MOD ON DETAINEE OPERATIONS TRANSFER, RELEASES

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 001323 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/23/2016 TAGS: PHUM PGOV PINS PTER OPDAT IZ SUBJECT: MOD ON DETAINEE OPERATIONS TRANSFER, RELEASES Classified By: Political-Military Affairs Counselor David C. Litt ¶1. (C) On April 23, Minister of Defense Sadoun al- Dulime and MNF-I Deputy Commanding General, Detainee Operations met (with Pol-MilOff in attendance) to discuss MOD's role in the staggered transition of Coalition detainees and the facilities in which they are housed to the Government of Iraq over the course of 2006-2007. (The Ministry of Health, which was invited to discuss its role in staffing detention facility clinics, was not in attendance.) ¶2. (C) While Dulime did not appear to have concerns that the Iraqi Army would have difficulty providing external security for transitioned detention facilities, including manning the guard towers at Camp Bucca, he was non-committal, saying - while gesturing to the transition plans in front of him - "we have to expect that the issue of detainees will be important to the new government, and that maybe we cannot be held liable to this schedule". ¶3. (C) He noted that he expected political pressure for the release of individual detainees as well as for large-scale detainee releases to be strong, saying "at the meeting to choose our leaders, one of the most important points of discussion was the release of detainees." He was downbeat on the broader political picture. "Do not think that the coming phase will be easier than the last phase," he cautioned. "It will be more complicated, and the sectarian outlook might be clearer." ¶4. (C) Dulime was pessimistic about the security implications of increased detainee releases. "What I'm worried about," he said, "is that when these releases take place, detainees educated in the detention system will become teachers in the social situation in which they find themselves outside. This is a personal issue - I have two nephews detained, who are currently of an extremist mind-set, and I am afraid if they get out they will do something. And these are my relatives I'm talking about." ¶5. (C) "There are some very scary things that have happened in Iraq," Dulime continued. "We are seeing the forced migration of Christians, 100,000 Shi'a families moving from Sunni neighborhoods, the same thing with the Sunnis, vice versa. (Current estimates of internal displacement are considerably lower.) The world has so much care for bird flu," he concluded, shaking his head, "but we need to care for people, too." KHALILZAD