“The Battlefield of the Mind”

Published: September 19, 2007, 11:06 am

Tags: children, militancy, radicalism, books, wtf, reprogramming, iraq, security, detention, human rights

Walter Pincus has what is, IMHO, the ‘WTF?!’ story of the day: The U.S. military has introduced “religious enlightenment” and other education programs for Iraqi detainees, some of whom are as young as 11, Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, the commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, said yesterday. The religious courses are led by Muslim clerics who “teach out of a moderate doctrine,” Stone said, according to the transcript of a conference call he held from Baghdad with a group of defense bloggers. Such schooling “tears apart” the arguments of al-Qaeda, such as “Let’s kill innocents,” and helps to “bring some of the edge off” the detainees, he said. As a result of the increased U.S. troop presence in Iraq this year, the number of Iraqis in U.S. detention has swelled from about 10,000 last year to more than 25,000. […] Stone said he wants to identify “irreconcilables” —

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