McClatchy has the story up now. (Thanks, Just the Facts.)
"We have families who have not seen their loved ones for years. They've literally disappeared...."
said Joan Mariner, of Human Rights Watch.
A Reuters report being considered for the front page of tomorrows New York Times issues strongly worded and heartbreaking details of how low this nation has sunk.
"Six human rights groups urged the U.S. government on Thursday to name and explain the whereabouts of 39 people they said were believed to have been held in U.S. custody and "disappeared."
Both Amnesty International, and Human Rights watch, among other groups, have filed a lawsuit against the United States government, seeking information under the Freedom of Information Act about people who have vanished and are suspected of being held in secret detainment prisons while being questioned in the GWOT.
Among the cases detailed in the report is the detention in September 2002 of two children, then aged seven and nine, of confessed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was later detained and is now held at Guantanamo. "According to eyewitnesses, the two were held in an adult detention center for at least four months while U.S. agents questioned the children about their father's whereabouts."
~~UPDATE 1~~~ Interestingly enough, the Houston Chronicle and the New York Times now have the story up, but they have omitted any mention of the children being imprisoned. History being rewritten as we watch. Sadly, even on Huffington Post, which front paged the story, the children are forgotten. ~~~UPDATE 2~~~ From UK/The Guardian:
The list also includes a number of children, including the two young sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. The two boys have not been seen by family members since they were detained in Pakistan almost five years ago during a raid in search of their father.If accurate, the report flatly contradicts assurances given by President Bush that the CIA's secret detention programme has been closed down and all the agency's prisoners handed moved to Guantánamo Bay. ~snip~ The report also expresses concern over the fate of Yusuf al-Khalid and Abed al-Khalid, the sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. They were taken into custody, aged nine and seven, in September 2002, during an attempt to capture their father. A former detainee says that he saw them in March the following year, around the time their father was captured, in a secret prison where the guards tormented them with insects.
We are now reduced to kidnapping and imprisoning children to pressure parents into 'confessing' whatever suspected activities their interogators wish to hear about. I can't conceive of anything else I can say in this diary, I am too sick at heart. May God forgive us someday. The World surely will not. Crossposted at "Never In Our Names"
IMPORTANT ACTION ITEM UPDATE: The Center for Constitutional Rights (one of the co-sponsors of the report) has set up an action page on their website where you can learn about the lawsuit, how to spread the word, and donate. Contact your Representative here: US House Contacy your Senator here: US Senate Ask them where the children are. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ House and Senate links provided by Murphy