The Panopticon

The means of defense against
foreign danger have been always
the instruments of tyranny at home
--James Madison
_____________

Dear Abby,

"What is the difference between a prison, a detention center and a camp?"

Being as we are playing out summer and the last of the marshmallow roasts at Camp Kookamunga will soon come, the news of the closing of Baghdad's Camp Cropper brought the question to mind.

The Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) has muddled the meanings of many words, including terrorist, insurgent, militant and prisoner of war. A camp could also be a euphemistic term for an internment camp, where people are confined sans the niceties of trials.

The AP reported "[T]he U.S. handed over the last detention facility under its control to Iraqi authorities" July 16, 2010. A detention center conjures images of people in transit, being temporarily housed, but many of those at Camp Cropper have been there since the facility's inception. The Iraqis will rename the facility, the al Karkh prison.

At the request of the Iraqi authorities, U.S. wardens will continue to guard around 200 of Cropper's 1,500 detainees, including al Qaeda militants and henchmen of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

. . .

Neither [Major General Jerry] Cannon [deputy U.S. commander of detainee operations in Iraq] nor Iraqi Justice Minister Dara Nur Addin provided an explanation for why the 200 had been singled out (US Hands Over Last Iraq Jail but Keeps 200 Inmates).

Are these 200 people detainees or prisoners? Are they both? What legal definition applies, or do we even care about the legality of these undefinable locations?

--Signed, Bewildered, perplexed and confused