The United States is, once again, expanding the size of its largest detention center in Iraq. According to an October 31 report by the military paper Stars and Stripes, U.S. forces will be increasing the capacity of detainees at Camp Bucca from 20,000 to 30,000.

A policeman checks the papers of newly released prisoners in Baquba

An ever-increasing prison population has put extreme pressure on detainment facilities as well as on Iraq’s fragile, developing judicial system. The New York Times reported on February 14 that more than half of the 26,000 detainees in U.S. custody are still awaiting trial — many having been imprisoned for years.

For example, Bilal Hussein, a photographer from The Associated Press, has been detained by the U.S. military since April of 2006, while no evidence or charges have been brought forward against him in court.

Bilal Hussein is one of many individuals urgently seeking a just and expedient manner to challenge their detainment.

Most of the prisoners held by the Iraqi and American governments are Sunni Arabs, accused of fueling the insurgency. This sectarian imbalance has created controversy, with many Iraqis in the Sunni minority accusing Iraqi and American forces of foul play.

These individuals often reference the precedent set at the detention centers at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan as well as at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Filmmaker Alex Gibney explores these abuses in his new documentary, “Taxi to the Dark Side.” While much of his film examines the mistreatment of prisoners at locations such as Bagram and Guantanamo, Gibney also focuses on the process by which these individuals are often taken into custody. One such U.S. policy involves offering financial compensation to Afghani warlords and Pakistani forces for the capture of Iraqi “insurgents.” Gibney notes that these bounties accounted for 93 percent of the population at Guantanamo.

These detainees have encountered what many civil rights groups have deemed brutal and inhumane conditions.

In 2002, U.S. officials deported Canadian Maher Arar to Syria, where he was subsequently tortured. According to a 2006 report, Mr. Arar, after being interrogated by U.S. officials, was extradited to a Syrian facility where he “was questioned for 16 to 18 hours, and was subjected to great physical and psychological abuse…. Mr. Arar was beaten with [a] black cable on a number of occasions throughout the day, and was threatened with electric shock….”  Maher Arar later tried to challenge his rendition and sue then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, but the U.S. government dismissed his case, citing a rarely-invoked state secrets privilege.

Denied proper trial, prisoners at Guantanamo are processed by Combatant Status Review Tribunals, where evidence remains private and inaccessible to defendants.

Feeling they have no other recourse, detainees have frequently resorted to drastic measures such as hunger strikes.  According to The Washington Post, as many as 128 prisoners took part in such protests at one point in 2005, with many more following suit since then.

John Pace, former U.N. human rights chief for Iraq, stated in 2005 that the U.S. was “abusing its mandate in Iraq.” One of Mr. Pace’s key complaints regarded the treatment of detainees.

“There is no question that terrorism has to be addressed. But we are equally sure that the remedies being applied are not the best way of eliminating terrorism,” Pace said. “More terrorists are being created than are being eliminated.”

While the U.S. has certain authorities for managing security in Iraq under United Nations Security Council Resolutions, the Bush administration has continually sought to push the bounds of U.S. authority in Iraq. Most recently, as reported by The New York Times, the Bush administration is pressing to replace the U.N. mandate with a direct military agreement with Iraq. The agreement would continue a controversial policy of protection of private contractors from Iraqi local law, as well as U.S. authority for detainment.

The latest U.N. resolution for the authorization of multinational forces (MNF) in Iraq (Resolution 1790), however, was met with substantial resistance by Iraqi lawmakers. In April 2007, the majority of the Iraqi parliament signed a letter written to the U.N. demanding a timetable for withdrawal of MNF — composed primarily of U.S. forces. The letter referred to these forces as “occupation forces.”

Such stern language was followed by a June 5 law signed by the majority of the parliament, demanding legislative approval of any future U.N. MNF renewal.

But despite mounting dissent, Nouri al-Maliki rushed the MNF renewal through the U.N., authorizing the presence of multinational forces, ignoring the majority of the legislature and population of Iraq and allowing the perpetuation of security and detainment policies of the Bush administration.

Reprinted from Truthout.org.