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Detainee lists 2004
In the last months of its existence, the Coalition Provisional Authority published on its Arabic website lists of the names of people held by Coalition forces and by the Iraqi Correctional Service, so that families could search for their relatives. These lists are rare evidence of the scale and the locations of detention at that time, and of people whose names are all that remains of them in the official record. We preserve them faithfully here, and show the public only aggregated figures, out of respect for the people named and their families.
What are these lists?
A single page on the CPA’s Arabic website (first captured by the Internet Archive in February 2004) linked to five files:
- “General list sorted by name” (Coalition Master Detainee List) — an Excel workbook of about 10,623 records on two sheets, last saved on 10 April 2004.
- “Master list of detainees under the control of the Iraqi Correctional Service” (ICS List) — an Access database.
- The “4 June”, “11 June” and “16 June” additions — successive versions of the Iraqi Correctional Service list.
At the top of the page the Authority itself wrote, in substance, that the lists included people held as imminent security threats under the Fourth Geneva Convention and people arrested as criminals in Baghdad; that the information came from interviews with the detainees and had not been independently verified, being “reasonably accurate but not reliable” as of the date of publication; and that anyone who did not find the person they were looking for should search again a week later.
Coalition master list: places of detention
Snapshot dated about 10 April 2004Ages in mid-2004
From the recorded year of birth · median: born 1973Whole list
Abu Ghraib
Umm Qasr (Camp Bucca)
Governorates
Inferred from the free-text place of birth and address — approximateBy place of birth
By address
Two waves of internment serial numbers (ISN)
The number is assigned at registration; these documents do not allow it to be linked to a dateAbu Ghraib
Umm Qasr (Camp Bucca)
About half of the Bucca detainees carry numbers much older than most Abu Ghraib inmates — an indication that they were registered in an earlier wave of arrests, if numbers were issued sequentially.
The Iraqi Correctional Service list shrinks
A comparison of numbers only, without names| Version | Records | By location |
|---|---|---|
| List of 4 June 2004 | 2,141 | Abu Ghraib 899, Al-Tasfirat 764, Karkh 213, Kadhimiya 136, Kadhimiya – Fifth Division 129 |
| List of 8 June 2004 (published as the “11 June addition”) | 2,027 | Abu Ghraib 899, Al-Tasfirat 748, Karkh 136, Kadhimiya – Fifth Division 126, Kadhimiya 118 |
| List of 16 June 2004 | 1,824 | Al-Tasfirat 777, Abu Ghraib 650, Karkh 150, Kadhimiya – Fifth Division 124, Kadhimiya 123 |
| Between | Stayed | Left the list | Added |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 June 2004 → 8 June 2004 | 1,673 | 318 | 163 |
| 8 June 2004 → 16 June 2004 | 1,403 | 433 | 209 |
1,269 numbers appear in all three versions. Leaving the list may mean release or transfer; the documents do not say which.
Related documents
Releases as reported in press conferences and statements
- 1 December 2003Press conference“There is a process that is in place that over the last 30 days has released well in excess of 800 detainees over that period.”
- 4 January 2004Press conference“We try to make the decision within 72 hours, after which the detainee is either retained as a security detainee; if they're classified as a civilian detainee they are sent into the court system or they are released altogether.”
- 7 January 2004Press conference“Tomorrow, the Coalition will release the first 100 detainees.”
- 8 January 2004Press conference“What's the difference between this regular release of prisoners that takes place, you know, every other day at that prison and the 500 that were announced yesterday? MR.”
- 22 January 2004Press conference“Finally, when we announced a couple of weeks ago the new reconciliation initiative -- this is the release of the first hundred prisoners as part of this reconciliation package that will be matched up with guarantors; and then, subsequent to that total, another 500 prisoners would be released, Iraqi detainees.”
- 3 February 2004Press conference“As of today, I can report that the overall number of guarantors, the sponsors that are required for the release of each prisoner, the total number of guarantors identified is 157, and the total number of detainees matched with a guarantor is 192.”
- 17 February 2004Press conference“Just, one, there is -- a photographer today said there were about 100 prisoners released from Abu Ghraib.”
