The senior Muslim religious leader in the Iraqi city of Samarra inspected the jail at Forward Operating Base Brassfield-Mora earlier this month to check on the condition of Iraqi prisoners being held there by the 1st Infantry Division, a 1st ID spokesman said.

Hatem Ahmad Abass, the imam of the Al Hadi mosque, and two other local religious leaders visited the facility May 15 to meet with prisoners and deliver a sermon over a loudspeaker, said Capt. William Coppernoll, the spokesman.

The base, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, is home to Task Force 1-26, part of the 1st ID’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team.

According to an article on the division’s Web site, [BOLDFACE]www.1id.army.mil[/BOLDFACE], Lt. Col. Kirk Allen, the task force commander, met with the religious leaders. Then military police and the unit’s chaplain escorted them around the jail, showing them the living areas, showers and latrines used by the prisoners.

Division leaders invited the imam to the jail in order to show Iraqis that conditions at other Army detention facilities are unlike those described in the unfolding scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad.

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