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Fiel a Verdad
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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisp...news&thesubsection=world&thesecondsubsection=
Report says US has secret detention centres
18.06.2004
WASHINGTON - The United States is holding terrorism suspects in more than two dozen detention centres worldwide and about half of these operate in total secrecy, said a human rights report released on Thursday.
Human Rights First, formerly known as the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, said in a report that secrecy surrounding these facilities made "inappropriate detention and abuse not only likely but inevitable." "The abuses at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib cannot be addressed in isolation," said Deborah Pearlstein, director of the group's US Law and Security programme, referring to the US Naval base prison in Cuba and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq where abuses are being investigated.
"This is all about secrecy, accountability and the law," Pearlstein told a news conference. The report coincided with news that Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered military officials to hold a suspect in a prison near Baghdad without telling the Red Cross. Pearlstein said this would be a violation of the Geneva Conventions and Defence Department directives. She said thousands of security detainees were being held by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as locations elsewhere which the military refused to disclose.
"The US government is holding prisoners in a secret system of off-shore prisons beyond the reach of adequate supervision, accountability of law," said the report. Pearlstein said multiple sources reported US detention centres in, among other places, Kohat in Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia and at Al Jafr prison in Jordan, where the group said the CIA had an interrogation facility.
Prisoners are also being held at the Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, South Carolina, and others were suspected of being held on US warships. A defence department spokesman told Reuters he would comment when he had more information about the report. Pearlstein called for the US authorities to end "secret detentions," provide a list of prisoners, investigate abuses and allow the International Committee of the Red Cross unfettered access to detainees.
US treatment of detainees came under the spotlight after disturbing photos were leaked to the media showing US soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners. The United States is conducting several investigations into these abuses but Pearlstein said these were not enough and a full court of inquiry should be ordered. Families of suspects detained by US authorities have complained strongly about the lack of information about detainees held by US authorities since the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States.
Pakistani Farhat Paracha said via a telephone link-up at the news conference that she tried for weeks to find her husband, Saifullah Paracha, who disappeared last June when he took a business trip from Pakistan to Thailand. Paracha said she asked the US and Pakistani governments to track him down and only learned about his whereabouts when the Red Cross contacted her six weeks later to say her husband was being held at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. "I feel disgusted. It makes my heart sink. I feel so powerless and so helpless," said Paracha. - REUTERS
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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3566058&msg=emaillink
Secret US jails hold 10,000
13.05.2004
By ANDREW BUNCOMBE and KIM SENGUPTA WASHINGTON - Almost 10,000 prisoners from President George W. Bush's so-called war on terror are being held around the world in secretive American-run jails and interrogation centres similar to the notorious Abu Ghraib Prison. Some of these detention centres are so sensitive that even the most senior members of the United States Congress have no idea where they are. From Iraq to Afghanistan to Cuba, this American gulag is driven by the pressure to obtain "actionable" intelligence from prisoners captured by US forces.
The systematic practice of holding prisoners without access to lawyers or their families, together with a willingness to use "coercive interrogation" techniques, suggests the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib now shocking the world could be widespread. Iraq has become a holding pen for America's prisoners from 21 countries, according to a report from the international campaign group Human Rights Watch. The US military is keeping prisoners at 10 centres, most of which were used by Saddam Hussein's regime.
The total in January was 8968, and is thought to have increased. Prisoners are being held from, among other countries, Algeria, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Yemen. A report in the Washington Post has revealed that up to 8000 Iraqi prisoners are being held at Abu Ghraib, the jail west of Baghdad also known as the Baghdad Central Correctional Facility or BCCF, and nine other facilities inside Iraq.
It is impossible to know for sure because the Pentagon refuses to provide complete information. Officials say prisoners range from those accused of petty crimes to detainees believed to be involved in attacks on US forces, though it is increasingly clear that many hundreds are simply Iraqi civilians swept up in raids by US and British soldiers. Military and diplomatic sources say a number of detainees were taken to Iraq from Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, the US military still holds 300 or more prisoners at Bagram, north of Kabul, and at facilities in Kandahar, Jalalabad and Asadabad.
The CIA, meanwhile, runs an interrogation centre in Kabul that is known by special forces and others simply as "The Pit". At Guantanamo Bay, more than 600 prisoners remain incarcerated more than two years after they were captured in the aftermath of the US operation against the Taleban.
Last week the US admitted that two guards at the camp had been disciplined for using "excessive force" against prisoners. Michael Ratner, vice-president of the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, which has represented many of the Guantanamo prisoners, said yesterday it was clear that a pattern was emerging. "To me it means they are breaching international law as well as domestic law. The treatment is obviously illegal," he said. "It puts what is happening in Iraq into perspective. The idea that just a few soldiers came up with this is inconceivable. It has come from very high up in the Administration."
