U.S. May Expand Use of its Prison in Afghanistan (No Different Than Gitmo)

[tekisui]

Source: LA Times

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

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[NightWatcher]

2. I could post the "there's the CHANGE we're looking for" but I wont

I'll just sit here depressed by the "recognition by the Obama administration... 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."

Just like war is bad, until Obama does it
Just like Gitmo is bad until Obama keeps it open
Just like Military tribunals are bad, until Obama's Admin does it
Just like ______________________________ until Obama does it
Just like_______________________________ until Obama does it


So we've come to power and, in that, lost our principles.

Just depressing

[tekisui]

4. It is depressing. Indifinite, uncharged detentions and extra-judicial killings.

Sick stuff.

I am not sure which is more depressing, that we do this at all, or that Democrats do it and defend it.

[vaberella]

3. I'll wait on confirmation. A lot of things are run by the President for consideration. n/t

[tekisui]

5. The prison already stands as a place for indefinite detention.

The President has already claimed that he has the right to hold without charge. Even if Gitmo ever closes, the indefinite detentions will continue. They will just be held in Illinois.

And the debate over whether to capture someone or kill them because they can't figure out how to give them due process is disturbing.

Expansion of Bagram (for the second time under Obama) would not be a surprise or a departure from his past decisions.

[tekisui]

6. Kick for the unrecs.