US Could Continue Afghan Detention

[unhappycamper]

US Could Continue Afghan Detention
Published on Wednesday, September 22, 2010 by Al Jazeera English

The US military has drawn up plans to continue holding Afghan prisoners it deems a threat in a "unilateral" prison complex on Bagram airbase even after it hands control of the main detention facility to the Afghan government next year.

US military authorities are expecting to retain control part of the existing Bagram prison to hold "security threats," as well as prisoners who were arrested outside the country and flown into Afghanistan on rendition flights, according to the admiral in charge of overseeing US detention operations in the country.

Vice-Admiral Robert Harward, the head of Joint Task Force 435, which runs US detentions in Afghanistan, was quoted on Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal admitting that the handover of Bagram was not expected to include all the prisoners currently being held there.

"I anticipate having a subset of unilateral US detention operations, including Pakistanis we can't repatriate and enduring security threats," the admiral said.

The prisoners would be held in one of Bagram's blocks which would remain under the control of the US military. The proposal has been slammed by legal campaigners, who say that it would effectively see dozens of prisoners held beyond the rule of law with no clear means of challenging their detention.



unhappycamper comment: Sometimes I really wonder who's driving the bus: the DoD or the CIC?

Extraordinary rendition, torture, no habeas corpus, indefinite detention are right out of the bu$h/cheney playbook. As such, Obama should have put all that RW shit to bed.

[JonLP24]

1. Right here

Is where I have serious issues with Obama. It isn't because he hasn't fixed everything.

Allow them to challenge their detention!!!

[ThomCat]

3. Right. The worst promise broken, the promise to restore the rule of law.

:(

Tribunals, imprisonment without any chance of release or ever seeing a judge or a defense attorney, or without having rules stacked against you, torture, rendition, etc.

We voted to end all of this illegal shit. We wanted the Geneva Conventions reinstated and followed. Instead, this is exactly what Bush did, and Obama is continuing what Bush did. :(

[G_j]

4. +10000

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[thereismore]

5. It's a sad story of detention and torture away from the US soil. And BTW Guantanamo is still open. n

[gratuitous]

6. If they're guilty of something, try 'em, convict 'em and jail 'em

If not, then we shouldn't be holding them. It's not rocket surgery. But it is a crime against humanity.