From TruthOut today... the CIA is working on a system to permanently detain prisoners from the war on terror. Yes, permanently and purposefully without trial or even a day in court.
First, the link to the full text:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/010305Y.shtml
The Pentagon and the CIA have asked the White House to decide on a more permanent approach for potentially lifetime detentions, including for hundreds of people now in military and CIA custody whom the government does not have enough evidence to charge in courts. The outcome of the review, which also involves the State Department, would also affect those expected to be captured in the course of future counterterrorism operations.
Surely, it's not just me. Does this strike you as wholly outside the bounds of international law? We can't just keep people in jail, indefinately, as well as deny them a day in court.
One proposal under review is the transfer of large numbers of Afghan, Saudi and Yemeni detainees from the military's Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention center into new U.S.-built prisons in their home countries. The prisons would be operated by those countries, but the State Department, where this idea originated, would ask them to abide by recognized human rights standards and would monitor compliance, the senior administration official said.
Yea, because we've done a hell of a job abiding by recognized human rights standards on our own. Shipping these prisoners to Yemen is sure to regain their basic human rights.
As part of a solution, the Defense Department, which holds 500 prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, plans to ask Congress for $25 million to build a 200-bed prison to hold detainees who are unlikely to ever go through a military tribunal for lack of evidence, according to defense officials.
One bright light... good luck getting that $25 million now. We've got bigger problems than how to illegally detain prisoners indefinately.
The new prison, dubbed Camp 6, would allow inmates more comfort and freedom than they have now, and would be designed for prisoners the government believes have no more intelligence to share, the officials said. It would be modeled on a U.S. prison and would allow socializing among inmates.
"Since global war on terror is a long-term effort, it makes sense for us to be looking at solutions for long-term problems," said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. "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?' "
The administration considers its toughest detention problem to involve the prisoners held by the CIA. The CIA has been scurrying since Sept. 11, 2001, to find secure locations abroad where it could detain and interrogate captives without risk of discovery, and without having to give them access to legal proceedings.
Let's take this bit by bit. First, this is so they have 'more comfort and freedom'? Uh... how bout you charge me with something first, then I get to defend myself in court BY LAW, then you can set up a comfy cell block to detain me after my trial indeed dubs me worthy of indefinate incarceration.
If the government believes they have no further information to share, why are these people still being detained? What have they been charged with? They are still being denied legal representation, are they not??
Again I ask, trying not to be shrill.... HOW IS THIS LEGAL? And why are we not yet in international court for this??
And the last graph... they want to set up this prison so that they don't have the current hassle of trying to detain prisoners without giving them access to court, lawers or trials, and without discovery (meaning, without anyone, any country knowing that we've got people in 'secret' custody)
This is BS people. And this is one REALLY GOOD reason to be sure someone like Gonzales isn't in charge. Write your reps, write you papers, write write fight fight.