Psyche, Science, and Society

Huge increase in US detainees in Iraq

August 25th, 2007

The New York Times reports that there are almost 25,000 Iraqis in US detention today, a 50% increase over a year ago:

The number of detainees held by the American-led military forces in Iraq has swelled by 50 percent under the troop increase ordered by President Bush, with the inmate population growing to 24,500 today from 16,000 in February, according to American military officers in Iraq.

The detainee increase comes, they said, because American forces are operating in areas where they had not been present for some time, and because more units are able to maintain a round-the-clock presence in some areas. They also said more Iraqis were cooperating with military forces.

Nearly 85 percent of the detainees in custody are Sunni Arabs, the minority faction in Iraq that ruled the country under the government of Saddam Hussein; the other detainees are Shiites, the officers say.

The New York Times doesn’t do the calculations, but this means roughly 1.5% of the Sunni male population, children included, is imprisoned. This is more like 3% of the Sunni adult male population. add on thousands of Sunnis held by the Shiite dominated government and we have the definition of a population under occupation.

Entry Filed under: Interrogation, Iraq, War and Peace