It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
14,000 prisoners in U.S military custody
page: 1share:
Within the last years since the "War on terrorism" began, the U.S military has taken custody of over 14,000 prisoners kept in somewhat secret
prisons around the world, where they have no chance of any legal rights or counsel.
news.yahoo.com
BAGHDAD, Iraq - In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law.
Disclosures of torture and long-term arbitrary detentions have won rebuke from leading voices including the U.N. secretary-general and the U.S. Supreme Court. But the bitterest words come from inside the system, the size of several major U.S. penitentiaries.
Many say they were caught up in U.S. military sweeps, often interrogated around the clock, then released months or years later without apology, compensation or any word on why they were taken. Seventy to 90 percent of the Iraq detentions in 2003 were "mistakes," U.S. officers once told the international Red Cross.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
This is pure terrorism, on the USA's part, this is something that would be reported from Iraq when Saddam was in power years ago. People being rendered and taken to secret prisons, tortured and kept without cause. Innocents being taken in military sweeps and kept in hellish conditions for no reason. Only being suspected insurgents and no evidence found to support these allegations these people are now saying that these detentions are unjust and are only accelerating the war.
[edit on 17-9-2006 by Ox]
news.yahoo.com
BAGHDAD, Iraq - In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law.
Disclosures of torture and long-term arbitrary detentions have won rebuke from leading voices including the U.N. secretary-general and the U.S. Supreme Court. But the bitterest words come from inside the system, the size of several major U.S. penitentiaries.
Many say they were caught up in U.S. military sweeps, often interrogated around the clock, then released months or years later without apology, compensation or any word on why they were taken. Seventy to 90 percent of the Iraq detentions in 2003 were "mistakes," U.S. officers once told the international Red Cross.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
This is pure terrorism, on the USA's part, this is something that would be reported from Iraq when Saddam was in power years ago. People being rendered and taken to secret prisons, tortured and kept without cause. Innocents being taken in military sweeps and kept in hellish conditions for no reason. Only being suspected insurgents and no evidence found to support these allegations these people are now saying that these detentions are unjust and are only accelerating the war.
[edit on 17-9-2006 by Ox]
.
14,000 !?!!!!!!!!
What is this? Gulag North America?
[edit on 17-9-2006 by soficrow]
14,000 !?!!!!!!!!
What is this? Gulag North America?
[edit on 17-9-2006 by soficrow]
The people that support Bush's current push to legalize these secret prisons and the treatment of the detainees, need to read this article. It's
talking about as many as TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE that have been held without cause. :shk:
14,000 people detained without charges or counsel, or recourse? This is not okay.
This is fascism. Not democracy.
Where is the outrage?
This is fascism. Not democracy.
Where is the outrage?
No this is not ok.. and this is terrorism.. Bushism.. fascism, all of the above.. And definately not democracy, Bush uses the term "democracy" as
one of those... I really mean.. phrases.. like... "Freedom" He really means "Imprisonment".. and "Clean air energy" he means "Coal energy"..
So.. when he says "Democracy" he really means "Terror"..
The fact that all this is coming out and no one has done anything about it just goes to show you that Congress is turning the blind eye to it.. This is when the UN needs to step in and start sanctions against the USA.. if they dont stop this terrorism that Bush is spreading... He's literally taken all human rights away from these people and is treating them like theyre already dead...
Where is the outrage? Let this reach the American public.. Most people in America unfortunately.. dont know.. or dont care.. I on the other hand go looking for Political dirt like this...
The fact that all this is coming out and no one has done anything about it just goes to show you that Congress is turning the blind eye to it.. This is when the UN needs to step in and start sanctions against the USA.. if they dont stop this terrorism that Bush is spreading... He's literally taken all human rights away from these people and is treating them like theyre already dead...
Where is the outrage? Let this reach the American public.. Most people in America unfortunately.. dont know.. or dont care.. I on the other hand go looking for Political dirt like this...
2300 People Missing Daily
As Rumsfeld said
The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.
—Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing
Comment: Well there are 2300 missing people daily. Do some of them end up in "tribunals?" NORTHCOM has effective control over the United States since
September 11, 2001 for such purposes.
As Rumsfeld said
The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.
—Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing
Comment: Well there are 2300 missing people daily. Do some of them end up in "tribunals?" NORTHCOM has effective control over the United States since
September 11, 2001 for such purposes.
That speech was written and designed to confuse people and to make the supporters go .. "HELL YEAH!!!" Bzzzzzzz.. Wrong.. He said NOTHING.. in
that entire speech.. It was wasted breath.. Rumsfeld is an excellent manipulator..
Why so few hits?
Is it the title? How about "14,000 People Imprisoned by US Military: No Counsel, No Visitors, No Appeal."
No? Too wordy?
Maybe something that goes straight to the point:
US Exports Fascism
Hey spiderj, any more ideas?
Is it the title? How about "14,000 People Imprisoned by US Military: No Counsel, No Visitors, No Appeal."
No? Too wordy?
Maybe something that goes straight to the point:
US Exports Fascism
Hey spiderj, any more ideas?
From the Article:
So, the US goverment alongside with all branches of Armed forces and Intelligence wings have the Right under the Laws of War and ofcourse, an Obligation to the American People - Screw the People of the World or the People of Iraq - to Detains these Enemies?
Well...
So, there are 14,000 prisoners, out of which 70 to 90% are taken by MISTAKE, as the US officers admited - which makes about 9800-12600 Illegally and above all Wrongfully abducted Iraqi Civilians! Which also means that out of all of those Enemies only 140 are real, terrible terrorists.
So, where are all those People?
Yep - US Goverment is running a Net of Gulags...
President Bush laid out the U.S. position in a speech Sept. 6.
"These are enemy combatants who are waging war on our nation," he said. "We have a right under the laws of war, and we have an obligation to the American people, to detain these enemies and stop them from rejoining the battle."
So, the US goverment alongside with all branches of Armed forces and Intelligence wings have the Right under the Laws of War and ofcourse, an Obligation to the American People - Screw the People of the World or the People of Iraq - to Detains these Enemies?
Well...
Captured on battlefields, pulled from beds at midnight, grabbed off streets as suspected insurgents, tens of thousands now have passed through U.S. detention, the vast majority in Iraq.
Many say they were caught up in U.S. military sweeps, often interrogated around the clock, then released months or years later without apology, compensation or any word on why they were taken. Seventy to 90 percent of the Iraq detentions in 2003 were "mistakes," U.S. officers once told the international Red Cross.
So, there are 14,000 prisoners, out of which 70 to 90% are taken by MISTAKE, as the US officers admited - which makes about 9800-12600 Illegally and above all Wrongfully abducted Iraqi Civilians! Which also means that out of all of those Enemies only 140 are real, terrible terrorists.
So, where are all those People?
Yep - US Goverment is running a Net of Gulags...
So now our nation is building concentration camps in other countries to keep the enemies of our nation?
Will that included American born citizens taken also? After all they are secret who is to know who is who in those prisons if we may never know the identity of them.
So what entitle to be tagged an enemy of the US?
Sounds like German Nazi all over again, just keep then away from the prying eyes of US citizens.
[edit on 18-9-2006 by marg6043]
Will that included American born citizens taken also? After all they are secret who is to know who is who in those prisons if we may never know the identity of them.
So what entitle to be tagged an enemy of the US?
Sounds like German Nazi all over again, just keep then away from the prying eyes of US citizens.
[edit on 18-9-2006 by marg6043]
Yeah Marg youre right, its the old.. out of sight out of mind.. If you dont see it.. you cant blame us for it thing... And that's what theyre
doing... Hiding it away from eyes so they dont fall from criticism..
Some of these "extraordinary renditiions" are like Canadian Muslim Maher Arar, detained by the US from false information given by Canadian
authorities.
www.msnbc.msn.com...