Report says US has secret detention centres
18.06.2004
WASHINGTON - The United States is holding terrorism suspects in more than two dozen detention centres worldwide and about half of these operate in total secrecy, said a human rights report released on Thursday.
Human Rights First, formerly known as the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, said in a report that secrecy surrounding these facilities made "inappropriate detention and abuse not only likely but inevitable." "The abuses at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib cannot be addressed in isolation," said Deborah Pearlstein, director of the group's US Law and Security programme, referring to the US Naval base prison in Cuba and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq where abuses are being investigated.
"This is all about secrecy, accountability and the law," Pearlstein told a news conference. The report coincided with news that Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered military officials to hold a suspect in a prison near Baghdad without telling the Red Cross. Pearlstein said this would be a violation of the Geneva Conventions and Defence Department directives. She said thousands of security detainees were being held by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as locations elsewhere which the military refused to disclose.
"The US government is holding prisoners in a secret system of off-shore prisons beyond the reach of adequate supervision, accountability of law," said the report. Pearlstein said multiple sources reported US detention centres in, among other places, Kohat in Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia and at Al Jafr prison in Jordan, where the group said the CIA had an interrogation facility.
Prisoners are also being held at the Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, South Carolina, and others were suspected of being held on US warships. A defence department spokesman told Reuters he would comment when he had more information about the report. Pearlstein called for the US authorities to end "secret detentions," provide a list of prisoners, investigate abuses and allow the International Committee of the Red Cross unfettered access to detainees.
US treatment of detainees came under the spotlight after disturbing photos were leaked to the media showing US soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners. The United States is conducting several investigations into these abuses but Pearlstein said these were not enough and a full court of inquiry should be ordered. Families of suspects detained by US authorities have complained strongly about the lack of information about detainees held by US authorities since the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States.
Pakistani Farhat Paracha said via a telephone link-up at the news conference that she tried for weeks to find her husband, Saifullah Paracha, who disappeared last June when he took a business trip from Pakistan to Thailand. Paracha said she asked the US and Pakistani governments to track him down and only learned about his whereabouts when the Red Cross contacted her six weeks later to say her husband was being held at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. "I feel disgusted. It makes my heart sink. I feel so powerless and so helpless," said Paracha. - REUTERS
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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3566058&msg=emaillink
Secret US jails hold 10,000
13.05.2004
By ANDREW BUNCOMBE and KIM SENGUPTA WASHINGTON - Almost 10,000 prisoners from President George W. Bush's so-called war on terror are being held around the world in secretive American-run jails and interrogation centres similar to the notorious Abu Ghraib Prison. Some of these detention centres are so sensitive that even the most senior members of the United States Congress have no idea where they are. From Iraq to Afghanistan to Cuba, this American gulag is driven by the pressure to obtain "actionable" intelligence from prisoners captured by US forces.
The systematic practice of holding prisoners without access to lawyers or their families, together with a willingness to use "coercive interrogation" techniques, suggests the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib now shocking the world could be widespread. Iraq has become a holding pen for America's prisoners from 21 countries, according to a report from the international campaign group Human Rights Watch. The US military is keeping prisoners at 10 centres, most of which were used by Saddam Hussein's regime.
The total in January was 8968, and is thought to have increased. Prisoners are being held from, among other countries, Algeria, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Yemen. A report in the Washington Post has revealed that up to 8000 Iraqi prisoners are being held at Abu Ghraib, the jail west of Baghdad also known as the Baghdad Central Correctional Facility or BCCF, and nine other facilities inside Iraq.
It is impossible to know for sure because the Pentagon refuses to provide complete information. Officials say prisoners range from those accused of petty crimes to detainees believed to be involved in attacks on US forces, though it is increasingly clear that many hundreds are simply Iraqi civilians swept up in raids by US and British soldiers. Military and diplomatic sources say a number of detainees were taken to Iraq from Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, the US military still holds 300 or more prisoners at Bagram, north of Kabul, and at facilities in Kandahar, Jalalabad and Asadabad.
The CIA, meanwhile, runs an interrogation centre in Kabul that is known by special forces and others simply as "The Pit". At Guantanamo Bay, more than 600 prisoners remain incarcerated more than two years after they were captured in the aftermath of the US operation against the Taleban.
Last week the US admitted that two guards at the camp had been disciplined for using "excessive force" against prisoners. Michael Ratner, vice-president of the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, which has represented many of the Guantanamo prisoners, said yesterday it was clear that a pattern was emerging. "To me it means they are breaching international law as well as domestic law. The treatment is obviously illegal," he said. "It puts what is happening in Iraq into perspective. The idea that just a few soldiers came up with this is inconceivable. It has come from very high up in the Administration."
