Floating U.S. black-site prisons and more on Diego Garcia

i posted just the other day on the possible existence of u.s. prison ships...

here's some more from the guardian...

The United States is operating "floating prisons" to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees.

Details of ships where detainees have been held and sites allegedly being used in countries across the world have been compiled as the debate over detention without trial intensifies on both sides of the Atlantic. The US government was yesterday urged to list the names and whereabouts of all those detained.

Information about the operation of prison ships has emerged through a number of sources, including statements from the US military, the Council of Europe and related parliamentary bodies, and the testimonies of prisoners.

The analysis, due to be published this year by the human rights organisation Reprieve, also claims there have been more than 200 new cases of rendition since 2006, when President George Bush declared that the practice had stopped.

It is the use of ships to detain prisoners, however, that is raising fresh concern and demands for inquiries in Britain and the US.

According to research carried out by Reprieve, the US may have used as many as 17 ships as "floating prisons" since 2001. Detainees are interrogated aboard the vessels and then rendered to other, often undisclosed, locations, it is claimed.

Ships that are understood to have held prisoners include the USS Bataan and USS Peleliu. A further 15 ships are suspected of having operated around the British territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, which has been used as a military base by the UK and the Americans.

diego garcia is a busy little place with a lot of covert activity... it's also about as far away from nosy reporters and prying eyes as it's possible to get (with the possible exception of antarctica, where i fully expect there's some pretty black stuff going on as well)...

here are some google earth shots of and a bit of background on diego garcia... note the ships in the harbor...


The above shows the entire Diego Garcia
atoll surrounding the lagoon. Although
you can't see them very well in this shot,
there are 7 ships in the lagoon and 2
in port.


The above is a closer-in shot of the
airbase. The port is in the middle left
and the housing area is on the extreme
upper left.

from wikipedia... i've highlighted particularly interesting facts in bold...

Diego Garcia (-7.317, 72.417) is an atoll located in the heart of the Indian Ocean, some 1,000 miles (1,600 km) south off Colombo, Sri Lanka's southern coast. Diego Garcia is the largest atoll by land area of the Chagos Archipelago. It is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), a British overseas territory.

Since the enforced depopulation of Diego Garcia in the years leading up to 1973, it has been used as a military base by the United States and the United Kingdom. Diego Garcia hosts one of three ground antennas (others are on Kwajalein and Ascension Island) that assist in the operation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) navigational system. GEODSS that tracks satellites optically along with the other GEODSS sites at White Sands Missle Range and on top of Mt. Kilauea in Hawaii. The Scripps Institute maintains Project IDA/IRIS sesmic montitors used there to correlate worldwide sesmic events for locating and underground nuclear testing for the US Govenment. Project ECHELON is also hosted there to provide worldwide reception of electronic signals. SNOOPY planes out of Offut AFB in Omaha regularly stop there as they skirted foreign countries intercepting SIGNET from their borders. The Anotonov-225 jet flys there providing cargo heavy lift for the island. B-1's from Ellsworth AFB still launch daily from there for OIF and OEF, as well as B-2's, and formerly B-52's were launched from there against Iraq during the Gulf War. To this day Navy P-3 Orion Subhunters operate out of there. The Navy Submarine Warfare Center is located there. The island is outfitted with sonophone microphones capable of detecting ship Screws turning 5000 miles away. The SR-71 Blackbird flew out of BIOT during the Cold War. The island's shape (similar to that of a human footprint) has led the US Navy to refer to Diego Garcia as "The Footprint of Freedom." You must have a US security clearance to even visit the island. Flights are provided by AMC out of Paya Lebar AB in Singapore.

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Oh, swell... A bigger, better Bagram (or, should I say, Guantánamo)...

if you're looking for any clues about whether or not guantánamo will be closed, look no further...

The Pentagon is moving forward with plans to build a new, 40-acre detention complex on the main American military base in Afghanistan, officials said, in a stark acknowledgment that the United States is likely to continue to hold prisoners overseas for years to come.

The proposed detention center would replace the cavernous, makeshift American prison on the Bagram military base north of Kabul, which is now typically packed with about 630 prisoners, compared with the 270 held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Until now, the Bush administration had signaled that it intended to scale back American involvement in detention operations in Afghanistan. It had planned to transfer a large majority of the prisoners to Afghan custody, in an American-financed, high-security prison outside Kabul to be guarded by Afghan soldiers.

it's a heckuva deal... close guantánamo and everybody'll think, hey...! we scored a BIG victory...! we got the government to close guantánamo... WOO-HOO...! meanwhile, on the other side of the world, far away from prying eyes, out of sight, out of mind, with layers of security too thick to penetrate, out in the middle of absolutely no-fucking-where, the u.s. will now be the proud proprietor of a super-sized guantánamo...

