Detention facility

I got a quick tour of our detention facility today. We have soldiers who run the D Cell, and they house people, mainly Iraqis, who are picked up for whatever reason. Maybe we've received a tip, maybe the guy is on a watch list, maybe we caught him shooting at us or carrying weapons or explosives. Anyway, once we pick up the person, off he goes to the D Cell. I don't think we've had any females go through it. Did have one midget there, for a while.

The cells are clean and well lit, and all I saw had windows (and bars). Good ventilation; in fact, possibly a bit too good, as it was kind of cold in there. However, the prisoners have blankets, and the guards are in the same area without blankets, so it's definitely not oppressive.

I got to see a prisoner extraction exercise. The senario is, a prisoner gets unruly and the guards have to grab him, subdue him, and put him in another cell. I'm not sure why they move him. Maybe the change of scenery calms him down. I dunno. Essentially, the soldiers stack (line up closely) outside the cell door. They throw in a stun grenade, then rush in and grab his arms and legs and head and pack him off to the new cell. It's not rushed, but it moves very quickly, and was well done from what I could see. They just practiced, without a real prisioner.

The D Cell has strict timelines for how long they can hold a prisoner. The timelines vary depending on the prisoner's status and the reason he is in the D Cell. The small fry get released pretty quickly, I think usually is just a few days. The bigger fish are hustled off to a different holding facility, where again they are held for certain time lines depending on status. We're still holding Saddam, for example.

I am told that only one person has escaped from our D Cell; the midget, and during his escape he ended up naked. You'd think a naked Iraqi midget would easy to spot, but I was told that he was never captured.