Report Says U.S. Has 'Secret' Detention Centers

[RamboLiberal]

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?id=2004061715440002849063&dt=20040617154400&w=RTR&coview=

The United States is holding terrorism suspects in more than two dozen detention centers worldwide and about half of these operate in total secrecy, said a human rights report released on Thursday.

Human Rights First, formerly known as the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, said in a report that secrecy surrounding these facilities made "inappropriate detention and abuse not only likely but inevitable."

"The abuses at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib cannot be addressed in isolation," said Deborah Pearlstein, director of the group's U.S. Law and Security program, referring to the U.S. Naval base prison in Cuba and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq where abuses are being investigated.

"This is all about secrecy, accountability and the law," Pearlstein told a news conference.

[Just Me]

1. This is definitely not new news on DU.

We have known this for quite some time.

[AlCzervik]

2. Not really all that surprising

We already have a secret court and ghost dentainees. I'm only surprised that it's being reported. Can you imagine all the stuff that goes on thats secret that we will never find out?

[Disturbed]

4. Over 24 Secret Prisons

I guess that is OK with most Americans because that way they don't have to see photos of torture. Rumsfailed denies that torture went on. I guess he doesn't consider, water submershion, attakcs by dogs,beatings, smothering with blankets etc. torture. War Crimes are ignored by the Right Wing and most of them appove of torture unless it's practiced on US &/or Allied personnel, then the demand strict adherence to the Geneva Conventions. Hypocrisy is the standard MO of BushCo, who have disgraced America.

BushCo is guilty of War Crimes. What can be done about that?

[Canuckistanian]

3. How much you wanna bet they don't allow cameras there?

Nor does the Justice Dept. know about them.

Doesn't surprise me in the least with this nest of vipers in power.

[AlCzervik]

7. If Bush could get cameras out lawed i'm sure he would.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if he got taken down by a Nikon?

[Democat]

5. Welcome to Bush's America - if it was a Democratic president...

The entire media would be talking about impeachment.

[chookie]

6. Not really news, but perhaps to general public

It has been known since Oct 2001 that the US was sending "suspects" to countries that allow the use of torture in interrogations. Heck -- His Chimperial Highness just about joked about it in his SOTU speech 2003! People were so shocked and angry in the aftermath of Sept 11 that I don't think that they would have *felt* then that this was inappropriate. However, given the context of the revelations of abuse and worse at Abu Ghraib -- WHICH, on top of being illegal and immoral, have lost the war (Iraq and perhaps "terra" as well) for us, and worsened our standing internationally for the foreseeable future -- maybe people will regard these events differently.

The great arrogance of this adminstration comes from the fact that they have NEVER been held accountable for illegalities. They keep getting away with stuff, so next time they act even more boldly. When they got away with sending people to other countries to be tortured, I think it is logical that it was inevitable that they would conclude they would get away with authorizing the use of torture by Americans. After all, our good allies the Israelis employ torture to "preempt" terrorism, so why not us now?

It is tragic to see that this inversion of American and Jewish values is going to make things much less secure for our two countries. Not only was morality and law jettisoned, but also clear strategic thinking -- giving into racism and dark violent impulses has dramatically subverted any hope we had of prevailing.

[happynewyear]

8. Yahoo! story re: this .... *grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!*

<< LIST OF DETENTION CENTERS

Pearlstein said multiple sources reported U.S. detention centers in, among other places, Kohat in Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia and at Al Jafr prison in Jordan, where the group said the CIA (news - web sites) had an interrogation facility.

Prisoners are also being held at the Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, South Carolina, and others were suspected of being held on U.S. warships.

A defense department spokesman told Reuters he would comment when he had more information about the report.

Pearlstein called for the U.S. authorities to end "secret detentions," provide a list of prisoners, investigate abuses and allow the International Committee of the Red Cross unfettered access to detainees. >>

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=3&u=/nm/security_detainees_dc

Am I the only one out there that finds this VERY disturbing. I wonder how many there are right here in the good ol' USA?

[Mnemosyne]

17. check out...

