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Sunday, March 21, 2010

New Gitmo at Bagram Afghanistan?

Reports are that US officials are looking at the American detention facility at Bagram Afghanistan to use to house detainees from "around the world." An unnamed Pentagon official says it may be the "least bad" option. General Stanley McChrystal allegedly opposes the idea, but believes it can work for those detained in Pakistan.

The new American detention center at Bagram houses about 800 detainees. Here's a problem:

The other complication for Mr Obama is that, under current plans, Bagram is to be handed over to the Afghan Government next year, so unless the US military retained control over one section of the prison — solely for suspects detained outside of Afghanistan — it is unlikely that the Government of President Karzai would approve of having responsibility for those detained by US special forces or the CIA in another part of the world.
With the Obama administration forced to think about doing something other than bringing these people to New York, or elsewhere in the U.S., Admiral Eric Olson refused to answer a Senate question about where he thought suspects from Yemen should be housed, unless the hearing was closed. Obviously, some in our military see these people as terrorists, and not criminals.

©2007-2012copyrightMaggie M. Thornton