- 21 February 2004Press conference“To that end, in the past 24 hours, the coalition conducted 1,490 patrols, 30 offensive operations, 20 raids, capturing 55 anti-coalition suspects, and releasing two detainees.”
- 26 February 2004Press conference“And we are -- we have released at this point almost 300 detainees to guarantors.”
- 8 March 2004Press conference“Of the 10 Arabic-speaking detainees, we have released eight back to the Iraqi police service, and we believe that the Iraqi police service has released them back to the community.”
- 15 March 2004Press conference“To that end, in the past 24 hours the coalition conducted 1,448 patrols, 15 offensive operations, seven raids, capturing 52 anti-coalition suspects and releasing seven detainees.”
- 30 March 2004Press conference“To that end, in the past 24 hours the coalition conducted 1,383 patrols, 14 offensive operations, 12 raids, captured 56 anti-coalition suspects and released 48 detainees.”
- 20 April 2004Press conference“soldiers, if you can confirm that for us; also reports that 250 prisoners had been released from Abu Ghraib.”
- 22 April 2004Press conference“For example, two days ago we released just over 200 detainees.”
- 23 April 2004Press conference“Since then we have released over 2,500 detainees.”
- 29 April 2004Statement“ But we have already released over 75 percent of those detained and we have simplified the processing of detainees.”
- 14 May 2004Press conference“Today at Abu Ghraib 293 prisoners were released.”
- 18 May 2004Press conference“There will be a prisoner release at Abu Ghraib on the 21st of May, and 471 prisoners will be released.”
- 19 May 2004Statement“Kimmitt added that there will be a prisoner release from Abu Ghraib on May 21 and 471 prisoners will be released.”
- 20 May 2004Press conference“Four hundred and seventy-two detainees will be released from Abu Ghraib tomorrow beginning at 08:00.”
- 21 May 2004Press conference“Today at Abu Ghraib, 454 detainees were released to coalition military representatives beginning at 8:00 for their return to their respective areas.”
- 27 May 2004Press conference“On Friday there will be a release of between 550 and 600 detainees from Abu Ghraib.”
- 30 May 2004Press conference“The next detainee released at Abu Ghraib is scheduled between 4 and 6 June, 360 detainees are scheduled for release.”
- 31 May 2004Press conference“To that end, in the past 24 hours, the coalition conducted 1,845 patrols, 16 offensive operations, 42 Air Force and Navy sorties, and released 12 detainees.”
- 12 June 2004Press conference“To that end, in the past 24 hours, the coalition and Iraqi security forces conducted 1,900 patrols, 20 offensive operations, 29 Air Force and Navy sorties, captured 39 anti-Iraqi elements and released 10 detainees.”
- 15 June 2004Press conference“Yesterday at Abu Ghraib, over 400 detainees were released, and over 100 will be released in the next 48 hours.”
- 21 June 2004Press conference“Forty-seven anti-coalition suspects were detained and 19 detainees were released.”
Requesting access
For researchers and scholars
The full lists are available for research and academic study only. Write to us with your name and academic affiliation, the research purpose, exactly which data you need, and how you will store it.
Conditions: use for research only; no publication of any name or data that identifies a person; secure storage; deletion of the copy once the research is complete; citation of the source. By default we provide researchers with an extract without names, unless the research requires otherwise.
For families
If you are looking for a relative whose name may appear in the 2004 lists, write to us with their full name as it used to be written, your relationship to them, and any detail that helps tell them apart. We will reply to you privately on whether the name appears and what the list says.
The lists were not verified, and the absence of a name proves nothing conclusively.
Contact: info@hummerarchive.org · Request access page
Methodology
We read the original files as they are, without altering them, and normalized the spelling for counting only (hamzas, tā’ marbūṭa and the Persian yā’). Governorates are inferred from the text using lists of city names and are approximate. Every cell with fewer than 5 people was merged into “Other” or withheld, so that no one can be identified. The main Iraqi Correctional Service database (ICS.mdb) could not be read reliably, so it is not included in the figures.