| Al Jazeera, Nov. 15, 2009 | ||||
Journalists have been allowed to inspect refurbished facilities at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, the largest US military hub in the region and home to a controversial prison. Al Jazeera’s correspondent James Bays, who was among those who inspected the facilities on Sunday, said Bagram, unlike its Guantanamo counterpart, was clearly not going to be shut down soon. “The new prison wing cost some $60 million to build … and is meant to be part of a new era of openness and transparency,” Bays said. “But we were not shown the detainees. Human-rights lawyers say that, while the environment for the prisoners may be changing, their legal situation is not … not having been charged. Nor has any civilian lawyer ever been allowed inside.” Bays said the extended prison could hold up to 1,000 detainees, but was at present holding around 700 inmates, including 30 foreign prisoners. Lessons learnt General Mark Martins, who runs detention operations at the airbase, said the US military was improving its treatment of detainees and had learnt many lessons since occupying the country in 2001. “Detention, if not done properly, can actually harm the effort. We are a learning organisation … we believe transparency is certainly going to help the effort, and increase the credibility of the whole process,” Martins said. However, Clara Gutteridge, an investigator of secret prisons and renditions from the human rights organisation, Reprieve, said Bagram is seen as “Guantanamo’s lesser-known evil twin”.”All this talk about transparency, and the US government still won’t release a simple list of names of prisoners who are in Bagram,” she told Al Jazeera. “None of them have had access to a lawyer … and that just seems very unfair. “We at Reprieve see this as the next big fight after Guantanamo Bay. “But one thing that the US government is saying is that Afghan prisoners in Afghanistan have less rights than any other prisoner which just seems absurd.” Bagram Air Field is the largest US military hub in Afghanistan and is home to about 24,000 military personnel and civilian contractors. Base expansion Tens of millions of dollars continue to be spent on expanding and upgrading facilities – turning Bagram into a town spread over about 5,000 acres. The air field part of the complex is already handling 400 tonnes of cargo and 1,000 passengers daily, according to Air Force spokesman Captain David Faggard. It is continuing to grow to keep up with the requirements of an escalating war and troop increases.
Among new options being considered in Washington is regional commander General Stanley McChrystal’s request to bring an additional 40,000 troops to Afghanistan.But even with current troop levels – 65,000 US troops and about 40,000 from allied countries – Bagram already is bursting at the seams, our correspondent reported. Plans are under way to build a new, $22m passenger terminal and a cargo yard costing $9m. To increase cargo capacity, a parking ramp supporting the world’s largest aircraft is to be completed in early 2010. Bagram was previously a major Soviet base during Moscow’s 1979-89 occupation of Afghanistan, providing air support to Soviet and Afghan forces fighting the mujahidin. Bagram lies in Parwan, a relatively quiet province. The Taliban is not believed to have a significant presence in the province. But the base is susceptible to rocket and mortar attacks. In 2009, the Taliban launched more than a dozen attacks on the base, killing four and wounding at least 12, according to Colonel Mike Brady, a military spokesman. |
Archive for the ‘Commentary’ Category
US unveils extended Bagram prison
November 15, 2009
American bases must go, Japanese protesters demand
November 14, 2009
Visiting US President Barack Obama faced a mass protest in central Tokyo on Friday as activists demanded the withdrawal of the 47,000 US troops still based in Japan.
Demonstrators marched on the US embassy, where survivors of the US atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki delivered a letter urging Mr Obama to do more to cut Washington’s enormous nuclear weapons stockpile.
The president also came under fire for not taking the time to visit the two cities and failing to establish a timetable for a withdrawal from Afghanistan.
At a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Mr Obama denied that his administration has been dithering over Afghanistan.
He insisted his next step would not be seen as an “open-ended commitment and that he was bent on “getting this right,” although he did not elaborate further.
Mr Hatoyama – who leads the centre-left Democratic Party which ousted the pro-US administration in August’s elections – said Japan would end a refuelling mission for US occupation forces in Afghanistan.
But he softened the blow by pledging £3 billion for Afghan schools, agriculture and police.
Last weekend over 20,000 people rallied on Okinawa, home to more than half the US forces in Japan, and called on Mr Hatoyama to scrap a 2006 bilateral pact which was signed with former president George W Bush.
Under that agreement around 8,000 US soldiers would remain in Okinawa after 2012 and Japan would foot part of the bill to transfer the rest to Guam.
In September, the government vowed to “re-examine” the 2006 agreement, particularly plans to build a new helicopter base in Okinawa.
But yesterday Mr Hatoyama said: “It will be a very difficult issue, but as time goes by I think it will become more difficult to resolve, so we understand we need to resolve the issue as soon as possible and we will work to do that.”
Japanese Communist Party secretariat head Ichida Tadayoshi called on the Hatoyama government to immediately “initiate diplomatic negotiations with the US government in a forceful manner that completely meets Okinawans’ demands.”
Most islanders were opposed to any realignment of US bases on Okinawa, he stressed.
Gates Invokes New Authority to Block Release of Detainee Abuse Photos
November 14, 2009by: Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t | Report, November 14, 2009
Blood on the floor and walls of a cell at Abu Ghraib. Defense Secretary Robert Gates invoked his new authority to block images like these from being released under the Freedom of Information Act. (Photo: Wikicommons)
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has blocked the release of photographs depicting US soldiers abusing detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, using authority just granted to him by Congress to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to keep the images under wraps on national security grounds.
In a brief filed with the US Supreme Court late Friday, Department of Defense General Counsel Jeh Johnson, and Solicitor General Elena Kagan, said Gates “personally exercised his certification authority” on Friday to withhold the photos and “determined that public disclosure of these photographs would endanger citizens of the United States, members of the United States Armed Forces, or employees of the United States Government deployed outside the United States.”