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/camps.html

[happynewyear]

24. thanks for the link vickiss

:kick:

[2Design]

9. Concentration Camps not Dentention Centers

This is bush double speak again.
Enemy combatants instead of POW
abuse instead of torture

The detention Centers are concentration camps....

[Robb]

10. You know, this is the kind of stuff

...that used to get written in xeroxed newsletters out of rural Idaho and Wyoming, from weird little well-armed groups with the word "movement" in their names.

These days I read the news, and I feel like I need to go back to the drunk at the end of the bar in 1995 and apologize for not taking him seriously.

[truth2power]

18. Excellent point!

What we used to think were the ravings of nutcases are suddenly not far from the truth.

[BeFree]

19. Why do you think he was a drunk?

He knew what is going down. He knew, but nobody believed him, and so he crawled off into a drunken corner so that the pain could not completely surround him. Self defense, and all that.

At least we have DU. Here we can be heard, and those of us who realize the reality of the evil bastards, can feel as if we are not so all alone. A nice comfort zone, eh?

[disinfo_guy]

25. apology accepted

;)

[MisterP]

30. George W. Bush--

realifying the militias' worst dreams under Clinton and best fantasies under their desired coup-installed military dictator--after all, what is a fascist military government without secret camps?

[Hekate]

38. The phrase "jackbooted thugs" does come to mind somehow

We've fallen down the rabbit-hole into Orwell's 1984...

Hekate
I want my country back

[GarySeven]

11. Here's a chance to use the resources of this board and the Web

to track the presence of key Democratic strategists, supporters, fund raisers, etc., to make sure none of them "disappear." And that goes for their families as well. If they do go missing, we need to raise as big a stink as possible. Don't forget what conservatives tried to do 60 years ago in Europe.

[jdj]

12. I personally am conflicted about this news.

I mean, terrorism was REALLY beneficial to these dopes, both financially and ideologically. So why would they want to do away with it? I mean, who are these people they are holding, they can hold anyone, but these people just don't seem patriotic enough to really care about the safety of the American people, so I just don't see them going after terrorism, except maybe as an after thought. It's something else they are after, having to do with money and oil and influence in other countries, under the guise of fighting terrorism.

[Ouabache]

13. I am sure plenty of political opponents and opponents of capititalism

will just 'happen' to end up in these detention centers by mistake, whoops, accidentally on purpose. I am certain of it with this bunch.

[Disturbed]

14. Another BushCo term.

I can barely imagine how much worse it will be.
I strongly suspect that there will be secret camps in the USA and secret trials. The USA is in the grips of a Right Wing Junta backed by the corportations, esp. Mulit-Corps and a Mainstream Media that is complicit. Another term of this Junta and Amerika will be like a 3rd world country, economicaly, environmentaly and politically. Amerika may never recover from another term with this Junta in power.

I am hoping that the Pentagon &/or CIA leaks the documents that this counntry needs that will reveal the evil that this Junta has perpetrated and that a method to bring them down will be available. I have little faith in another election nor the democratic process at this time.

[GarySeven]

15. Bush will SUSPEND ELECTIONS any day now

claiming that the Constitution permits him to do so in times of national emergency (he will have a Justice Department memo ready, giving the legal justifications.) Who could stop them? The congress? The Supreme Court? The Freepers with their huntin' rifles?

Wait for it. Then start watching your friends and neighbors start to disappear, whisked away at night to secret internment camps. The prominent Democrats won't -- it will be the people who craft election strategy, who raise the funds, etc., who will go first. The Bushies will work like termites, just as they have since seizing power, eating away at the innards while everything on the outside looks normal -- until the collapse.

[gatlingforme]

16. Bush will suspend the Constitution if he could - with Cheney's

permission of course. And throw in the Bill of Rights with Ashcrofts permission and they have accomplished their goal. Complete annihilation of all that America stands for.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

22. If you read Patriot Act I & II very closely, you will discover that the...

...Constitution that we once knew no longer exists. In fact, here's an article that details how those acts have impacted the Constitution:

Forfeiting `Enduring Freedom' for `Homeland Security':
A Constitutional Analysis of the USA PATRIOT Act
and the Justice Department's Anti-Terrorism Initiatives*
by John W. Whitehead** and Steven H. Aden***
51 American University Law Review 1081-1133 (2002).

