U.S. War Prisons Legal Vacuum for 14,000

[DoYouEverWonder]

September 17, 2006, 10:38 AM EDT

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law.

Disclosures of torture and long-term arbitrary detentions have won rebuke from leading voices including the U.N. secretary-general and the U.S. Supreme Court. But the bitterest words come from inside the system, the size of several major U.S. penitentiaries.

"It was hard to believe I'd get out," Baghdad shopkeeper Amjad Qassim al-Aliyawi told The Associated Press after his release -- without charge -- last month. "I lived with the Americans for one year and eight months as if I was living in hell."

Captured on battlefields, pulled from beds at midnight, grabbed off streets as suspected insurgents, tens of thousands now have passed through U.S. detention, the vast majority in Iraq.

Many say they were caught up in U.S. military sweeps, often interrogated around the clock, then released months or years later without apology, compensation or any word on why they were taken. Seventy to 90 percent of the Iraq detentions in 2003 were "mistakes," U.S. officers once told the international Red Cross.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-in-american-hands,0,2844992.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines


Tens of thousands of detainees! No wonder Bush was quaking in his boots last Friday. This is a lot bigger then the handful of detainees that they admitted to holding and have just brought to Gitmo. Yet, not a single major conviction has resulted.

[Benhurst]

1. The Evil Empire. NT

[Eugene]

2. AP: U.S. Holds AP Photographer in Iraq 5 Mos

U.S. Holds AP Photographer in Iraq 5 Mos

By ROBERT TANNER AP National Writer

Sep 17, 2006 (AP)— The U.S. military in Iraq has imprisoned an Associated
Press photographer for five months, accusing him of being a security threat
but never filing charges or permitting a public hearing.

Military officials said Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi citizen, was being held for
"imperative reasons of security" under United Nations resolutions.
AP executives said the news cooperative's review of Hussein's work did not
find anything to indicate inappropriate contact with insurgents, and any
evidence against him should be brought to the Iraqi criminal justice system.

Hussein, 35, is a native of Fallujah who began work for the AP in September
2004. He photographed events in Fallujah and Ramadi until he was detained
on April 12 of this year.

-snip-

Hussein is one of an estimated 14,000 people detained by the U.S. military
worldwide 13,000 of them in Iraq. They are held in limbo where few are ever
charged with a specific crime or given a chance before any court or tribunal
to argue for their freedom.

-snip-

Full article: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2454961

[Tanuki]

3. My guess is that he witnessed and photographed

something very, very bad that * doesn't want the world to know about.

[Drum]

4. Shame of a Nation... n/t

[gully]

5. 70 to 90% "mistakes." Not "terrorists" but "mistakes."

And what percentage of these mitakes died and didn't make it into the "mistake" category?

Awful beyond words.

[SeattleVet]

11. How many of those "mistakes" now have a deep, unbridled hatred

for the US?

I have an idea - lets lock up Bush and another 14, 000 of his friends, cronies, toadies, and associates for the next 4 years, then tell 70% of them that it was a mistake, go home. See how well they react to it. Bastards.

[Felinity]

13. Yippee! 10-30% of the time we got it right!

Pitiful.

Pitiful.

Pitiful.

How much more needless suffering and destruction?

:cry:

[Supersedeas]

33. more facts the Corp Television Media dare not repeat

[rodeodance]

6. and people have long memories when it comes to things like this.

[annabanana]

12. So do their children,

and grandchildren...

He has ruined us internationally for generations to come.

[The Wielding Truth]

30. Yes - we and our grandchildren. We are all part of the human body.

What you do to the lowliest of us you do unto me.

[rodeodance]

7. In Iraq, Army jailers are a step ahead........more

.......I don't think we've gotten to the question of how long," said retired admiral John D. Hutson, former top lawyer for the U.S. Navy. "When we get up to 'forever,' I think it will be tested" in court, he said.

The Navy is planning long-term at Guantanamo. This fall it expects to open a new, $30-million maximum-security wing at its prison complex there, a concrete-and-steel structure replacing more temporary camps.

In Iraq, Army jailers are a step ahead. Last month they opened a $60-million, state-of-the-art detention center at Camp Cropper, near Baghdad's airport. The Army oversees about 13,000 prisoners in Iraq at Cropper, Camp Bucca in the southern desert, and Fort Suse in the Kurdish north.

