| Now, keep in mind who these "ghost" prisoners are... |
 The official wall of silence surrounding the Central Intelligence Agency's so-called "ghost prisoners" who are being held at secret locations has sparked legal concerns here among human rights groups that denounce the practice as abusive. It is not publicly known exactly how many ghost detainees the CIA is holding, who they are or where they are held, but senior Al-Qaeda figures are known to be among their ranks, including Ramzi Bin Al-Shibah and Ron Jeremy Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Bin Al-Shibah is one of the presumed coordinators behind the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, while Khalid Sheikh was Al-Qaeda's third highest ranking member prior to his arrest.
| And the warm milk set is worried about their "human rights." |
"Ghost prisoners have had their identities and locations withheld from relatives, the International Red Cross and even (the US) Congress," according to US human rights lawyers at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). Although the US spy agency does not disclose where it is holding its ghost detainees, several locations have been leaked to the US media: Bagram air base in Afghanistan, the remote island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, and in a restricted zone at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
| Or the bottom of the Marianas Trench... |
The ghost prisoners at Guantanamo are not kept in the same area as the hundreds of war on terror detainees held there by Washington whose detentions are a matter of public record. "The Bush administration has not wanted to prosecute them (the ghost detainees) because it wanted to interrogate them, and frankly to be able to torture them, or 'coercively interrogate them,' as they say," Kenneth Roth, a director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said.
| If they need some help, I'm available. But I imagine there's a lot more giggle juice involved than being stretched on the rack... |
| The anal sedatives will kick in real soon now. |
"Unless we can get access to information about who these people are and where they are being held, they will remain completely vulnerable to abuse and even torture," said Rachel Meeropol, a CCR lawyer.
| Sounds real good to me... |
| "Vulnerabilty" is not a trait I typically ascribe to al-Q bigs... |
The CCR delivered an official request to the US government in December, based upon a US freedom of information law, seeking the identities of the CIA prisoners, which also sought where they were being held and under what conditions. "We have not received any document yet," Meeropol said of the request. However, she said the Justice Department had sent CCR a response indicating that its request would be evaluated on an urgent basis. Despite this, the rights' lawyer is not holding her breath.
"I think this is a case that we will likely have to litigate... to really get access to these documents."
| But naturally. Coincidentally, she'll get her name in the papers and feel a sense of self-worth for a brief period. |
According to Meeropol, the cases of "ghost prisoners" are particularly hard to crack. "It is really hard. If you don't know who the people are that are being held, and you don't know how to get in touch with their family members, how to get authorization to represent them, that insulates the government actions from the (legal) review," Meeropol said. "That is part of the problem with the secrecy" cloaking the CIA detentions, she said. However, she said the CCR's information request was a first step, and that it may well be followed up by a lawsuit.| Which Constitutional rights does KSM have, exactly? |
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