Southern Fried Politician Meets Young Jihadis, Story at 11

After the dinner Wednesday, a group of us geared up and took a pair of Blackhawks deep into the night. Well, not that deep, just west across Baghdad to Camp Victory, the sprawling headquarters of American military operations in Iraq. Those of us not based there checked into the JVB (something Visitors' something) to spend a restful night in one of Saddam's smaller palaces that had been converted into VIP housing. (It was nice, but still not quite those Distinguished Visitor Quarters at Fort Benning -- I hope to someday own a house that nice.)

In the morning I joined my colleagues and Sen. Graham for breakfast, in an unassuming room overlooking the usual unassuming man-made lake ringed by unassuming palaces. Some soldiers were fishing off the "veranda" as we took some pictures of -- surprise, surprise -- another surreal scene from Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Then we drove to the Al-Faw Palace, took some more pictures, met with the JAGs based there, and continued on to meet Marine Maj. Gen. Stone, the Deputy CG for Detainees and his team. Maj. Gen. Stone escorted Sen. Graham around the facility where Saddam Hussein spent his last days. No photographs allowed.

Next we toured a remarkable operation, the juvenile detention facility at Camp Cropper (the smaller U.S.-run detention facility, dwarfed by Camp Bucca's 20,000 detainees). We saw Iraqis aged 10-17 playing soccer -- in orange uniforms, barefoot or in sandals, though they'd been offered shoes. Then we entered a classroom full of 13-14-year-olds learning algebra, followed by a dormitory. Sen. Graham said a few words through an interpreter, and the kids sat there with varying expressions of interest, boredom, and cynicism -- the typical adolescent attitude.

Most of the kids held here -- in a place many don't want to leave (and whose parents want them to stay, to be educated and gain skills) --were detained for planting IEDs and serving as lookouts for IED plots. Maj. Gen. Stone has some remarkable ideas about detainee ops -- some of which I was privy to as I again played human-sized fly on the wall of the SUV driving him and Sen. Graham.

After the Cropper tour, we bid adieu to Sen. Graham and others who were journeying down south to Camp Bucca, grabbing chow at the DFAC and beginning an off-the-beaten-path tour of Camp Victory.