His story is just incredible, that something like this could happen in Canada or the US. Of course when the US is asked to explain their actions or be held accountable, this happens:
Canadian intelligence officials passed false warnings and bad information to American agents about a Muslim Canadian citizen, after which U.S. authorities secretly whisked him to Syria, where he was tortured, a judicial report found Monday.
Arar, now 36, was detained by U.S. authorities as he changed planes in New York on Sept. 26, 2002. He was held for questioning for 12 days, then flown by jet to Jordan and driven to Syria. He was beaten, forced to confess to having trained in Afghanistan -- where he never has been -- and then kept in a coffin-size dungeon for 10 months before he was released, the Canadian inquiry commission found.
www.msnbc.msn.com...
His story is just incredible, that something like this could happen in Canada or the US. Of course when the US is asked to explain their actions or be held accountable, this happens:
U.S. officials refused to cooperate with the Canadian inquiry.
...
Arar filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court, but the case was dismissed by a judge citing "national security" issues. Arar also is seeking compensation from the Canadian government.
I wish I could find a link, but this morning on my local news there was mention of this program, Condi Rice was quoted (And I saw the video) as saying
"The USA has produced information with this program" Oh really?... Produced information huh? Would that mean the information is false?
I'm going to try to find a link to this.. if anyone has a link.. please post it.. If I find one I'll make sure it goes up..
I'm going to try to find a link to this.. if anyone has a link.. please post it.. If I find one I'll make sure it goes up..
Found this link on another thread. The story is ...amazing:
Make that 14,001. At least.
9/11 Toxic Dust Whistleblower Raided By SWAT Team
Major Mike McCormack is a hospital technician and civil air patrol pilot who worked the ground zero site for eight days after the collapse of the twin towers. He is one of the real heroes of 9/11 and was the man who found the American flag that was later displayed as a token of unity atop the rubble.
...McCormack is part of an organization lobbying Congress... (and) was part of the anniversary ceremonies on September 11 2006 and provided many hand-shaking photo-ops for numerous politicians, before returning to his family home in Pennsylvania that night. McCormack returned to his New York home the next morning in preparation to visit ground zero once again. ...On the morning of September 12, McCormack's tenant opened the door to see half a dozen detectives outside who began asking questions and demanding to search the building.
"Three minutes later as I'm walking out of my office with one of the detectives, I have a federal SWAT team that comes in....men in black and all of a sudden they have 9 millimeter handguns and MP5 machine guns aimed at my head," McCormack told the Alex Jones Show. ...McCormack's tenant, who questioned the officials' behavior during the raid, was "taken to federal jail and nobody has heard from him since," according to McCormack.
Make that 14,001. At least.
Do you think he was rendered and taken to a military detention center? I mean.. he was obviously taken into custody.. but do you think he ended up
being one of the 14,000 prisoners?
Not sure, Ox - sorry. It was a good line though.
This information is astounding - and frightening.
Equally astounding and frightening is the lack of attention.
This information is astounding - and frightening.
Equally astounding and frightening is the lack of attention.
by soficrow
This information is astounding - and frightening.
Equally astounding and frightening is the lack of attention.
Soficrow, earlier today as I clicked "new posts" I saw a new thread just up under Board & Business. It read something like "Foreigners on ATS are constantly criticizing America" or something like that. It's obviously taken off now, I can't find it. I read it with the 4-5 replies it already had, let me say they took a more neutral stand than the author of the thread. It wasn't hate-speach but close with an open hostility towards "foreigners", blamed for criticizing US "living in glass houses themselves".
The attitude of ignorance it represented struck me more than the hostility, but I it might put an answer to your question as for the lack of attention to this thread.
Most Americans just don't wanna hear - which not necessarily means they agree, they just don't want to confront issues dishonoring the Nation. I had some really good American friends here in Freakland, one in particular, I would characterize him liberal left, in no way pro-Bush, but quite alternative in thoughts and style. When the war started he wasn't for it at all, but in the inevitable discussions it spured, he had to stand up for his country and government. He just couldn't stand argues about American wrongdoings. His conciuosness would end up split, so he would defend Bush policies in the end - despite calling him "a playboy" and Rumsfeld "a nazi".
