Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
The CIA’s global gulag
The Washington Post revealed November 2 that the US Central Intelligence Agency operates a global network of secret prisons that holds individuals captured or kidnapped in America’s so-called “war on terrorism.” This illegal prison system, first set up following the September 11 attacks, has at various points included facilities in eight countries, among them Thailand, Afghanistan and several countries in Eastern Europe, as well as a center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Conditions in these jails, referred to as “black sites,” are hellish. Prisoners are, according to the Post, kept in “dark, sometimes underground cells, they have no recognized rights, and no one outside the CIA is allowed to talk with or even see them, or to otherwise verify their well-being.” The existence of these prisons has been known to only a handful of officials in the US, and generally to only the president and a few top intelligence officers in each host country.
It is illegal to hold anyone in covert prisons in the US, which is why the CIA operates these facilities overseas, far from courts, lawyers and any semblance of basic rights. None of those being held have been charged or convicted of any crime. They have been imprisoned entirely on the say-so of the CIA, notorious for its criminality and hostility to democratic practices.
The practice is also illegal in most of the countries concerned. The Post, in a craven act, agreed not to name the Eastern European nations that are permitting the CIA prisons to operate on their soil.
The Russian, Bulgarian, Slovak and Hungarian governments quickly denied that they hosted such facilities. The Czech interior minister, Frantisek Bubian, told a news outlet that the Czech Republic had recently rejected a request to set up a detention center on its territory. “The negotiations took place around a month ago,” he said. The Americans “made an effort to install something of the sort here, but they did not succeed.”
The Post estimates that 100 terrorist suspects have been sent into the gulag and 30 “high-level” figures remain under CIA jurisdiction. Since US officials claim they have arrested more than 3,000 Al Qaeda militants since September 11, and only several hundred are still housed in Guantánamo, the estimates given in the Post article beg the question: Where are the others?
Unnamed US officials told the Washington Post that the 70 non-“high-level” prisoners have been handed over to Egyptian, Jordanian, Moroccan, Afghan and other intelligence services.
What goes on inside the CIA facilities, closer to medieval dungeons than modern prisons, can only be guessed at. Sadistic practices at US military facilities in Guantánamo, Afghanistan and Iraq provide clues. The CIA has organized its prison system specifically to avoid even the minimal oversight that exists in the military-run locations.
Read More
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/nov2005/cia-n04.shtml
It is illegal to hold anyone in covert prisons in the US, which is why the CIA operates these facilities overseas, far from courts, lawyers and any semblance of basic rights. None of those being held have been charged or convicted of any crime. They have been imprisoned entirely on the say-so of the CIA, notorious for its criminality and hostility to democratic practices.
The practice is also illegal in most of the countries concerned. The Post, in a craven act, agreed not to name the Eastern European nations that are permitting the CIA prisons to operate on their soil.
The Russian, Bulgarian, Slovak and Hungarian governments quickly denied that they hosted such facilities. The Czech interior minister, Frantisek Bubian, told a news outlet that the Czech Republic had recently rejected a request to set up a detention center on its territory. “The negotiations took place around a month ago,” he said. The Americans “made an effort to install something of the sort here, but they did not succeed.”
The Post estimates that 100 terrorist suspects have been sent into the gulag and 30 “high-level” figures remain under CIA jurisdiction. Since US officials claim they have arrested more than 3,000 Al Qaeda militants since September 11, and only several hundred are still housed in Guantánamo, the estimates given in the Post article beg the question: Where are the others?
Unnamed US officials told the Washington Post that the 70 non-“high-level” prisoners have been handed over to Egyptian, Jordanian, Moroccan, Afghan and other intelligence services.
What goes on inside the CIA facilities, closer to medieval dungeons than modern prisons, can only be guessed at. Sadistic practices at US military facilities in Guantánamo, Afghanistan and Iraq provide clues. The CIA has organized its prison system specifically to avoid even the minimal oversight that exists in the military-run locations.