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A headline of unvarnished shame

no comment necessary...

Justice System For Detainees Is Moving At a Crawl

No Sept. 11 Trials Likely Before Bush Leaves Office, Officials Say

patético...

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Sami al-Hajj released from Guantánamo: "Rats are treated with more humanity"

"Our human condition, our human dignity was violated, and the American administration went beyond all human values, all moral values, all religious values.

"In Guantanamo ... rats are treated with more humanity. But we have people from more than 50 countries that are completely deprived of all rights and privileges.

"And they will not give them the rights that they give animals," he said.

i've been watching the france 24 video of al-haj being wheeled on a stretcher into the hospital in khartoum, a shell of a man with a big smile on his face...

An Al-Jazeera cameraman was released from U.S. custody at Guantánamo Bay and returned home to Sudan early Friday after six years of imprisonment that drew worldwide protests.

Sami al-Haj, who had been on a hunger strike for 16 months, grimaced as he was carried off a U.S. military plane by American personnel in Sudan's capital, Khartoum. He was put on a stretcher and taken straight to a hospital.

Al-Jazeera showed footage of al-Haj being carried into the hospital, looking feeble and with his eyes closed, but smiling. Some of the men surrounding his stretcher were kissing him on the cheek.

"Thank God ... for being free again," he told Al-Jazeera from his hospital bed. "Our eyes have the right to shed tears after we have spent all those years in prison. ... But our joy is not going to be complete until our brothers in Guantánamo Bay are freed," he added.

"The situation is very bad and getting worse day after day," he said of conditions in Guantánamo. He claimed guards prevent Muslims from practicing their religion and reading the Quran.

"Some of our brothers live without clothing," he said.

[...]

Attorney Zachary Katznelson of Reprieve, who met al-Haj at Guantanamo on April 11, said he was "emaciated" because of his hunger strike. and had recently been having problems with his liver and kidneys and had blood in his urine.

"Sami is a poster child for everything that is wrong about Guantanamo Bay: No charges, no trial, constantly shifting allegations, brutal treatment, no visits with family, not even a phone call home," Katznelson said Thursday.

"Sami was never alleged to have hurt a soul, and was never proven to have committed any crimes. Yet, he had fewer rights than convicted mass murderers or rapists. What has happened to American justice?"

martin mubanga, a former guantánamo detainee, shares his recollections of sami...



after arriving in khartoum, sami speaks about his experience...



if sami didn't enter guantánamo as a radical, he is surely one now...

as a sidenote, thanks to satellite receiver problems, i am now down to two english language tv news services, al jazeera and france 24... while i rarely turn to any tv news service for my information (usually only for major breaking news or, as i am doing this morning, for background entertainment), i can tell you very honestly that both services are far superior to cnni (and VASTLY superior to cnn's domestic service) in their presentation of broad and deep perspectives on world news that would be startlingly unfamiliar to those accustomed to u.s. tv news outlets... imho, there are only two reasons the u.s. govt is so down on al jazeera... one, it's run by an islamic nation and two, it doesn't toe the u.s. line... france 24 doesn't toe the u.s. line either but one of those reasons - the bigger one - doesn't apply...

Al-Jazeera is based in Qatar and is funded by the royal family of the Persian Gulf nation. Its Arabic channel has been excoriated by the Bush administration as a mouthpiece for terrorists including Osama bin Laden.

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IHT headline: "Guantánamo drives prisoners insane"

ya know, sitting here in afghanistan offers a remarkable perspective on what's happening back home... things are bad here, no doubt about it, but when i catch myself thinking about how fortunate we are in the u.s. and then read something like this, it makes me physically ill...

Guantánamo drives prisoners insane, lawyers say

Next month, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who was once a driver for Osama bin Laden, could become the first detainee to be tried for war crimes in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. By now, he should be busily working on his defense.

But his lawyers say he cannot. They say Hamdan, already the subject of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, has essentially been driven insane by solitary confinement in a tiny cell where he spends at least 22 hours a day, goes to the bathroom and eats all his meals. His defense team says he is suicidal, hears voices, has flashbacks, talks to himself and says the restrictions of Guantánamo "boil his mind."

"He will shout at us," said his military defense lawyer, Lieutenant Commander Brian Mizer. "He will bang his fists on the table."

