U.S. holding Iraqis at notorious prison [View All]

Families are barred from Abu Ghraib and very few inmates have been allowed to see lawyers

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq -- Once one of Iraq's notorious prisons where Saddam Hussein had political prisoners tortured and hanged, Abu Ghraib has become a makeshift jail at the heart of the U.S. military's struggle to give Iraqis a new sense of justice.

About 500 Iraqis are detained here and, like detainees in U.S. prison camps across Iraq, none has been allowed family visits. Only one out of 10 has been allowed to see a lawyer.

The five compounds in the prison were ransacked after Hussein freed virtually all of Iraq's prisoners last October, so the detainees are penned in tents behind rolls of razor wire. On some days, the camp roasts under a midday sun that produces temperatures as high as 130 degrees.

On Monday, dozens of Iraqi detainees sprinted from their tents at the sight of a group of journalists in a convoy and began screaming.

"What did we do? We didn't do anything!" a shirtless inmate shouted.

"We want to leave from here!" another yelled.

more