UK Group Says US Used Ships as Prisons

[unhappycamper]

UK Group Says US Used Ships as Prisons
June 03, 2008
Associated Press

LONDON - A British human rights organization claimed June 2 that the United States had used military ships to secretly detain and interrogate terrorism suspects. U.S. officials denied using ship as prisons.

The group Reprieve alleged that high-profile detainees including American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh and Australian Taliban supporter David Hicks were imprisoned on the vessels. Reprieve claims that the United States has used ships stationed off the Somali coast and the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia to detain suspects.

"The U.S. administration chooses ships to try to keep their misconduct as far as possible from the prying eyes of the media and lawyers," Reprieve director Clive Stafford Smith said.

The U.S. Navy said that ships have been used to hold a small number of prisoners for short periods, but it denied that vessels were used as long-term floating prisons.

"We do not operate detention facilities on board Navy ships," said Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman. "Department of Defense detention facilities are in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay."


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/uk-group-says-us-used-ships-as-prisons.html

[crikkett]

1. If prisoners were held on those ships does that mean the entire crew is guilty

of war crimes?

On the strength of one link in the cable //
dependeth the might of the chain

(from the song Laws of the Navy)