His lawyers have asked a military judge to stop his case until Hamdan is placed in less restrictive conditions at Guantánamo, saying he cannot get a fair trial if he cannot focus on defending himself. The judge is to hear arguments as soon as Monday on whether he has the power to consider the claim.

Critics have long asserted that Guantánamo's climate-controlled isolation is a breeding ground for insanity. But turning that into a legal claim marks a new stage for the military commissions at Guantánamo. As military prosecutors push to get trials under way, they are being met with challenges not just to the charges, but to Guantánamo itself.

Conditions are more isolating than many death rows and maximum-security prisons in the United States, said Jules Lobel, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh who is an expert on U.S. prison conditions.

Pentagon officials say that Guantánamo holds dangerous men humanely and that there is no unusual quantity of mental illness there. Guantánamo, a military spokeswoman said, does not have solitary confinement, only "single-occupancy cells."

that last line is jaw-droppingly unbelievable for its arrogance if not its outright prevarication...

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"I have spent two years in prison even though I was innocent." So don't go screw up again, y'hear...!

about goddam time...

Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein was reunited with family and colleagues Wednesday, ending more than two years in U.S. military custody after Iraqi judges dropped all legal proceedings against him.


Tearful relatives rushed to embrace Hussein, who had been given just a few hours' notice of his release. He thanked co-workers and supporters around the world who had worked on his behalf.

"I have spent two years in prison even though I was innocent. I thank everybody," said Hussein, 36, looking healthy and dressed in a brown traditional Iraqi robe.

this is a fitting follow-on to the previous post... our fascist leaders want to make sure that everybody knows that you can be forced to give up two whole years of your life, even though you're completely innocent, just because somebody THINKS there's some remote chance you did something, or, even more terrifying, they KNOW you didn't do anything, they're just making a point...

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The autopsy report of an Iraqi detainee who died while in U.S. custody - "The manner of death is homicide"

bewert at daily kos is publishing a series of diaries about detainees and prisoners tortured and killed by u.s. forces... this is from his first...

from the aclu, the autopsy report...

Circumstances of Death: Iraqi detainee died while in U.S. custody.

Authorization for Autopsy: Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner, lAW 10 USC 1471

Identification: Identification by accompanying paperwork and wristband, both of which include his name and a detainee number, 3ACR1582

CAUSE OF DEATH: Blunt Force. Injuries and Asphyxia

MANNER OF DEATH: Homicide

FINAL AUTOPSY DIAGNOSES:
I. Multiple Blunt Force Injuries
A. Cutaneous abrasions and contusions of the scalp, torso, and extremities
B. Deep contusions of the chest wall musculature and abdominal wall
C. Multiple, bilateral, displaced and comminuted rib fractures, with lacerations of the pleura.
D. Bilateral lung contusions
E. Bilateral hemothoraces
F. Hemorrhage into the mesentery of the small and large bowel
G. Hemorrhage into the left sternohyoid muscle with associated fractures of the thyroid cartilage and hyoid bone

II. History of Asphyxia, Secondary to Occlusion of the Oral Airway

III. Pleural and Pulmonary Adhesions

IV. Hypertensive Cardiovascular Disease
A. Hypertrophy of the left ventricle of the heart (2.0-centimeters)
B. Cardiomegaly (450-grams)

V. Enlarged, Nodular Prostate Gland

VI. Toxicology is negative for ethanol, drugs of abuse, select therapeutic medications, and cyanide

EXTERNAL EXAMINATION

The remains are received clad in a white shirt, white pajama type pants, and white undershorts. Feces covers the clothing from the waist down. The body is that of a well developed, well-nourished appearing, 68-inches, 195-pounds (estimated), White male, whose appearance is consistent with the reported age of 47-years. Lividity is posterior and fixed, except in areas exposed to pressure. Rigor is present but passing. The temperature of the body is that of the refrigeration unit.

The scalp is covered with medium length, curly black hair with some graying and frontal balding. The irides are brown and the pupils are round and equal in diameter. The external auditory canals are free of abnormal secretions or foreign material. The ears are unremarkable. The nares are patent and the lips are atraumatic. The nose and maxillae are palpably stable. The teeth are natural and in poor repair, with several missing. Facial hair consists of a gray-black beard and mustache.

The neck is straight and the trachea is midline and mobile. The chest is symmetric. The abdomen is protuberant. The external genitalia are those of a normal adult, circumcised, male. The testes are descended and free of masses. Pubic hair is present in a normal distribution. The buttocks and anus are unremarkable.

