Democracy: U.S. Planning Big New Prison in Afghanistan
May 18th, 2008Via: New York Times:
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.
But American officials now concede that the new Afghan-run prison cannot absorb all the Afghans now detained by the United States, much less the waves of new prisoners from the escalating fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The proposal for a new American prison at Bagram underscores the daunting scope and persistence of the United States military’s detention problem, at a time when Bush administration officials continue to say they want to close down the facility at Guantánamo Bay.
as i’m sitting at my desk at 8 p.m. on a sunday evening here in kabul, afghanistan, a mere hour’s drive from bagram, i am thinking that if you’re looking for any clues about whether or not guantánamo will be closed, look no further than this story… 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…
5% of the world’s population and 25% of its prisoners. It’s the American way!
@profmarcus
Why do you always preface your remarks from behind a desk in Kabul? If you are in Afghanistan, could you please look up my friend Ejaz for me?
He came to the U.S. early 70’s and studied at American University in Washington, D.C. I got my first passport on his invitation to go Afghanistan in 1979.
I am hoping you are behind a powerful desk in Kabul and can help me reuinite with my dear friend wherever he may be.
LOL… claiming that i “always” preface my remarks as “behind a desk in kabul” is a bit of a stretch… actually, more than just a bit… i arrived here in kabul from argentina in late march and return to the u.s. in approximately 2 1/2 weeks… i am not “behind a powerful desk”… the powerful ex-pat people sit behind massive fortifications not unlike i imagine the green zone in baghdad to be… the powerful local people are counting the money so thoughtfully provided by the u.s. and its partners behind not-quite-so-massive but equally impressive fortifications…
if you provide me with your friend’s full name, i will ask around among the locals that have become good friends… individuals who are educated and part of the professional class tend to know each other because it’s such a small segment of the population…
profmarcus@lycos.com