Neither prisoners of war nor criminal defendants, they are just "security detainees" held "for imperative reasons of security," spokesman Curry said, using language from an annex to a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the U.S. presence here.

[bvar22]

8. And comparisons between the Republicans and the NAZIs

or Stalinists are invalid.......why? :shrug:

Remind me.

[Jed Dilligan]

27. Chirp chirp chirp nt

[The Sushi Bandit]

9. U.S. War Prisons Legal Vacuum for 14,000

http://channels.isp.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-1107&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20060917%2F1147219301.htm&sc=1107&floc=NI-nelead


BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law.

Disclosures of torture and long-term arbitrary detentions have won rebuke from leading voices including the U.N. secretary-general and the U.S. Supreme Court. But the bitterest words come from inside the system, the size of several major U.S. penitentiaries.

``It was hard to believe I'd get out,'' Baghdad shopkeeper Amjad Qassim al-Aliyawi told The Associated Press after his release - without charge - last month. ``I lived with the Americans for one year and eight months as if I was living in hell.''

[peacebird]

10. fourteen THOUSAND people in the secret gulags?!?!?!? O.M.G.

[Disturbed]

16. "He photographed events in Fallujah and Ramadi."

There is the clue as to why he was sent to prison!

[sattahipdeep]

14. Woops

"I'm the decider, and I decide what's best." George W. Bush

[fooj]

15. Any member of congress who complies w/ Shrub re: torture

will be prosecuted as a war criminal. I believe that to be true. Any takers? They can huff and puff all they want...you would have to be a total IDIOT to jump on this train wreck!

[leQ]

17. if every American voter would have that on their minds come voting day,

i'd bet we would have a regime change.

[Robbien]

18. U.S. Overseas Detention System Numbers

-- A look at the U.S. overseas detention system that has developed since 2001:

NUMBERS OF DETAINEES

Iraq (Camp Bucca, Camp Cropper, Fort Suse) _ 13,390

Afghanistan (Bagram air base) _ Estimated 500

Guantanamo Bay _ 455

. . .

DETAINEE ABUSE

Allegations _ About 800 investigations of alleged mistreatment in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Punished _ More than 250 service personnel punished, many via loss of rank or pay, or discharge from service.

Courts-Martial _ At least 103

Convictions _ 89 service members convicted; 19 sentences of one year or more.

Read the rest of the article for construction, nationalities and death numbers:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/17/AR2006091700271_pf.html

[leftchick]

19. what about the secret renditions?

isn't it time to count up the ones in secret locations now that it isn't a secret anymore?

[Robbien]

21. Bush released the 14 prisoners and said he closed the secret jails

and the corporate media reported that fact as if the case was closed.

Yeah, right.

[leftchick]

23. I remember hearing that on CNN

Then later in the day NPR reported that those fourteen were part of almost 100 secretly rendered prisoners. The whereabouts of the others are unknown.

[DoYouEverWonder]

20. Yet, not one single conviction

of any key member of al CIAda, including Osama, who they still can't seem to find.

[truthisfreedom]

24. and as a result of the torture tactics, it's looking less and less likely

that we'll get ANY convictions.

[DoYouEverWonder]

26. That's right

If they ever go to court in the US most of the evidence collected will have to be thrown out.

Tell me again, how does this make us safer?

[Laughing Mirror]

22. Add to those the ones in those East European countries

the Washington Post hasn't found out about yet or doesn't want to expose. Why?

[sattahipdeep]

25. Prosecution _ Punishment in 14 death cases.

Homicides _ At least 34.

Unknown/Undetermined Causes _ At least 48.

[enough]

28. k&r

[ConcernedCanuk]

29. Da friggen White House is a legal vaccum - -

.
.
.

[951-Riverside]

31. *bump*

[snappyturtle]

32. I don't think * was shaking in his boots I think he was

sh***(&^ in his pants! God knows I am mortified at what "they" have done in our name! It's done without conscience! But what they have done to detainees can be turned around and done to us----to shut the F**&* up!

[DoYouEverWonder]

34. And these folks call themselves christians.

Where in the bible does it say 'thou shalt torture thy brother'?