The upper and lower extremities are symmetric and without clubbing or edema. A 1/2-inch scar is on the lateral aspect of the proximal left arm. Multiple small scars are on the dorsal aspect of both hands. A l-inch scar is on the anterior right ankle. No tattoos or other significant identifying marks are noted.

MEDICAL INTERVENTION
There is gauze dressing on the left wrist. No other evidence of medical intervention is noted.

RADIOGRAPHS
A complete set of postmortem radiographs is obtained and demonstrates the injuries as described.

EVIDENCE OF INJURY
The ordering of the following injuries is for descriptive purposes only and is not intended to imply order of infliction or relative severity. All wound pathways are given relative to standard anatomic position.

I. Blunt Force Injuries
A. Injuries of the head and Neck
No cutaneous injuries are noted on the face or neck. Reflection of the scalp reveals a 1 1/2 x 3/4-inch contusion on the right frontal scalp and a 1 1/2 x l-inch contusion on the left parietal scalp. There are no associated skull fractures, epidural, subdural, or subarachnoid hemorrhages or other injuries to the brain.

A detailed examination of the anterior neck structures reveals a 3/4 x 1/4-inch hemorrhage into the left sternohyoid muscle. There is a linear fracture through the left side of the thyroid cartilage and a fracture through the left side of the hyoid bone. (a fractured hyoid is a strong sign of strangulation) The cervical spine is free of injury.

B. Injuries of the Torso
There is a confluence of red-purple-black contusions surrounding the torso between the breasts and the costal margin, with some sparring of the mid back. A few satellite contusions, up to 2-inches in greatest dimension are associated with this large area of contusion. The posterior aspect of this large area of contusion is deep purple in color and the upper posterior-lateral aspect of this area is yellow-black in color. A distinct 5 x 4-inch area of ecchymosis (skin discoloration caused by the escape of blood into the tissues from ruptured blood vessels) is on the lateral aspect of the left mid chest. Two distinct 1 1/2 x l-inch contusions are at the right posterior-lateral edge of the large area of contusion. Two linear abrasions, 1/8-inch and 1/2-inch in length, are on the upper posterior left shoulder. There is a 1 1/4-inch abrasion on the posterior upper right shoulder. A 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch purple contusion is over the left lower quadrant of the abdomen. A 2 1/2 x l-inch area of ecchymosis is over the right inguinal area.

There is abundant hemorrhage into the muscle and adipose tissue of the anterior chest wall. The right chest wall has fractures of ribs three through seven anteriorly and ribs six through twelve posteriorly. The left chest wall has fractures of ribs two through nine anteriorly and ribs seven through twelve posteriorly. There are fractures of the lateral aspect of ribs,nine and ten on the left side. Fifty-milliliters of blood are in each pleural cavity and many of the rib fractures are displaced and associated with pleural lacerations. Both lungs have scattered contusions but no lacerations are noted. There is a horizontal fracture through the midportion of the body of the sternum.

A small area of hemorrhage is present in the left adrenal gland. No injuries to the kidneys are noted. Scattered areas of hemorrhage are noted in the mesentery of the large and small bowel.

C. Injuries of the Extremities
A 1/3-inch abrasion is on the anterior aspect of the right wrist. Multiple superficial linear abrasions are on the posterior aspect of the right hand. Three linear abrasions, 1/4 to 1/2-inch in length, are on the proximal lateral right arm. A 2 1/2-inch wide, weeping abrasion with some desquamation (the shedding of the outer layers of the skin) of skin is circumferentially present around the left wrist. There is a 1 x 1/2-inch contusion on the proximal posterior left arm. Two abrasions, 1/2 x 3/8-inches and 1 x 1/4-inches, are on the posterior aspect of the left upper extremity near the elbow. Two fine linear abrasions, 3-inches and 1 1/2-inches in length, are on the posterior left forearm.

A 2 x 1 1/2-inch contusion is on the anterior right leg just distal to the knee. There is a 3 x 2-inch contusion on the proximal half of the anterior right leg. A 2 x 2-inch light purple contusion is on the medial aspect of the distal right leg. There is a 2 x 1 1/2-inch contusion and two 1/2-inch in length linear abrasions over the right lateral malleolus. A 1/2 x 1/4-inch abrasion is on the anterior left knee. There is a 5 x 3-inch light purple contusion on the anterior left leg. A 1 x 1/2-inch contusion is on the anterior left ankle.
...

