U.S. planning big new prison in Afghanistan.
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on May 18th, 2008 4:30 am by HL
U.S. planning big new prison in Afghanistan.
In “a stark acknowledgment that the United States is likely to continue to hold prisoners overseas for years to come,” the New York Times reports today that “the Pentagon is moving forward with plans to build a new, 40-acre detention complex” at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan. As Justin Peters notes at Slate, the […]
In “a stark acknowledgment that the United States is likely to continue to hold prisoners overseas for years to come,” the New York Times reports today that “the Pentagon is moving forward with plans to build a new, 40-acre detention complex” at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan. As Justin Peters notes at Slate, the Times’ article doesn’t reveal until its final paragraphs that “some detainees have been held without charge for more than five years” at the current Bagram detention facility:
Military personnel who know both Bagram and Guantánamo describe the Afghan site, 40 miles north of Kabul, as far more spartan. Bagram prisoners have fewer privileges, less ability to contest their detention and no access to lawyers.
Some detainees have been held without charge for more than five years, officials said. As of April, about 10 juveniles were being held at Bagram, according to a recent American report to a United Nations committee.
