Detainee Operations; Defeating an Insurgency from Within the Wire

As of November 2006, the United States (US) military maintains custody of over 15,000 detainees at four theater interment facilities and one strategic internment facility. With such large populations, there are significant risks of creating radical extremist. The US military must take preventive measures to ensure further radicalization of those individuals who may not necessarily have previously held those views which may have both tactical and strategic implications. To accomplish this task, the US Detainee Operations program requires modification to prevent radicalization of those detainees under its control. The author recommends that the US military modify the current doctrinal objectives from process, handle, care for, account for, and secure detainees to detain both lawful and unlawful enemy combatants and to prevent combatants from continuing the fight against the US and its allies. Additionally, the author recommends logical lines of operations essential to achieve these objectives. The recommended logical lines of operations are based on case study of previous detainee operations, best practices of corrections, and counterinsurgency theory and operations.