OPINION
This 47-year-old White male, [redacted], died of blunt force injuries and asphyxia. The autopsy disclosed multiple blunt force injuries,including deep contusions of the chest wall, numerous displaced rib fractures, lung contusions, and hemorrhage into the mesentery of the small and large intestine. An examination of the neck structures revealed hemorrhage into the strap muscles and fractures of the thyroid cartilage and hyoid bone. According to the investigative report provided by U.S. Army CID, the decedent was shackled to the top of a doorframe with a gag in his mouth at the time he lost consciousness and became pulseless.

The severe blunt force injuries, the hanging position, and the obstruction of the oral cavity with a gag contributed to this individual's death. The manner of death is homicide.

this, my friends, is an indictment of all of us, but particularly of the criminals who gave their blessing for it to happen...

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Guantánamo detainees: supportive evidence...? Tish-tosh... That's so constitutional... So YESTERDAY...!

justice...? detainee rights...? rules of evidence...? constitutional guarantees...? how quaint...!

The Bush administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to review an appeals court decision that it said had created a “serious threat to national security” by requiring the government to supply extensive evidence supporting the classification of more than 180 Guantánamo detainees as enemy combatants.

The administration asked the court to choose one of two options: either accept its appeal for expedited review, with arguments taking place in May and a decision to come in the current term, or defer action until the justices decide the case on the rights of the Guantánamo prisoners that is currently before them.

Under either option, the administration is seeking a stay of the lower court’s ruling, which it characterized as “serious legal error.”

The ruling, issued last July by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, became final on Feb. 1 when the full appeals court rejected the administration’s request for reconsideration by a vote of 5 to 5.

On Wednesday, the appeals court granted a stay until Feb. 21 to permit the administration to seek relief in the Supreme Court.

note the deliberately chosen adjective, "extensive," a word that somehow manages to suggest "excessive" without actually saying so... after five goddam years, the very likely odds of lost sanity, and now the threat of capital punishment, don't you think those detainees DESERVE "extensive", even "excessive," evidence...? shouldn't our criminal government be REQUIRED to present very nearly INCONTROVERTIBLE EVIDENCE to support its case...?

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What does it tell you that the 9/11 FAMILIES are concerned about Gitmo detainees getting a fair trial?

great god in heaven... you'd think that if ANYBODY would be out there demanding justice at the end of a rope, niceties be damned, it would be the 9/11 families...

The families of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks want justice for the killers of their loved ones. But according to a report broadcast Tuesday on CNN, they want that justice to come at the end of a fair trial, and they worry the detainees in Guantanamo Bay will not get one.

"The evidence so far against these people will be tainted," said widow Lori Van Auken. "You put people to death based on tainted evidence...because of the torture."

The father-in-law of another victim, Bruce Decell, was less concerned with the prospect of the death penalty being requested by military prosecutors. But he also wants the trials of the detainees to be fair.

when these folks speak, i tend to listen...

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CNN's Jack Cafferty on Bush pardoning HIMSELF for war crimes

retroactive immunity for the telcos, now for bush himself...



how low can you go...?

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International law applies to ALL the nations of the world, including the U.S. and George Bush

in a lengthy, well-researched, and well-written post in democratic underground, that co-blogger mettle was kind enough to point me to, poster time for change offers a comprehensive view of the prospects for holding george bush accountable for his crimes, despite the almost certain fact that it will not happen as a result of action taken in the united states...

here's his conclusion...

U.S. law is irrelevant to the charge of war crimes or crimes against humanity

No doubt one major reason for George Bush’s vehemence in pushing through the Military Commissions Act (MCA) was to immunize himself against punishment for the many crimes he has committed. By legalizing Bush’s abuse of his prisoners, that MCA violates our Fifth and Sixth Amendment guarantees to due process and a fair trial, as well as the Geneva Convention requirements for the treatment of prisoners of war. Bush’s attempt to nullify the Congressional “torture ban” attached to the MCA by issuing a signing statement to the effect that he is not obligated to be restricted by it, signaled his intention to violate our Eighth Amendment protection against “cruel and unusual punishment”, as well as the Geneva Conventions and The international Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 1984.

Of course, neither the MCA nor any other law that Bush might demand or Congress might pass in the future either nullifies our Constitution or makes it legal to violate international law, as far as the international community of nations is concerned. As was made quite clear at the time the Nuremberg Tribunal was created, international law applies to ALL the nations of the world. As much as George Bush, Dick Cheney, or certain members of Congress or the U.S. public may not like it, those laws apply to our country now just as much as they applied to the Nazis for whom the Nuremberg Tribunal was created in 1945. Robert Jackson, the Chief U.S. prosecutor for the Nuremberg Tribunal, made that quite clear. He said:

To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole … If certain acts in violation of treaties are crimes they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us.

can't happen soon enough for me...

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