[Excerpt: A handwritten note in Arabic left at the Batawi house after the women were arrested and seen by Reuters reporters who went to the site read: �Be a man Mohammad Mukhlif and give yourself up and then we will release your sisters. Otherwise they will spend a long time in detention.�...The note was signed �Bandit 6,� apparently a US military code, and included a mobile phone number. When Reuters called the number, it was answered by US soldiers.]
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/news/news7.htm Sunday, April 10, 2005 US says detained women were not held hostage BAGHDAD (Reuters) � The US military said on Friday two Iraqi women detained for six days had been held on suspicion of complicity in insurgent attacks, not used as hostages to pressure fugitive male relatives to surrender. �US forces do not take hostages, nor do we participate in blackmail activities,� Lieutenant Colonel Clifford Kent, spokesman for the 3rd Infantry Division, said in a statement. The women, 60-year-old Salima Al Batawi and her daughter Aliya, were arrested by US troops and Iraqi police last Saturday and were released by US forces on Thursday. �We strongly believed they had both direct and indirect knowledge of the planning and coordination of attacks against Iraqi security forces and coalition forces,� Kent said. �Sources told us the women were present during meetings to plan attacks against coalition forces and that they had knowledge of terror cell leaders and the location of weapons caches in the area.� The two women told Reuters on Friday that soldiers had informed them they would be detained until they revealed the whereabouts of male relative suspected of insurgent attacks, or until the wanted male relatives turned themselves in. Arkan Mukhlif Al Batawi, the son of Salima and brother of Aliya, told Reuters on Tuesday that the women were being held to pressure him and his brothers Mohammad and Saddam to surrender. A handwritten note in Arabic left at the Batawi house after the women were arrested and seen by Reuters reporters who went to the site read: �Be a man Mohammad Mukhlif and give yourself up and then we will release your sisters. Otherwise they will spend a long time in detention.� The note was signed �Bandit 6,� apparently a US military code, and included a mobile phone number. When Reuters called the number, it was answered by US soldiers. Neighbours of the Batawis also said soldiers had told them through an interpreter that the women would be freed once the brothers turned themselves in for questioning. One of the brothers, Saddam, denounced US soldiers for detaining his mother and sister. �Is this humanity? Blindfolding women and handcuffing them,� he said. �Would the Americans like people to do this to their women?� The US military said it was investigating the accusations. �It is our policy to aggressively investigate any allegation of misconduct by our soldiers,� Kent said. �It is not an indication of anyone's guilt or innocence; it is merely our standard procedures for determining the truth of the situation.� enditem ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education! http://us.click.yahoo.com/_OLuKD/8WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
