700 Soldiers Headed to Iraq for Prison Security

The 82nd Airborne Division is sending about 700 soldiers to Iraq to provide extra security for detainees, whose numbers have doubled over the last year, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.

The 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, based at Ft. Bragg, N.C., has begun preparing to deploy over the next two months. It will be the battalion’s second tour in Iraq.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the deployment did not indicate any decision had been made to increase U.S. forces in Iraq this fall to provide security for planned elections in October and December.

Army Lt. Col. Barry Venable, also a Pentagon spokesman, said the 700 soldiers would be prepared to perform a range of duties related to detainee operations, including prison guard duty and providing defensive security around a prison compound.

There are three main U.S. prisons in Iraq: Abu Ghraib, Camp Bucca and Camp Cropper. Another, called Ft. Suse, is being built to accommodate a prisoner population that has expanded to about 10,800 as more suspected insurgents have been captured. Ft. Suse is near the northern city of Sulaymaniya.

The U.S. hopes eventually to close Abu Ghraib, site of the prison abuse scandal that came to light last year.

In Washington, newly declassified documents show that State Department officials wrote in a prewar memorandum that “a failure to address short-term public security and humanitarian assistance concerns could result in serious human rights abuses which would undermine an otherwise successful military campaign, and our reputation internationally.”

In the memo, dated Feb. 7, 2003, about six weeks before the war began, the State Department warned the U.S. Central Command of “serious planning gaps” for postwar security, the documents say.

The materials were acquired by George Washington University’s National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act. They were posted on the research group’s website Wednesday and reported by NBC News.