The attitude this friend represents, I feell too much today - and I'm from the Vietnam days, where it was quite the opposite. The American soul is torn apart. It suffers so much today. And it hurts me too.
But those mechanismes is what is at work on a thread like this, and yes, I think it's sad. It might have to do with the ignorance the American media shelters its public by. Those issues up in this thread now, have been common knowledge to European public for a year now.
You are looking for links, you say. I'll give a few, more or less randomly chosen among 749 hits that pops up on truthout.org, when searched for "secret cia prisons". It's always a good site for alternative American news. By the way, it must be about 1½year now the secret cia flights made headlines and created some political turmoil in Europe.
I shall gladly find more to light up the subject, these three I've only skimmed rushing to post them to make this IMPORTANT thread stay alive. Though it's not one all members like.
US War Prisons Legal Vacuum for 14,000 (the story you have on the thread)
By Patrick Quinn
The Associated Press
www.truthout.org...
Flight Logs Reveal Hundreds of CIA Flights to Europe: Report
Agence France-Presse
EU Seeks Details on Secret CIA Jails
By Glenn Kessler
The Washington Post
Thursday 01 December 2005
www.truthout.org...
Europe Looking into Report of CIA Jails
By Judy Dempsey and James Kanter
The New York Times
Red Cross Seeks Access to CIA Prisons
Reuters
Thursday 03 November 2005
www.truthout.org...
Does anyone know if camps on North American soil are coming online? I'm asking because
this number (of 14k people) is obviously just the iceberg's tip.
[edit on 27-9-2006 by Long Lance]
[edit on 27-9-2006 by Long Lance]
3 articles in one link from November 2005. The one quoted is called: Secrets and Shame
Ultimately the whole truth will come out and historians will have their say, and Americans will look in the mirror and be ashamed.
Abraham Lincoln spoke of the "better angels" of our nature. George W. Bush will have none of that. He's set his sights much, much lower.
The latest story from the Dante-esque depths of this administration was front-page news in The Washington Post yesterday. The reporter, Dana Priest, gave us the best glimpse yet of the extent of the secret network of prisons in which the CIA has been hiding and interrogating terror suspects. The network includes a facility at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe.
The individuals held in these prisons have been deprived of all rights. They don't even have the basic minimum safeguards of prisoners of war. If they are being tortured or otherwise abused, there is no way for the outside world to know about it. If some mistake has been made and they are, in fact, innocent of wrongdoing - too bad.
As Ms. Priest wrote, "Virtually nothing is known about who is kept in the facilities, what interrogation methods are employed with them, or how decisions are made about whether they should be detained or for how long."
This is the border along which democracy bleeds into tyranny.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
Case stories.
When Maher Arar arrived at John F. Kennedy airport in New York City on Sept. 26, 2002, he had no idea his life was about to be radically changed. Arar, a 31-year-old computer consultant and Canadian citizen, was en route from Zurich to Montreal to attend to business following a family vacation in Tunisia, according to a lawsuit he filed against U.S. officials in 2004. He was standing in line waiting to pass immigration inspection when an immigration officer asked him to step aside to answer some questions.
As FBI agents, immigration officials and NYPD officers questioned Arar, he asked to consult an attorney. U.S. officials told Arar that only U.S. citizens had the right to a lawyer and locked him up in the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City, where he endured more interrogation about his friends, the mosques he attended, his letters and e-mails. U.S. officials then demanded that he "voluntarily" agree to be sent to Syria, where he was born, instead of home to Canada (Arar holds dual citizenship). Arar refused, according to Amnesty International, explaining that he was afraid he would be tortured in Syria for not completing his military service. After more than a week in detention, U.S. authorities determined that Arar was "inadmissible" to the United States based on secret evidence and notified him that he would be deported to Syria.
