Washington – The U.S. military has introduced “religious enlightenment” and other education programs for Iraqi detainees, some as young as 11, Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone, the commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, said Tuesday.
Stone said such efforts, aimed mainly at Iraqis who have been held for more than a year, are intended to “bend them back to our will” and are part of waging war in what he called “the battlefield of the mind.”
Most of the younger detainees are held in a facility that the military calls the “House of Wisdom.” The religious courses are led by Muslim clerics who “teach out of a moderate doctrine,” Stone said, according to the transcript of a conference call he held from Baghdad with a group of defense bloggers.
Such schooling “tears apart” the arguments of al-Qaeda, he said.
As a result of the increased U.S. troop presence in Iraq this year, the number of Iraqis in U.S. detention has grown from about 10,000 last year to more than 25,000. That includes more than 820 juveniles, Stone said. The effort to reshape attitudes is aimed at addressing a problem that has vexed U.S. troops in Iraq for the past four years: Detention facilities have served as breeding grounds for extremist views, transforming some prisoners into hard-core insurgents, according to military analysts.
Stone said he wants to identify “irreconcilables” – those whose views cannot be moderated – and “put them away” in permanent detention facilities. Psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors and interrogators help distinguish extremists from others, he said.
After reassessments, Stone said, some detainees are recommended for release. Since May, Stone said, he has released about 2,000 detainees “and we’ve not had any coming back.”
