraqis don't realize that even if the detainees are transferred to Iraqi courts and prisons, it's not like in the past," says Sgt. Assaad, an Iraqi corrections officer who was monitoring detainee family visitations at Bucca. "Saddam's days are over, torture is over. We will treat everyone based on the law." Maybe that's what some people inside and outside the wire at Camp Bucca are really afraid of. With reporting by Mazin Ezzat