[Clips] U.S. Has Detained 83,000 in War on Terror

R. A. Hettinga rah at shipwright.com
Wed Nov 16 12:31:34 PST 2005


Let the comparisons to the gulag begin!

;-)

Cheers,
RAH

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 From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
 Subject: [Clips] U.S. Has Detained 83,000 in War on Terror
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 <http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/11/16/D8DTOTT00.html>


 BREITBART.COM - Just The News


 U.S. Has Detained 83,000 in War on Terror
 Nov 16 2:56 PM US/Eastern Email this story

 By KATHERINE SHRADER
 Associated Press Writer


 WASHINGTON


 The United States has detained more than 83,000 foreigners in the four
 years of the war on terror, enough to nearly fill the NFL's largest
 stadium. The administration defends the practice of holding detainees in
 prisons from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay as a critical tool to stop the
 insurgency in Iraq, maintain stability in Afghanistan and get known and
 suspected terrorists off the streets.

  Roughly 14,500 detainees remain in U.S. custody, primarily in Iraq.

  The number has steadily grown since the first CIA paramilitary officers
 touched down in Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, setting up more than 20
 facilities including the "Salt Pit," an abandoned factory outside Kabul
 used for CIA detention and interrogation.

  In Iraq, the number in military custody hit a peak on Nov. 1, according to
 military figures. Nearly 13,900 suspects were in U.S. custody there that
 day _ partly because U.S. offensives in western Iraq put pressure on
 insurgents before the October constitutional referendum and December
 parliamentary elections.

  The detentions and interrogations have brought complaints from Congress
 and human-rights groups about how the detainees _ often Arab and male _ are
 treated.

  International law and treaty obligations forbid torture and inhumane
 treatment. Classified memos have given the government ways to extract
 intelligence from detainees "consistent with the law," administration
 officials often say.

  On Capitol Hill, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is leading a campaign to ban
 cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody. The
 administration says the legislation could tie the president's hands. Vice
 President Dick Cheney has pressed lawmakers to exempt the CIA.

  "There's an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America
 again. And so you bet we will aggressively pursue them. But we will do so
 under the law," President Bush said last week.

  Some 82,400 people have been detained by the military alone in Afghanistan
 and Iraq, according to figures from officials in Baghdad and Washington.
 Many are freed shortly after initial questioning.

  To put that in context, the capacity of the Washington Redskins' FedEx
 Field, the NFL's largest, is 91,704. The second largest, Giants Stadium,
 holds 80,242.

  An additional 700 detainees were sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Just under
 500 remain there now.

  In Iraq, the Defense Department says 5,569 detainees have been held for
 more than six months, and 3,801 have been held more than a year. Some 229
 have been locked up for more than two years.

  Many have been questioned by military officials trained at the main U.S.
 interrogation school, Fort Huachuca in Arizona. Pentagon officials say
 those mistreated are relatively few when the sheer numbers are considered.

  Yet human rights groups say they don't know the extent of the abuse. "And
 there is no way anyone could, even if the military was twice as
 conscientious. It is unknowable, unless you assume that every act of abuse
 is immediately reported up the chain of command," said Tom Malinowski,
 Washington director for Human Rights Watch.

  As of March, 108 detainees were known to have died in U.S. military and
 CIA custody, including 22 who died when insurgents attacked Abu Ghraib and
 others who died of natural causes. At least 26 deaths have been
 investigated as criminal homicides.

  Last week, Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said that
 more than 400 criminal investigations have been conducted and 95 military
 personnel have been charged with misconduct. Seventy-five have been
 convicted.

  Through the CIA, a much smaller prison population is maintained secretly
 by the agency and friendly governments. A network of known or suspected
 facilities _ some of which have been closed _ have been located in places
 including Thailand, Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

  The governments of Thailand and a number of Eastern Europe countries have
 denied the CIA operated prisons within their borders. The agency
 consistently declines to comment.

  About 100 to 150 people are believed to have been grabbed by CIA officers
 and sent to their home countries or to other nations where they were wanted
 for prosecution, a procedure called "rendition." Saudi Arabia, Jordan and
 Egypt are known to cooperate.

  The practice has taken on a negative connotation, but that wasn't always
 the case. In a December 2002 speech touching on intelligence successes,
 former CIA Director George Tenet said the agency and FBI had "rendered 70
 terrorists to justice."

  While officials won't confirm the number, another two to three dozen
 "high-value" detainees are also believed to be in CIA custody. Among them,
 Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, an alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

  As House Intelligence chairman in 2004, CIA Director Porter Goss took a
 strong stand on some of the gray areas of detention practices. In an AP
 interview, he said, "Gee, you're breaking my heart" in response to
 complaints that Arab men found it abusive to have women guards at the
 Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

  Before Goss took over the agency, its inspector general completed a report
 on the treatment of detainees, following investigations into at least four
 prisoner deaths that may have involved CIA personnel. To date, one agency
 contractor has been charged.

  The inspector general's report discussed tactics used by CIA personnel _
 called "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques." Former intelligence officials,
 who spoke on condition of anonymity because the practices are classified,
 say some interrogation techniques are well-known: exposing prisoners to
 cold, depriving them of sleep or forcing them to stand in stressful
 positions.

  Perhaps the most publicly controversial technique is waterboarding, when a
 detainee is strapped to a board and has water run over him to simulate
 drowning.


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 -----------------
 R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
 The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
 "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
 [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
 experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'





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