Ghost detainee
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Ghost detainee is a term used by Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center (JIDC) at the Abu Ghraib prison to designate a person held in a detention center, whose identity has been hidden by keeping them unregistered and therefore anonymous.[1] According to Swiss senator Dick Marty's memorandum on "alleged detention in Council of Europe states", about a hundred persons have been captured by the CIA on European territory and subsequently rendered to countries where they may have been tortured. This number of a hundred persons does not overlap, but adds itself to the U.S. detained 100 ghost detainees.[2]
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[edit] Extraordinary rendition
Most, if not all, of these detainees have been apprehended and sent around the globe using extraordinary rendition, which is another controversial policy of the Bush administration. Since both are kept from public scrutiny, the exact numbers of prisoners transported and turned into ghost detainees is not known. However, International Human Rights organisations have made estimates as to the use of extraordinary rendition, and the amount of ghost detainees.
One example is the case of Khalid El-Masri, a German citizen abducted by the CIA in the Republic of Macedonia in January 2004 and taken to a secret CIA site in Afghanistan known as the Salt Pit for severe treatment and interrogation before being determined innocent in March and eventually released in May 2004 after some additional delays. His abduction was apparently a case of mistaken identity. Germany initially claimed that it didn't know of el-Masri's abduction until his return to the country in May 2004. However, the BND (German intelligence agency) declared on June 1, 2006 that it had known of El-Masri's seizure 16 months before Germany was officially informed of his arrest. [3]
[edit] Abu Ghraib's "ghost detainees"
The practice of ghosting first achieved widespread attention in 2004 when the Washington Post broke a story suggesting that the U.S. Army and the Central Intelligence Agency were detaining "enemy combatants" at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq with little or no due process.[4]
The U.S. Army and the U.S. Defense Department have acknowledged that the United States has used ghosting in the past, but have said it was limited to isolated incidences. According to documents obtained by the Post, "unregistered CIA detainees were brought to Abu Ghraib several times a week in late 2003."
The Post cited as evidence a report by Major General Antonio Taguba:[1]
... in a report describing abuses of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, [he] blamed the 800th Military Police Brigade, which guarded the prison, for allowing 'other government agencies' — a euphemism that includes the CIA — to hide 'ghost' detainees at Abu Ghraib. The practice, he wrote, 'was deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine, and in violation of international law'.
When news of a detainee known only as Triple X became known to the public in late 2003, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was questioned about him.[5] Rumsfeld was evasive, and speculated about why someone would want to keep a prisoner hidden from the Red Cross, which is considered a war crime.
[edit] Criticism
The practice has been criticized by Amnesty International and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as improper and illegal because it prevents these prisoners from having contact with inspectors and human rights advocates, while the families of the victims are confronted with the fact of a "forced disappearance". One report by Amnesty International indicates that over one hundred ghost detainees may currently be being held in U.S.-operated black sites.
- "Guantanamo has become the gulag of our times, entrenching the notion that people can be detained without any recourse to the law. If Guantanamo evokes images of Soviet repression, "ghost detainees" – or the incommunicado detention of unregistered detainees - bring back the practice of "disappearances" so popular with Latin American dictators in the past. According to U.S. official sources there could be over 100 ghost detainees held by the U.S. In 2004, thousands of people were held by the US in Iraq, hundreds in Afghanistan and undisclosed numbers in undisclosed locations. AI (Amnesty International) is calling on the U.S. government to "close Guantanamo and disclose the rest." What we mean by this is: either release the prisoners or charge and prosecute them with due process."[6]
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued a response to this criticism in December of 2005.
- "The United States has not transported anyone, and will not transport anyone, to a country when we believe he will be tortured. Where appropriate, the United States seeks assurances that transferred persons will not be tortured. The United States, and those countries that share the commitment to defend their citizens, will use every lawful weapon to defeat these terrorists"[7]
[edit] See also
- Black sites
- Command responsibility
- "Enemy combatants", a legal status recognized under the Geneva Conventions- concerning prisoners of war and civilians
- Forced disappearances
- Extraordinary rendition
[edit] References
- ^ a b The "Taguba Report" On Treatment Of Abu Ghraib Prisoners In Iraq: ARTICLE 15-6 INVESTIGATION OF THE 800th MILITARY POLICE BRIGADE, Findlaw
- ^ Information memorandum II on the alleged secret detentions in Council of Europe state, rapported by Dick Marty, January 22, 2006
- ^ "German Spy Agency Admits Mishandling Abduction Case", The New York Times, June 2, 2006
- ^ Army, CIA Agreed on 'Ghost' Prisoners, in the Washington Post, March 10, 2005
- ^ Pound, Edward T. Hiding a Bad Guy Named Triple X. US News and World Report. June 21, 2004
- ^ Amnesty International Report 2005 Speech by Irene Khan at Foreign Press Association, Amnesty International, 25 May 2005
- ^ "Rice defends rendition, calls it vital tool against terror", The Boston Globe, December 6, 2005
