'Terrorist'='Trafficked to the US for a $78k Pakistani-equivalent bounty'?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

Would knowing about huge money incentives for mislabeling people as 'terrorists', and about hundreds of 'terrorists' already released from Guantanamo because it was decided they had been wrongly charged, change any minds about torturing 'terrorists'?

Amnesty International says (see http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20496534-1702,00.html , an Amnesty International press release at http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGASA330382006 , and a GD thread at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2253704 ):

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'"The road to Guantanamo very literally starts in Pakistan," said Amnesty's Claudio Cordone, commenting on the report. "Hundreds of people have been picked up in mass arrests, many have been sold to the USA as 'terrorists' simply on the word of their captor, and hundreds have been transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Bagram Airbase (a US base in Afghanistan) or secret detention centres run by the USA," he said....

"A large number of war on terror detainees have been literally sold into US hands by bounty hunters who have received cash payments in return, typically $US5000 ... ," it said....

The report said that 300 people - previously labelled as "terrorists" and "killers" by the US government - have since been released from Guantanamo Bay without charge, the majority to Pakistan or Afghanistan. "Many detainees remain unaccounted for, their fate and whereabouts unknown," it said, saying they include a baby and a 13-year-old Saudi boy called Talha, according to reports. "More than two years later, nothing is known about the fate and whereabouts of Talha and the other children and women," said Amnesty."'

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GDP per capita at purchasing power parity in the US ($41,399) is 15.6 times what it is in Pakistan ($2,653), according to IMF estimates for 2005 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita.

Multiplying the typical $5,000 bounty for a so-called terrorist makes the Pakistani equivalent amount $78,023.

[katinmn]

1. There is an article in the most recent MoJo about this very topic

Many former inmates at Gitmo were sold to CIA agents for a few thousand dollars!

[ProgressiveEconomist]

3. Thanks for the tip. Looks as though MoJo buried their lead:

I searched for use of the word "bounty" since 7/1/06 and got two hits from the MoJo "Advanced Search" engine:

"Mother Jones - Search

Results 1 - 2 of 2 for bounty

1. The Man Who Has Been to America: One Guantanamo detainee's story
...so." Later, he would hear that America paid bounties for suspected terrorists, and he would...
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/09/man_who_has_been_to_america.html

2. A Detainee's Story: The Man Who Has Been to America
...so.Ž Later, he would hear that America paid bounties for suspected terrorists, and he would...
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/07/guantanamo.html "

[katinmn]

5. "Why am I in Cuba?" in same issue has exerpts from military tribunal

Chilling.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/07/detainee_sidebar.html

"Why Am I in Cuba?"
News: Excerpts from military tribunal transcripts

By Dave Gilson

Under rules drawn up in hasty response to a 2004 Supreme Court ruling, the Pentagon gave the Guantanamo detainees one chance to prove that they were not—as the U.S. government had vigorously asserted for the past two years—“the worst of the worst.” Between July 2004 and January 2005, the military held hundreds of combatant status review tribunals, one-time hearings in which detainees went before a panel of three unidentified American officers who reviewed the government’s reasons for holding them as enemy combatants. Detainees couldrespond directly to the accusations made against them and were assigned to an officer who shepherded them through the process. However, they did not have access to lawyers and often could not fully examine the government’s claims, particularly if those claims were based on classified information. Of the 558 detainees who faced tribunals, 38 were declared “No Longer Enemy Combatants.” (Thirty-five have since been released.) Asked about the process, then-Secretary of the Navy Gordon England said, “Obviously, it’s not perfect.” In June, the Supreme Court agreed, ruling that the tribunals had violated federal law and the Geneva Conventions. Soon afterwards, the Pentagon announced it would begin to follow the conventions’ protections for detainees. These excerpts were taken from the thousands of pages of tribunal transcripts released this spring under the Freedom of Information Act.

Detainee 152, a Yemeni named Asim
Thahit Abdullah Al Khalaqi, was confronted with a list of the U.S. government’s reasons for calling him an enemy combatant.
al khalaqi: Are these evidence or accusations?
tribunal president: They are in the form of both….
al khalaqi: I’m sorry, I just don’t understand. How does it fit the two pictures or definitions? For example, if I say this table is the chair and the chair is the table and they are the same thing, does that make sense?
tribunal president:No, that doesn’t make sense. But this process makes sense to me and hopefully it will make sense to you, because you’re the one who’s going to have to provide us with evidence and tell us that you did or did not do these things as listed on the summary of evidence.
al khalaqi: So I just answer the accusations. But I’m going to call it accusations. I’m not going to call it evidence.
tribunal president:Very well, you can call it as you wish.

Detainee 024, a 24-year-old British citizen named Feroz Ali Abbasi, was released and sent back to England in January 2005.
abbasi: So, you are telling me I am an enemy combatant. I am telling you by special Geneva Conventions, I am a non-combatant….
tribunal president:Once again, international law does not matter here. Geneva Convention does not matter here. What matters here and I am concerned about and what I really want to get to is your status as enemy combatant based upon the evidence that has been provided and your actions while you were in Afghanistan. If you deviate from that one more time you will be removed from this tribunal and we will continue to hear evidence without you being present….
abbasi: I know, but I have the right to speak….
tribunal president:No, you don’t.
abbasi: And the personal representative told me I can say whatever I like.
tribunal president:He was mistaken if he told you that….

tribunal president:Once again…international law…. Mr. Abbasi, your conduct is unacceptable and this is your absolute final warning. I don’t care about international law. I don’t want to hear the words “international law” again. We are not concerned with international law.

[Divernan]

2. 86 % Guantanamo prisoners sold to US for $$$$

www.jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2006/03/adels-anniversary-guantanamo-tale.php
The Vice President says the men are Al Qaeda fighters. What does the military say? Eight percent are al Qaeda fighters. NINETY TWO PERCENT ARE NOT. The Vice President says these men were picked up on the battlefield. The military data show that five percent were picked up on the battlefield. How did we get the others? US forces distributed leaflets. One says, in Pashto:

"Get wealth and power beyond your dreams …
You can receive millions of dollars helping the anti-Taliban forces catch al-Qaida and Taliban murderers. This is enough money to take care of your family, your village, your tribe for the rest of your life. Pay for livestock and doctors and school books and housing for all your people."

EIGHT-SIX PERCENT WERE SOLD TO US BY PEOPLE WHO GOT THE LEAFLETS.

Vice President Cheney says they committed hostile acts against Americans or their allies. What do the data show? Fifty-five percent of the detainees committed no hostile act against the US or its allies or any one else. By the way, wearing a Casio watch is a "hostile act." So is fleeing from US bombing.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

4. EXCELLENT link, thank you! I'll have to hang out at EOA more often