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| Our Invisible Network of Prisons for Captured Terrorists |
| 2004-06-13 |
| From Guardian Unlimited The United States government, in conjunction with key allies, is running an ’invisible’ network of prisons and detention centres into which thousands of suspects have disappeared without trace since the ’war on terror’ began. In the past three years, thousands of alleged militants have been transferred around the world by American, Arab and Far Eastern security services, often in secret operations that by-pass extradition laws. The astonishing traffic has seen many, including British citizens, sent from the West to countries where they can be tortured to extract information. Anything learnt is passed on to the US and, in some cases, reaches British intelligence. ... The practice of ’renditions’ - when suspects are handed directly into the custody of another state without due process - has sparked particular anger. At least 70 such transfers have occurred, according to CIA sources. Many involve men who have been freed by the courts and are thus legally innocent. Renditions are often used when American interrogators believe that harsh treatment - banned in their own country - would produce results. The Observer has obtained details of two incidents in which men have been detained by the US despite being found innocent by courts in their own country. In one, a British businessman called Wahab al-Rami, an Iraqi living in the UK and a Palestinian seeking asylum were arrested by US and local officers in Gambia in November 2002 as they stepped off a flight from London. Their seizure, which followed a tip-off from the UK security services - came just days after they had been arrested by British police on suspicion of terrorism and then freed by a British court. Two were transported from Gambia to Guantanamo Bay - where they remain today - without any legal process. In the other incident, two Turks, a Saudi, a Kenyan and a Sudanese man were arrested in Malawi in June 2003 on suspicion of funding terrorist networks. Though freed by local courts, the men were handed over to the CIA and held for several months. Campaigners say these incidents are ’the tip of an iceberg’. Few escape the ghost network of detention facilities, which range from massive prison camps such as that at Guantanamo Bay to naval vessels in the Indian Ocean, so accounts of life inside the new gulag are rare. .... The ghost prison network stretches around the globe. The biggest American-run facilities are at the Bagram airbase, north of Kabul in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, where around 400 men are held, and in Iraq, where tens of thousands of detainees are held. Saddam Hussein and dozens of top Baath party officials are held in a prison at Baghdad airport. However, Washington is relying heavily on allies. In Morocco, scores of detainees once held by the Americans are believed to be held at the al-Tamara interrogation centre sited in a forest five miles outside the capital, Rabat. Many of the detainees were originally captured by the Pakistani authorities, who passed them on to the Americans. .... In Syria, detainees sent by Washington are held at ’the Palestine wing’ of the main intelligence headquarters and a series of jails in Damascus and other cities. Egypt has also received a steady flow of militants from American installations. Many other militants have been sent to Egypt by other countries through transfers assisted by the Americans, often using planes run by the CIA. In Cairo, prisoners are kept in the interrogation centre in the general intelligence directorate in Lazoughli and in Mulhaq al-Mazra prison, according to Montasser al-Zayat, an Islamist lawyer in Cairo and former spokesman for outlawed militant groups. Terrorists have also been sent to facilities in Baku, Azerbaijan, and to unidentified locations in Thailand. Scores more are thought to be at a US airbase in the Gulf state of Qatar, and a large number are believed to have been sent to Saudi Arabia, where CIA agents are allowed to sit in on some of the interrogations. Elsewhere, security officials merely provide the Americans with summaries. .... The exact number of prisoners held by the Americans or their allies is unknown, but US officials claim that more than 3,000 al-Qaeda militants have been arrested since 11 September. Only around 350 are held in Guantanamo Bay. Very few have been released. .... |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #10 The US has been using GITMO as a shiny object to focus all scrutiny on, and it's worked marvelously. Right after the ball got rolling, some CIA agent let slip that one of the other prisons is knicknamed "The Hotel California", not because of its location, but through some cryptic and icky references to the lyrics of that song. A "friend" speculated that they should have a "Rat" program. A "Stainless Steel Rat" is loaded with internal tracking devices. A "Cannibal Rat" has been reprogrammed to kill his buddies when he gets back home--seek and destroy. A "Blam Rat" is filled with very advanced explosives and doesn't know it--lethal to anyone within 30 feet when he is detonated. He suggested another half dozen "Rat" types. So let me pose a question to the assembled: is the US using its really horrific X-Files tech on these bad boys? Psychotropic drugs, chip implants, brainwashing, etc. And if not, then *why* not? |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2004-06-13 10:50:44 PM |
| #9 Jeepers, this is awful! I bet they didn't even read them their Miranda Rights! |
| Posted by: Parabellum 2004-06-13 6:28:09 PM |
| #8 "Allahu Akbar! The foolish infidels have detained me next to the alien bodies from Roswell! I shall be the most famous jihadi of them all. Hey wait-- this one looks Jewish." |
| Posted by: Matt 2004-06-13 5:06:37 PM |
| #7 you know i just felt a tear start...so what..they are not american and entitled to any protection of the constitution...and plus..this is a fact totally ignored by the media and our lovely sen. biden - al queda (to the best of my knowledge) has never signed the geneva convention....so how does it apply? it does not... |
| Posted by: Dan 2004-06-13 4:20:50 PM |
| #6 "according to CIA sources" "and a large number are believed to have been sent to Saudi Arabia, where CIA agents are allowed to sit in on some of the interrogations." Written in a pub in Soho. |
| Posted by: rich woods 2004-06-13 3:42:13 PM |
| #5 LOL, WR, I predict a great journalistic future for you with one of the British 'news' organisations. |
| Posted by: GK 2004-06-13 2:13:11 PM |
| #4 Sounds like someone made some good decisions on how to treat the many piles of crap that we are picking up in the WOT. I wonder how I can volunteer to fly the black helocopters to the secret prisons? Wait they are flying over head now to pick me up.....See you L8tr. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2004-06-13 1:39:43 PM |
| #3 The famous Black Helicopter Detachment is assigned to the invisible prison located next to the Tri-Lateral Commission Headquarters at an undisclosed location. Coincidently (?) this is the same undisclosed location where CHAINY has been hiding. I swear, mucky told me all of this. |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-06-13 1:10:12 PM |
| #2 Al Guardian, in its classic fuck-America style, implies much that the facts do not bear out. Example: Detainees sent to Syria. Syria cannot be called a key ally - by any stretch of imagination. How these people are treated, where detained, etc. is certainly not under the control of the US and if, as implied, these "have disappeared without trace" - precisely what does the US have to do with it? AlG should bash the Syrians (and all other Arab regimes, in fact) for the total lack of press freedoms and accuracy. Pfeh. In many ways this is a pure hit piece. If they stuck to the simple facts, eliminated the obvious crap and spin and vitriol, they might have some credibility. Including such tripe as Syria and implying the US is somehow culpable for how Syria handles terrorists is typical Al Guardian Bullshit. Can you say Agenda? How, pray-tell, can anyone believe any of the rest after finding such obvious insanity? *flush* |
| Posted by: .com 2004-06-13 1:08:32 PM |
| #1 I meant to put this on page 1. |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-06-13 12:51:31 PM |