US may expand use of Bagram prison for terror suspects, as is done at Guitmo

[G_j]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-prison21-2010mar21,0,2058216.story


US may expand use of its prison in Afghanistan
The White House is considering housing international terrorism suspects at Bagram air base, as is done at Guantanamo Bay.

By David S. Cloud and Julian E. Barnes
March 21, 2010

Reporting from Washington

The White House is considering whether to detain international terrorism suspects at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, senior U.S. officials said, an option that would lead to another prison with the same purpose as Guantanamo Bay, which it has promised to close.

The idea, which would require approval by President Obama, already has drawn resistance from within the government. Army Gen. Stanley A. McCrystal, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and other senior officials strongly oppose it, fearing that expansion of the U.S. detention facility at Bagram air base could make the job of stabilizing the country even tougher.

That the option of detaining suspects captured outside Afghanistan at Bagram is being contemplated reflects a recognition by the Obama administration that it has few other places to hold and interrogate foreign prisoners without giving them access to the U.S. court system, the officials said.

Without a location outside the United States for sending prisoners, the administration must resort to turning the suspects over to foreign governments, bringing them to the U.S. or even killing them. In one case last year, U.S. special operations forces killed an Al Qaeda-linked suspect named Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in a helicopter attack in southern Somalia rather than trying to capture him, a U.S. official said. Officials had debated trying to take him alive but decided against doing so in part because of uncertainty over where to hold him, the official added.

U.S. officials find such options unappealing for handling suspects they want to question but lack the evidence to prosecute. For such suspects, a facility such as Bagram, north of Kabul, remains necessary, officials said, even as they acknowledged that having it in Afghanistan could complicate McCrystal's mission.

..more..

[EFerrari]

1. Part of the back story is, McChrystal has farmed out prisoners

to satellite camps all over Afghanistan to make it harder for the ICRC to monitor his operation. He doesn't want a central holding facility that will be subject to inspections. I'm afraid that when this is over, what this man is doing will be every bit as bad as what we saw under the last administration.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. So, Obama can close Gitmo now...no problem.

Christ....

[EFerrari]

4. The bigger picture is why do we have these remote facilities at all?

Secrecy breeds abuse.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. I agree. I Shoulda used the sarcasm tag.

[EFerrari]

10. Sorry, dixie. I think my irony meter shut down early last night!

:)

[MadHound]

3. "May?" Try "is" and "has."

<http://www.crownvictoriasafetyalert.com/purchases.html>
<http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123110701>
<http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/175560>
<http://www.alternet.org/rights/128273/>

Gitmo simply got to be too much of a publicity liability, so the operation is moving to Bagram. Bagram is Abu Graib and Gitmo writ larger.

[G_j]

8. I was surprised

by the use of the word "may" also.
:shrug:

[Swamp Rat]

5. k&r

[Solly Mack]

7. K&R

[Solly Mack]

9. kick

[G_j]

11. thanks Solly Mack

I know you know this is important stuff.

:hi:

[Solly Mack]

12. I do

:(



:hi:

[Bluebear]

13. "is considering"...yeah, right.

[jeanpalmer]

14. Why don't they just kill them?

What's holding them back? Apparently they've already done it in one instance.