The story you'll never see on 60 Minutes
Detainees Treated Fairly, Rehabilitated to Re-enter Iraqi Society
BAGHDAD Shouts drift through the air and over the razor-wire fences at Camp Cropper, a Coalition forces theater internment facility, or TIF, in western Baghdad.
Detainees form a crowd inside the compound as the loud cheers and even louder jeers intensify. Guards on the catwalks above watch closely as the mobs shouting reaches its peak. Its over suddenly, and the participants trickle away in ones and twos, replaying the highlights of the afternoons volleyball game and already planning for the next.
Allowing detainees freedom - even fun inside a detention facility may seem odd, but it is part of a strategic counterinsurgency tactic to engage detainees and separate violent individuals from the rest of the population. The goal is to create a safe and positive environment for successful detainee reintegration into Iraqi society.
Army Staff Sgt. Gregory Smith, 535th Military Police Battalion, is a Reservist military policeman and a civilian police officer from Nashville, Tenn. He works as the noncommissioned officer in charge of Compound Two, known inside the TIF as the most compliant compound. Much of his day is spent walking the compounds four zones, overseeing his guards and meeting with the detainee zone chiefs, he said.
I like to describe my job in the TIF as putting out small fires before they turn into big ones, said Smith.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC 2008-02-26 |