By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent
Fri Jan 27, 6:53 PM ET
The U.S. Army in Iraq has at least twice seized and jailed the
wives of suspected insurgents in hopes of "leveraging" their
husbands into surrender, U.S. military documents show.
In one case, a secretive task force locked up the young
mother of a nursing baby, a U.S. intelligence officer reported. In
the case of a second detainee, one American colonel suggested to
another that they catch her husband by tacking a note to the
family's door telling him "to come get his wife."
The issue of female detentions in Iraq has taken on a higher
profile since kidnappers seized American journalist Jill Carroll on
Jan. 7 and threatened to kill her unless all Iraqi women detainees
are freed.
The U.S. military on Thursday freed five of what it said were 11
women among the 14,000 detainees currently held in the 2
1/2-year-old insurgency. All were accused of "aiding terrorists or
planting explosives," but an Iraqi government commission found that
evidence was lacking.
Iraqi human rights activist Hind al-Salehi contends that U.S.
anti-insurgent units, coming up empty-handed in raids on suspects'
houses, have at times detained wives to pressure men into turning
themselves in.
Iraq's deputy justice minister, Busho Ibrahim Ali,
dismissed such claims, saying hostage-holding was a tactic used
under the ousted Saddam Hussein dictatorship, and "we are not
Saddam." A U.S. command spokesman in Baghdad, Lt. Col.
Barry Johnson, said only Iraqis who pose an "imperative threat" are
held in long-term U.S.-run detention facilities.
But documents describing two 2004 episodes tell a different story
as far as short-term detentions by local U.S. units. The documents
are among hundreds the Pentagon has released periodically under
U.S. court order to meet an American Civil Liberties Union request
for information on detention practices.
In one memo, a civilian Pentagon intelligence officer described
what happened when he took part in a raid on an Iraqi suspect's
house in Tarmiya, northwest of Baghdad, on May 9, 2004. The raid
involved Task Force (TF) 6-26, a secretive military unit formed to
handle high-profile targets.
"During the pre-operation brief it was recommended by TF personnel
that if the wife were present, she be detained and held in order to
leverage the primary target's surrender," wrote the 14-year veteran
officer.
He said he objected, but when they raided the house the team
leader, a senior sergeant, seized her anyway.
"The 28-year-old woman had three young children at the
house, one being as young as six months and still nursing," the
intelligence officer wrote. She was held for two days and was
released after he complained, he said.
Like most names in the released documents, the officer's signature
is blacked out on this for-the-record memorandum about his
complaint.
Of this case, command spokesman Johnson said he could not judge,
months later, the factors that led to the woman's detention.
The second episode, in June 2004, is found in sketchy detail in
e-mail exchanges among six U.S. Army colonels, discussing an
undisclosed number of female detainees held in northern Iraq by the
Stryker Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division.
The first message, from a military police colonel, advised staff
officers of the U.S. northern command that the Iraqi police would
not take control of the jailed women without charges being brought
against them.
In a second e-mail, a command staff officer asked an officer of the
unit holding the women, "What are you guys doing to try to get the
husband have you tacked a note on the door and challenged him to
come get his wife?"
Two days later, the brigade's deputy commander advised the higher
command, "As each day goes by, I get more input that these gals
have some info and/or will result in getting the husband."
He went on, "These ladies fought back extremely hard during the
original detention. They have shown indications of deceit and
misinformation."
The command staff colonel wrote in reply, referring to a commanding
general, "CG wants the husband."
The released e-mails stop there, and the women's eventual status
could not be immediately determined.
Of this episode, Johnson said, "It is clear the unit believed the
females detained had substantial knowledge of insurgent activity
and warranted being held."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060127/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_leveraging_wives
First document: http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/t2614_2616.pdf
that's call kidnap and is illegal anywhere else in the world. Even
insurgents don't do that.... 
WTF