Where did 38 people go?

US accused on 'missing' prisoners

Thirty eight people believed to have been held in secret CIA prisons - or black sites - are missing, according to a report by a US human rights group.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) report also details allegations of torture by a terror suspect who was held in secret custody for more than two years.

The group has asked US President George W Bush to reveal the location of these detainees and close all US black sites.

Last year Mr Bush said the prisons had all closed and had not used torture.

'Missing' prisoners

In a televised address in September, Mr Bush admitted that 14 detainees had been held at secret CIA prisons that used interrogation methods that were "tough" but "lawful and necessary".

"The United States does not torture," Mr Bush said at the time. "It's against our laws, and it's against our values. I have not authorised it - and I will not authorise it."

He said the prisoners had since been transferred to the US military camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the CIA was not holding any more terror suspects.

But in a report published on Tuesday, HRW has named another 38 people who were believed to have been held in secret CIA prisons, who are now missing.

Quoting US intelligence officials, The Washington Post says more than 60 people have been held in the prisons since 2001.

'Beaten and burned'

The group has called on the US to reveal the location of all detainees held by the CIA since 2001 and end its "illegal" secret detention and interrogation programmes.

Palestinian Islamic extremist Marwan al-Jabour told HRW he saw or spoke to a number of those named in the report while he was held by the CIA between 2004 and 2006.

Mr Jabour, who was arrested in Lahore, Pakistan in May 2004, also detailed torture tactics he says were used against him while he was in US custody.

He says at various periods during his 28-month detention Pakistani authorities kept him naked and chained to a ceiling. He says he was beaten, burned and handcuffed in stress positions.

During this time he was also reportedly interrogated by US agents for hours on end, but Mr Jabour says he was only tortured when the Americans were not around.

Mr Jabour admits that in 1998 he trained in Afghanistan in the hope of fighting in Chechnya. He also says he helped Arab militants who had fled Afghanistan for Pakistan in 2003, but he denies any links to al-Qaeda or terror activities.

EU threat

Meanwhile, the US has warned the European Union that ongoing inquiries into secret CIA flights within Europe linked to the black sites are threatening intelligence ties between Europe and the US.

The investigations "have not been helpful with respect to necessary co-operation between the United States and Europe," John Bellinger, legal adviser to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said.

Mr Bellinger also labelled a European Parliament report into the flights, released earlier this month, as "unbalanced, inaccurate and unfair".

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6405089.stm

Sent to be tortured

The United States "very likely" sent a Canadian software engineer to Syria, where he was tortured, based on the false accusation by Canadian authorities that he was suspected of links to al-Qaida, according to a new government report.

This AP article talks about the United States' practice of extraordinary rendition. It is illegal. The CIA does not get to make the laws. Come on.

What I really don't understand is this:

U.S. and Syrian officials refused to cooperate with the Canadian inquiry.

How does our country get to refuse to cooperate?

Secret CIA prisons suck

If you haven't had a chance to read the news lately, let me bring you up to speed: President Bush announced that all the 9/11 terror suspects are being moved from secret CIA prisons in foreign countries to Guanantamo Bay where they will be brought to justice.

YAY! Right? Not so much.

Read between the lines...

• Why do secret CIA prisons exist?
• What occurs at these secret CIA prisons? If you think the Geneva Conventions are upheld, you are in lala land. In fact, if you think there is any oversight whatsoever, you are deluding yourself. Nobody even knew (until yesterday) who was in these prisons. We still don't really know.
• Why are they being transferred to Guantanomo Bay... a hellhole of injustice and despair? Over the last 5 years, 770 prisoners have been held there. Up until July of this year, the Administration has been adamant and very vocal in saying they don't think the Geneva Conventions apply to these people. There have been at least 44 suicide attemps - at least 3 successful. (Amazing, considering the circumstances.) Up to 200 prisoners at a time have gone on hunger strikes, and were then force-fed through tubes. No one held at Guantanamo has been charged.
• The court system that President Bush wants to use is, at this point, illegal. ILLEGAL. The Supreme Court struck down their idea a couple months ago, and said Congress had to authorize it first.
• The court system President Bush wants to use would allow for secret evidence. Evidence that the accused person would not know about, and maybe not even the accused person's lawyer. Is that American?
• The court system President Bush wants to use would allow for testimony gathered through coercion. Not torture, granted... but coercion. Do you see what a fine line this is? Do you see how problematic it is to accepted testimony that was extracted under coercive circumstances? Especially when these prisoners were interrogated in secret prisons. Who exactly is certifying that it was coercion and not torture?

In conclusion, let me just say, WHAT THE FREAK.

Let me put a little patriotic disclaimer here. Why do I care about terrorists' rights? What about the rights of the people who died on 9/11? And so on.

To me, terrorists are still humans. And if we want to operate in a undemocratic, inhumane, illegal, militant way... well that is just the kind of world we will create.

Prevent another Abu Ghraib

The White House is reportedly planning to ask Congress to approve legislation that would permit abusive interrogations. If they succeed, we will go down in history as the first nation to retreat from the hallowed Geneva Conventions, which prohibit cruel and degrading treatment.

Stop this misguided effort in its tracks. Write the President today and demand that he drop his bid to retain the right to abuse detainees.

Rewriting the Geneva Conventions

I hope George W. Bush is unsuccessful in his attempts at Rewriting the Geneva Conventions. This NYT editorial explains a little more about what the administration is doing and why it is abhorrent.