They took him to New Jersey in the middle of the night and loaded him onto a small plane that stopped in Washington, D.C., and then Rome before proceeding to Jordan. Local authorities in Jordan chained and beat Arar, bundled him in a van and drove him across the border to Syria, where Arar was beaten with electrical cables, interrogated about his acquaintances and beliefs, and kept in a tiny cell for months at a time.
"I first thought they would keep me in that place, which I now call the grave, for a short period so that they could put pressure on me," Arar told AI. "But I was kept in that dark and filthy cell for about 10 months and 10 days. That was torture."
After three consecutive days of beating and interrogation, he said, "I could not take the pain any more and I falsely confessed of having been to Afghanistan." After the Canadian government intervened, Syrian authorities released him in October 2003 - more than one year after his ill-fated attempt to change planes in New York City - with an acknowledgment that there was no evidence that he was ever involved in terrorism.
More and more I am taking Yahoo News as a very reliable source. Their level of reporting and the topics reported are increasing my use of their
service. Many thanks Yahoo News and OX for bringing this to our attention.
I am disgusted that this thread was started here on the 17th of September and now with hardly any responses/comments and most of all no media attention. I do not write many replies, guess you could call me a "lurker", but this outraged me so much I just had to add something to this topic.
I am not going to quote other articles or other sites, as this news item once read in its entirety speaks volumes for the despicable situation that we are all facing.
Terrorists do not have a place in society... and yes something has to be done. But... and here is the big but... invading Iraq... offering them "freedom" and democracy will never work. I can never understand why people cannot see it from their point of view... would any of us like another country invading ours... offering ( no.. telling them ) another way of life that was totally against the grain of our own? NO! Couple this with the total roundup of what seems innocent people who are tortured, detained and most of all removed from any kind of society or life. I wonder why there is an increase of insurgents and hatred towards us??
Take the figure quoted of 14,000 detainees... multiply this by their family members and friends. Is it any wonder that civil war and unrest is inevitable?
I know everything in the garden known as Iraq didn’t smell of roses before... but this was their way of life! Who are we to tell anyone how to behave and what culture they should have? You can look at any country and we all have our own problems... our own terrorists... our own murderers... our own child molesters etc. But we don’t fight fire with fire to eliminate/isolate these people, and enrage the majority. You can eliminate/isolate the leaders, but there is always going to be someone else to fill their shoes and after poking the wasps nest with a stick for long enough, the shoe fillers are lining up in droves!
OK… I feel better now that’s off my chest! Just wish it was that easy for the other 14,000
I am disgusted that this thread was started here on the 17th of September and now with hardly any responses/comments and most of all no media attention. I do not write many replies, guess you could call me a "lurker", but this outraged me so much I just had to add something to this topic.
I am not going to quote other articles or other sites, as this news item once read in its entirety speaks volumes for the despicable situation that we are all facing.
Terrorists do not have a place in society... and yes something has to be done. But... and here is the big but... invading Iraq... offering them "freedom" and democracy will never work. I can never understand why people cannot see it from their point of view... would any of us like another country invading ours... offering ( no.. telling them ) another way of life that was totally against the grain of our own? NO! Couple this with the total roundup of what seems innocent people who are tortured, detained and most of all removed from any kind of society or life. I wonder why there is an increase of insurgents and hatred towards us??
Take the figure quoted of 14,000 detainees... multiply this by their family members and friends. Is it any wonder that civil war and unrest is inevitable?
I know everything in the garden known as Iraq didn’t smell of roses before... but this was their way of life! Who are we to tell anyone how to behave and what culture they should have? You can look at any country and we all have our own problems... our own terrorists... our own murderers... our own child molesters etc. But we don’t fight fire with fire to eliminate/isolate these people, and enrage the majority. You can eliminate/isolate the leaders, but there is always going to be someone else to fill their shoes and after poking the wasps nest with a stick for long enough, the shoe fillers are lining up in droves!
OK… I feel better now that’s off my chest! Just wish it was that easy for the other 14,000