The Clipboard: US plans permanent Guantanamo jails

From an article¹:

The United States is preparing to hold terrorism suspects indefinitely without trial, replacing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp with permanent prisons in the Cuban enclave and elsewhere, it was reported yesterday.

The new prisons are intended for captives the Pentagon and the CIA suspect of terrorist links but do not wish to set free or put on trial for lack of hard evidence.

The plans have emerged at a time when the US is under increasing scrutiny for the interrogation methods used on the roughly 550 "enemy combatants" at the Guantanamo Bay base, who do not have the same rights as traditional prisoners of war.

A leaked Red Cross report described the techniques used as "tantamount to torture".

Over the weekend the New York Times quoted a former interrogator as saying one in six detainees were subject to harsh techniques including sleep deprivation, exposure to constant loud music or adver tising jingles, and being shackled for long periods to a low chair.

The State Department is proposing the transfer of Afghan, Saudi and Yemeni detainees to their home countries for incarceration in purpose-built jails to be financed and constructed by the US, according to a report in the Washington Post.

The Pentagon has built a new 100-cell prison on Guantanamo Bay, known as Camp 5, and plans to ask Congress this year for $25m (£13m) to build Camp 6, a 200-bed version. The two jails are intended for suspected members of al-Qaida, the Taliban or other extremist groups, who are unlikely to go before a military tribunal because military prosecutors lack proof. (link)

Unlikely to go before trial because we lack proof, so we'll just detain them indefinitely without rights. Is this American?

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Complete text of the article, US plans permanent Guantanamo jails, by Julian Borger

The United States is preparing to hold terrorism suspects indefinitely without trial, replacing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp with permanent prisons in the Cuban enclave and elsewhere, it was reported yesterday.

The new prisons are intended for captives the Pentagon and the CIA suspect of terrorist links but do not wish to set free or put on trial for lack of hard evidence.

The plans have emerged at a time when the US is under increasing scrutiny for the interrogation methods used on the roughly 550 "enemy combatants" at the Guantanamo Bay base, who do not have the same rights as traditional prisoners of war.

A leaked Red Cross report described the techniques used as "tantamount to torture".

Over the weekend the New York Times quoted a former interrogator as saying one in six detainees were subject to harsh techniques including sleep deprivation, exposure to constant loud music or adver tising jingles, and being shackled for long periods to a low chair.

The State Department is proposing the transfer of Afghan, Saudi and Yemeni detainees to their home countries for incarceration in purpose-built jails to be financed and constructed by the US, according to a report in the Washington Post.

The Pentagon has built a new 100-cell prison on Guantanamo Bay, known as Camp 5, and plans to ask Congress this year for $25m (£13m) to build Camp 6, a 200-bed version. The two jails are intended for suspected members of al-Qaida, the Taliban or other extremist groups, who are unlikely to go before a military tribunal because military prosecutors lack proof.

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"Since global war on terror is a long-term effort, it makes sense for us to be looking at solutions for long-term problems," Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, told the Washington Post.

"This has been evolutionary, but we are at a point in time where we have to say, 'How do you deal with them in the long term?' "

Only four Guantanamo Bay detainees had been charged by the time the military tribunals were suspended in November when a Washington judge ruled them unconstitutional.

Detainees would be sent to the new prisons when military and CIA interrogators decide they are of no further intelligence value. They are modelled on medium-security civilian prisons in the US and made of steel and concrete in place of the welded shipping containers used as cells in Camp Delta.

The Pentagon is also planning to form a permanent 324-strong military police battalion to replace the mostly reservist force guarding the Guantanamo Bay camp.

Last June the supreme court ruled that prisoners in Guantanamo Bay were within the jurisdiction of US courts and therefore had the right to challenge their detention. In response the Pentagon set up "combatant status review panels", but after hearing more than 525 cases the panels have recommended release for only two detainees.

The CIA is also reported to be holding about 30 senior al-Qaida officials in secret detention centres at Bagram air force base near Kabul, Britain's Indian Ocean island, Diego Garcia, and on US ships at sea. British officials have denied knowledge of such centres at Diego Garcia.

Some CIA detainees have been subjected to "rendition", being handed over to US allies, such as Egypt, Jordan and Afghanistan, who agree to hold them secretly to extract information. The practice has been criticised by human rights groups as an endorsement and indirect use of torture.

The CIA is said to have proposed building its own permanent prison but the plan was rejected as impractical.

More than six dozen current and former inmates, including former British Guantanamo Bay prisoners, have taken the US government to court over their treatment.

reference=http://www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/story/0,13743,1382362,00.html?gusrc=rss