Read More
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/nov2005/cia-n04.shtml
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
"OF OUR PRISONS , TORTURES,WAR- KILLERS , POORS OF NEW ORLEANS, CAPITALISTS STEALERS...."
PLEASE BRING US YOUR SO PERFECT SYSTEM !
PLEASE BRING US YOUR SO PERFECT SYSTEM !
But down in the sub-basement of US political history, well removed from the dining room where we're fed heaping plates of patriotic pablum by parents and teachers and politicians and journalists -- hypocrites, liars, and propagandists, one and all -- it's really always been this way.
http://hnn.us/articles/11001.html
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=3472
http://www.1849.org/ggg/relocation.html
http://hnn.us/articles/11001.html
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=3472
http://www.1849.org/ggg/relocation.html
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Commission said Friday it would encourage governments in Eastern Europe, and those seeking membership, to comment publicly on allegations that the CIA set up secret prisons in the region to interrogate al-Qaida suspects.
The allegations have already triggered a flurry of denials from governments in the former Soviet bloc and prompted European Union officials, the continent's top human rights organization and the international Red Cross to say they would look into the issue. Such prisons, European officials say, would violate the continent's human rights principles.
Friso Roscam Abbing, an EU spokesman, said the European Commission - the EU's executive office - would seek statements from governments that have not yet denied the existence of secret prisons on their territories to comment on the issue ``if only to get as much clarity and transparency as possible.''
The commission had earlier said it would make an informal investigation, requesting answers from all 25 member governments as well as EU candidates Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Turkey.
According to a report Wednesday in the Washington Post, the CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al-Qaida captives at Soviet-era compounds in eastern Europe.
Human Rights Watch in New York said Thursday it had evidence indicating the CIA transported suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan to Poland and Romania. The conclusion is based on an analysis of flight logs of CIA aircraft from 2001 to 2004 obtained by the group, said Mark Garlasco, a senior military analyst with the organization.
Human Rights Watch said it matched the flight patterns of the CIA aircraft with testimony from some of the hundreds of detainees in the war on terrorism who have been released by the United States.
Garlasco told The Associated Press that two destinations of the flights in particular stood out as likely sites of any secret CIA detention centers: Szymany Airport in Poland, which is near the headquarters of Poland's intelligence service; and Mihail Kogalniceanu military airfield in Romania.
Poland and Romania have vigorously denied the existence of secret detention centers on their territories. U.S. officials have refused to confirm or deny the claims.
``It is obvious we'll take the statements of those countries for true. Only if we receive evidence which would prove the contrary we will decide what possible next steps to take in terms of contacting authorities,'' Roscam Abbing said.
He said Human Rights Watch told the commission there was ``evidence there would have been transfer of people to the aforementioned countries in 2003 and 2004.''
``We haven't heard anything about practices which would take place now. We need to know what it is (the Human Rights Watch) precisely are alleging,'' he said.
Roscam Abbing said there are American bases in many European countries and ``one could even imagine that they could be used for transferring people.''
``Another story would be if there were people held secretly for an x-number of days. That would amount to detention, and we have no evidence that this would be the case,'' he said.
According to the Post's report, the CIA set up a covert prison system nearly four years ago which at various times included sites in eight countries, including Afghanistan and several eastern Europe nations. It quoted current and former intelligence officials and diplomats as sources for its story.
The U.S. government has been criticized by human rights groups for practicing ``extraordinary rendition'' - sending suspected terrorists to foreign countries, where they are detained, interrogated and allegedly tortured.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5392397,00.html
The allegations have already triggered a flurry of denials from governments in the former Soviet bloc and prompted European Union officials, the continent's top human rights organization and the international Red Cross to say they would look into the issue. Such prisons, European officials say, would violate the continent's human rights principles.