A Science Fiction Story
November 14, 2009
By Fidel Castro, ZNet, Nov. 14, 2009
I very much regret to have to criticize Obama knowing that there are in that country other could-be presidents worse than him. I am aware that that position in the United States is today a major headache. The best example of this is the report in yesterday’s edition of Granma that 237 US members of Congress, or 44%, are millionaires. This does not mean that every one of them is an incorrigible reactionary but it is extremely difficult that they feel like the many million Americans who do not have access to medical care, who are unemployed or who need to work very hard to earn their living.
MoD investigating alleged rape and torture of Iraqi civilians by troops
November 14, 2009Lawyer alleges collusion between Britain and US over ill-treatment of prisoners, including sexual humiliation
- Jenny Percival
- The Guardian, Saturday 14 November 2009
The Ministry of Defence confirmed last night that it is investigating 33 cases of alleged abuse, including rape and torture of Iraqi civilians by British soldiers.
One claimant alleges that he was raped by two British soldiers, while others claim they were stripped naked, abused and photographed. Female soldiers are also alleged to have taken part in abuse.
A pre-action protocol letter was served on the Ministry of Defence last week by Phil Shiner, the lawyer representing the Iraqis, according to the Independent.
In the letter to the MoD, reported in the newspaper, Shiner said the allegations raised questions of collusion between Britain and the US over the ill-treatment of Iraqis. “Given the history of the UK’s involvement in the development of these techniques alongside the US, it is deeply concerning that there appears to be strong similarities between instances of the use of sexual humiliation,” said Shiner.
Responding to the allegations, Bill Rammell, the armed forces minister, said: “Over 120,000 British troops have served in Iraq and the vast majority have conducted themselves to the highest standards of behaviour, displaying integrity and selfless commitment. Only a tiny number of individuals have been shown to have fallen short of our high standards. Allegations of this nature are taken very seriously, however allegations must not be taken as fact and investigations must be allowed to take their course without judgments being made prematurely.”
The Guardian reported in September that the Royal Military police had launched a criminal investigation into allegations that British soldiers repeatedly raped and mutilated an 18-year-old Iraqi civilian who was working as a labourer at Camp Breadbasket in Basra, the scene of other abuse allegations.
The man who wishes to remain unnamed alleged that two soldiers raped him, subjecting him to a 15-minute ordeal, then slashed him with a knife. He was treated in hospital for cuts and the military police are understood to have secured the medical records. The victim said he was so traumatised he tried to kill himself.
Shiner also represents Baha Mousa, 26, an Iraqi who died after being taken into UK military custody. Mousa and nine other civilians were arrested at a hotel in Basra in September 2003. The father-of-two died the following day, having suffered 93 separate injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose.
Corporal Donald Payne became the first member of the British armed forces to be convicted of a war crime when he pleaded guilty at a court martial in September 2006 to inhumanely treating civilians. He was dismissed from the army and sentenced to one year in a civilian jail.
At the ongoing public inquiry into Mousa’s death, a former British soldier admitted for the first time that he saw Payne and Private Aaron Cooper kicking and hitting the Iraqi shortly before he died. Garry Reader told a hearing on Monday how he had tried to resuscitate Mousa.
Goldstone to Haaretz: U.S. does not have to protect Israel blindly
November 14, 2009Tomer Zarchin, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz/Israel, Nov 13, 2009
Judge Richard Goldstone told Haaretz Thursday that President Shimon Peres’ remarks criticizing him were “specious and ill-befitting the head of State of Israel.”
Peres was quoted Wednesday as calling Goldstone “a small man, devoid of any sense of justice, a technocrat with no real understanding of jurisprudence,” who was “on a one-sided mission to hurt Israel.”
In Thursday’s interview by e-mail with Haaretz, Goldstone said: “I am content to be judged by my actions over the course of my career both in terms of my professional judicial career and my voluntary service.”
Palestinian vote put off, Abbas remains in office
November 14, 2009(AP)
Khaleej Times Online, 13 November 2009
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who last week said he didn’t want to run for re-election, may get to stay in office without a single ballot being cast.
The Palestinian Election Commission ruled Thursday that January’s scheduled vote should be put off because of opposition from the Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and is a rival of Abbas’ Fatah faction.
Abbas raised international concern last week when he declined to run for another term, suggesting he was frustrated over a 10-month stalemate in Israel-Palestinian peacemaking. His departure would have thrown peace efforts into turmoil.
Europe’s far right rises
November 13, 2009Tom Walker, Red Pepper, Aug. 31, 2009
The British National Party will be joined in the European parliament by far-right parties from across the continent. But how much support are fascists and racists really picking up? Tom Walker investigates
The recent European elections saw all sorts of far-right parties making gains across the continent. They ranged from right-wing populists and nationalists to outright fascists and neo-Nazis. With no end to the recession in sight, and with social democratic parties often totally discredited, some on the left fear that we could all soon be crushed under the far right’s jackboots.
More Iraq testimonies of British soldiers’ abuse
November 16, 2009Middle East Online, First Published 2009-11-16
The allegations are being ‘investigated’
Former Iraqi detainee says was told to be executed after being sexually abused at British base.
LONDON – British soldiers forced an Iraqi detainee to wear an orange jump suit and told him that he was to be executed at the US-run Guantanamo Bay camp, according to allegations in a report Monday.
The 23-year-old man alleges he was beaten and sexually abused by female and male soldiers and flown to a British detention centre in southern Iraq which he believed was the “war on terror” camp in Cuba, the Independent said.
The man’s case is among allegations being investigated by Britain’s Ministry of Defence that soldiers tortured Iraqi civilians, according to the newspaper.
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