Human rights activists and legal experts reacted swiftly Monday to disclosures that the U.S. government is planning to introduce new measures it claims would give inmates at Afghanistan’s notorious Bagram prison more opportunities to challenge their detention. Their views range from cautious optimism to total condemnation. There are some 600-plus prisoners being held at the …
Continue reading “New Bagram Rules More of the Same?”
On Monday, one day after the New York Times and the Washington Post reported that the Obama administration was planning to introduce tribunals for the prisoners held in the U.S. prison at Bagram airbase, Afghanistan, the reason for the specifically timed leaks that led to the publication of the stories became clear. The government was …
Continue reading “Is Bagram Obama’s New Secret Prison?”
Back in September 2005, when I first began researching Guantánamo for my book The Guantánamo Files, the prison was still shrouded in mystery, even though attorneys had been visiting prisoners for nearly a year, following the Supreme Court’s ruling, in June 2004, that they had habeas corpus rights. Researchers at the Washington Post and at …
Continue reading “Bagram: Gitmo All Over Again”
An investigation by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has revealed that former detainees at the U.S. Bagram airbase in Afghanistan were beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with dogs. The BBC’s conclusions are based on interviews with 27 former detainees who were held at Bagram between 2002 and 2006. None of these men were ever …
Continue reading “Bagram Detainees Treated ‘Worse Than Animals’”
Andy Worthington is losing patience with Obama
At least three dozen detainees who were held in the CIA’s secret prisons overseas appear to be missing – and efforts by human rights organizations to track their whereabouts have been unsuccessful. The story of these "ghost prisoners" was comprehensively documented last week by Pro Publica, an online investigative journalism group. In September 2007, Michael …
Continue reading “Dozens of CIA ‘Ghost Prisoners’ Missing” 