Friso Roscam Abbing, an EU spokesman, said the European Commission - the EU's executive office - would seek statements from governments that have not yet denied the existence of secret prisons on their territories to comment on the issue ``if only to get as much clarity and transparency as possible.''
The commission had earlier said it would make an informal investigation, requesting answers from all 25 member governments as well as EU candidates Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Turkey.
According to a report Wednesday in the Washington Post, the CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al-Qaida captives at Soviet-era compounds in eastern Europe.
Human Rights Watch in New York said Thursday it had evidence indicating the CIA transported suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan to Poland and Romania. The conclusion is based on an analysis of flight logs of CIA aircraft from 2001 to 2004 obtained by the group, said Mark Garlasco, a senior military analyst with the organization.
Human Rights Watch said it matched the flight patterns of the CIA aircraft with testimony from some of the hundreds of detainees in the war on terrorism who have been released by the United States.
Garlasco told The Associated Press that two destinations of the flights in particular stood out as likely sites of any secret CIA detention centers: Szymany Airport in Poland, which is near the headquarters of Poland's intelligence service; and Mihail Kogalniceanu military airfield in Romania.
Poland and Romania have vigorously denied the existence of secret detention centers on their territories. U.S. officials have refused to confirm or deny the claims.
``It is obvious we'll take the statements of those countries for true. Only if we receive evidence which would prove the contrary we will decide what possible next steps to take in terms of contacting authorities,'' Roscam Abbing said.
He said Human Rights Watch told the commission there was ``evidence there would have been transfer of people to the aforementioned countries in 2003 and 2004.''
``We haven't heard anything about practices which would take place now. We need to know what it is (the Human Rights Watch) precisely are alleging,'' he said.
Roscam Abbing said there are American bases in many European countries and ``one could even imagine that they could be used for transferring people.''
``Another story would be if there were people held secretly for an x-number of days. That would amount to detention, and we have no evidence that this would be the case,'' he said.
According to the Post's report, the CIA set up a covert prison system nearly four years ago which at various times included sites in eight countries, including Afghanistan and several eastern Europe nations. It quoted current and former intelligence officials and diplomats as sources for its story.
The U.S. government has been criticized by human rights groups for practicing ``extraordinary rendition'' - sending suspected terrorists to foreign countries, where they are detained, interrogated and allegedly tortured.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5392397,00.html
WASHINGTON, November4 , 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The European Commission has warned that any European country proved to host secret CIA-run jails could face "severe action" by the European Union, Britain's The Daily Telegraph reported Friday, November4 .
Franco Frattini, the justice commissioner, said potentially sever legal and political consequences awaited any EU member, or any country seeking EU membership, if it was confirmed that it had cooperated with the CIA secret prisons program.
Frattini said that all EU member-states are bound by international legal obligations, in particular the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the Convention against Torture.
In theory, nations can be suspended from the25 -state bloc for grave breaches of such fundamental principles.
Calling them the "black sites," The Washington Post revealed on Wednesday, November2 , that the secret prisons were located in at least eight countries, including Thailand and several eastern European democracies.
Citing senior US officials, the daily withheld the names of the eastern European countries at the request of senior US officials who said their disclosure could disrupt counter-terrorist operations in those countries and make them targets of attack.
Poland, Romania
But the American Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday, November3 , Poland and Romania are among European countries which host the secret prisons.
"Inquiries up until now seem to indicate that Poland and Romania are the countries that received prisoners held by the CIA," Jean-Paul Marthoz, a spokesman for HRW's Belgian branch, said in statements carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Tom Malinowski, the Washington director of the rights group, said top Al-Qaeda suspects, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, were moved out from Afghanistan in September2003 .
The same month, a Boeing737 , leased by the CIA to transport prisoners, departed from Kabul and made stops at remote airfields in Poland and Romania before continuing on to Morocco and then to the Cuba-based Guantanamo Bay, he said.