<http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/CAofUSAPA.html>


As an aside, what makes this article so ironic is that is written by a couple of leading lights of the Rutherford Institute, the group that provided legal advice to Paula Jones. Amazing how things change.

[disinfo_guy]

26. Bush won't suspend the Constitution

he'll just continue to ignore it.

[catzies]

28. "The illegal we do right away,the unconstitutional takes a little longer."

--Henry Kissinger.

[bvar22]

23. the "prominent" Democrats won't be "disappeared".

The Democrats who play the game will be left in place to mug for the cameras and offer token opposition, but in the rooms of power, they do as they are told. Those who offer REAL opposition WILL BE DESTROYED (with the help of the Vichy Dems) like Wellstone and McKinney.

[GarySeven]

35. Wellstone's plane crash

was just too convenient, just like John Tower's plane crash when he got in the way of Bush Sr.

Kerry should FIRE all his secret service and replace them with private security guards. All the prominent Democratic strategists, fund raisers, advisors, etc., should surround themselves and their families with private security forces.

[BeFree]

20. The captives know too much

That's the feeling I get. The secret captives have background information which could prove damaging to the cabal. What better way to get rid of the evidence than to imprison all of those complicit in your crimes?

[happynewyear]

27. who are the captives exactly?

Did you check out this link - room for many many people, not just a few (what about local activists????)! CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/camps.html

:dem: :kick:

[TahitiNut]

32. Who says the CIA is only doing interrogations? What about recruitments?

After all, the inhumanity of torture is a razor blade with many edges. What if some of the people incarcerated in these covert, secret torture camps are the relatives of a "loyal" agent or informer who's out and about?

The abuses of power and greed are many and quite often outside of the experience of "civilized" people (kept within a Norman Rockwell fantasyland).

[Massacure]

21. Thing is that the only really thing standing between this and the people

Is the NRA. Kind of hard to intern a good majority of the population if everyone has guns to defend themselves.

I suppose parts of the military would disband as well too, right?

[TahitiNut]

33. Iraq and Afghanistan are probably the most well-armed nations on earth.

The notion that a semi-automatic weapon can cause even the slightest delay of the capture/killing by a force backed by Apache helicopters and heavy firepower is mere mental masturbation. (I'll keep my shotgun, nonetheless.)

[Massacure]

36. The U.S. can't even control Iraq

How are they going to control 100 million American gun owners? Especially if parts of the military break away.

[struggle4progress]

29. Great group! Read the report!

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/


<snip>
In addition to listing known detention facilities – including prisons at Guantanamo Bay, Bagram Air Force Base, and Abu Ghraib – the report, "Ending Secret Detentions" provides an accounting of U.S. military detention facilities reported in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Jordan, and aboard U.S. ships at sea (see attached list).
<snip>
The report outlines what is known about this global detention system and finds that it is, to varying degrees in different locations, failing to meet existing obligations under U.S. and international law.

These obligations include:

Affording the ICRC unfettered access to all detainees held in the course of armed conflict
Providing every individual in custody some recognized legal status
Disclosing the names of all individuals detained to their families and friends

In a chapter called "The Purpose Behind the Law," the report argues that the United States' illegal treatment of detainees puts U.S. forces abroad at greater risk of the same kinds of torture and ill treatment. It also describes how these illegal practices seriously undermine the United States' ability to forge alliances throughout the international community – a goal essential to defeating terrorism over the long term. "The United States' practices in its global network of detention facilities also has a deeply negative effect on the U.S. ability to combat the threat of terrorism," the report finds, "which depends critically on a visible demonstration that U.S. deeds match its words in supporting democracy and human rights."
<snip>
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/media/2004_alerts/0617.htm


<edit:> From the report:
"It is believed he may have been seized because he drove a red volkswagen. The US-led coalition believed that a red volkswagen was connected to a bombing in August 2003, and subsequently all red volkswagens and their drivers were rounded up."

[htuttle]

31. I guess this means now we can't say we didn't know about the camps, huh?

[daleo]

34. Remember The Gulag Archipelago?

It seems to be back.

[happynewyear]

37. kick!!!

:kick: