At prison gate, Iraqi families vent

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0326/p06s01-woiq.html

Indefinite detentions are within the law, US says, but angry Iraqis liken practice to Hussein's repression.

By Dan Murphy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

BAGHDAD – A ripple of excitement spread through the few hundred family members, gathered outside the gates of the US military's Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad, when three buses crammed with men rolled out of the front gate.

Tripping over their shapeless black robes, mothers rushed to the Marine cordon, some bursting into tears as they saw sons for the first time in months, many of them hanging out the windows and shouting "follow me, follow me" as the buses sped down the highway.

With the US release of 440 men earlier this week, many visitors thought they were witnessing another mass release and scrambled for their cars and taxis to follow the disappearing buses.

But the marines intervened to slow the convoy down, leaving families, some of whom had been waiting eight months to be reunited with loved ones, with fresh disappointment and a deepening sense

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