Wire update 2009: Iraq update #2- March 2009

Flowering tree at a mosque on Camp Victory

As Salaam Alaakum!

Rachel, did I get that right? It seems there are numerous ways to spell it, and a few ways to pronounce it.

I had Sunday morning off this week, so another one of the docs and I hopped a bus and went to another FOB, where Saddam had built a number of palaces for the Baath Party (we stayed inside the wires of US protection, of course). And Kringle will be proud to know that we went fishin'!! Of course, as usual, the other guy caught some fish and I didn't. But as they say, the worst day fishin' is better than the best day workin'. I've attached some pictures.

I've been writing this for a couple of days, and finished this morning so I can send it.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

The weather is still nice here between the Tigris and Euphrates, 50 degrees when I got up at 0450, and the high is supposed to be 75. I had thought it would have been warmer by now, but who can complain about this?

I worked in the IHA yesterday, so I thought I would explain about that. The Internee Holding Area is the transition point for new captures, detainees going from one place to another, and for release of detainees back to their “normal” life (if such a thing really
exists here). After someone is captured by the Iraqis or us (raids on suspected cells, aftermath of an IED, etc), they can be released immediately, kept for questioning, turned over to the Iraqi police if there is a warrant out for them- but a disposition must be made by 21 days after capture. By the 21st day they have either been released, turned over to the Iraqi justice system (whatever that means, I’m not sure) or they come to the IHA.
At the IHA, they get processed, their personal effects are catalogued and stored, they can let their families know where they are if that hasn’t happened yet, they get fingerprinted, retina scans, their yellow detainee clothes, and get assigned a number, their “rockma”.
(As in, “What is your Rockma?”) When they get a number/rockma, that is when they become a detainee, and become our responsibility.
That’s where the medical evaluation comes in. All the newcomers get a CXR to look for TB; we take their medical history (diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, epilepsy, previous surgery, etc); an exam to look for tattoos, birthmarks and bruises, and anything else a medical exam would turn up (from amputations and heart murmurs to poor
dentition and hernias). We offer tetanus shots (TdaP), flu shots (in season) and pneumonia shots for the elderly.
The outgoing evaluations are more fun for everyone. Each detainee can choose a new set of clothes to wear home. The goodbye evaluation consists of 3 questions- something like this: (1)Since the time of your capture, is your health better, the same or worse? (2) If you
take medicines, do you have a 7 day supply with you? (and if not we give them their meds), and (3) Do you have any more health problems that you want us to evaluate before your release? Then they sign the form, and a doctor signs the form. That day, the will get on the “Happy Bus” (yes, that is really what everyone calls it). The Happy
Bus takes them to various locations, where they will be picked up by the unit that originally captured them, and that unit will drop them off in the neighborhood/ town/ location where they were originally captured. Some detainees do NOT want to be taken to that spot, as the people in that area may not like them for what they did (participated
in an IED explosion that killed local people, etc). Some detainees are taken onto the Happy Bus kicking and fighting, but, as the M.P.s say, “they WILL be on the Happy Bus”.
As part of the new treaty signed January 1st, all detainees will be out US TIFs by the end of the next year- they must be charged or released. Of the 2000-3000 or so released in the last couple of months, only 100-200 have been charged and transferred to Iraqi prisons. For those detainees, the Happy Bus isn’t so happy. I understand that the most dangerous ones in our TIFs will not be released until as late as possible, so that as strong a case can be made for their continued internment in an Iraqi facility.

That’s all for now, I want to get this sent off. Thanks for the thoughts, prayers, cards, emails and packages!