"It's a large aircraft so one could imagine a large group of detainees flying on this plane, as against some other smaller executive jets that they used," Malinowski told AFP.
"The fact that it stops in eastern Europe, then Morocco and then Guantanamo suggests different classes of prisoners being deposited in different places," he said.
The Post further revealed that that prisoners considered of less value were turned over to the intelligence services of Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and other countries, where they were held in jails operated by the host country with CIA assistance and sometimes direction.
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2005-11/04/article06.shtml
Franco Frattini, the justice commissioner, said potentially sever legal and political consequences awaited any EU member, or any country seeking EU membership, if it was confirmed that it had cooperated with the CIA secret prisons program.
Frattini said that all EU member-states are bound by international legal obligations, in particular the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the Convention against Torture.
In theory, nations can be suspended from the25 -state bloc for grave breaches of such fundamental principles.
Calling them the "black sites," The Washington Post revealed on Wednesday, November2 , that the secret prisons were located in at least eight countries, including Thailand and several eastern European democracies.
Citing senior US officials, the daily withheld the names of the eastern European countries at the request of senior US officials who said their disclosure could disrupt counter-terrorist operations in those countries and make them targets of attack.
Poland, Romania
But the American Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday, November3 , Poland and Romania are among European countries which host the secret prisons.
"Inquiries up until now seem to indicate that Poland and Romania are the countries that received prisoners held by the CIA," Jean-Paul Marthoz, a spokesman for HRW's Belgian branch, said in statements carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Tom Malinowski, the Washington director of the rights group, said top Al-Qaeda suspects, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, were moved out from Afghanistan in September2003 .
The same month, a Boeing737 , leased by the CIA to transport prisoners, departed from Kabul and made stops at remote airfields in Poland and Romania before continuing on to Morocco and then to the Cuba-based Guantanamo Bay, he said.
"It's a large aircraft so one could imagine a large group of detainees flying on this plane, as against some other smaller executive jets that they used," Malinowski told AFP.
"The fact that it stops in eastern Europe, then Morocco and then Guantanamo suggests different classes of prisoners being deposited in different places," he said.
The Post further revealed that that prisoners considered of less value were turned over to the intelligence services of Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and other countries, where they were held in jails operated by the host country with CIA assistance and sometimes direction.
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2005-11/04/article06.shtml
You have to ask yourself now"Is it better to torture and mistreat an enemy and possibly stop his group from killing my family and friends, or should he be treated humanely?" The world I see is one that wants to kill you for reasons that make you go"huh?". From John Walker Lindh on down, these are muslims that feel distraught about something in their life and your death fills them with joy. Put aside your hatred of Bush for a moment and ask"why is Paris burning?", "why did the London subway get bombed?". It's a muslim hatred of all non muslim things. A frustration that they don't feel that they fit in. Even when we do open our arms and our lives to them.
If putting a cattle prod to their scrotum in a Polish jail is what it takes to keep us from a violent death, so be it.
If putting a cattle prod to their scrotum in a Polish jail is what it takes to keep us from a violent death, so be it.
Torture doesn't work. It is ineffective. It only causes the torturees to say what think the torturer wants to hear.
I was a little broad in saying torture. Beating, whipping, doing all kinds of physical abuse don't work. True. But some of the things that happened at Abu Gharib were more humiliation and intimidation than torture. I'm hoping that the people doing the questioning know that.
<<[Torture] only causes the torturees to say what think the torturer wants to hear>>
Like the guy the US sent with a CIA chaperone to Egypt who "admitted" after prolonged torture that al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein were working together to attack the US. This torture-abetted "information" was then used by Dick Cheney as proof that Iraq must be invaded in order to fight the war on terror.
Like the guy the US sent with a CIA chaperone to Egypt who "admitted" after prolonged torture that al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein were working together to attack the US. This torture-abetted "information" was then used by Dick Cheney as proof that Iraq must be invaded in order to fight the war on terror.
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$190.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network