Dirty Greek - Human Rights First: U.S. has secret detention centers

Point your guns in the opposite direction. You have far more in common with us than with those you’re protecting, and you have more to fear from them than from us. Fire your tear gas and rubber bullets at those who partition the planet, who try to tell us everything can be bought and sold, everything belongs to those who have money, everything belongs to those in power, everything belongs to them.

- Derrick Jensen

:: Blog :: Photos :: Europe :: Books :: Articles :: Links :: Friends :: Combo Feed :: Mobile ::

george-at-dirtygreek.org

follow dirtygreek at http://twitter.com

My Photos

My Flickr Photos

Dirty Greek - Human Rights First: U.S. has secret detention centers

Inalienable Rights : Human Rights First: U.S. has secret detention centers

You are NOT on the DirtyGreek.Org homepage. Please CLICK HERE to go there.

The full report (PDF) is here.

^" WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 17) – A new report from Human Rights First (the new name of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) outlines the scope of the global network of U.S. detention facilities holding suspects in the "war on terror." The report lists more than two dozen facilities that have been reported by Human Rights First sources and the media; at least half of these operate in total secrecy.

In addition to listing known detention facilities – including prisons at Guantanamo Bay, Bagram Air Force Base, and Abu Ghraib – the report, "Ending Secret Detentions" provides an accounting of U.S. military detention facilities reported in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Jordan, and aboard U.S. ships at sea (see attached list).

"The abuses at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib cannot be addressed in isolation," said Deborah Pearlstein, the Director of Human Rights First's U.S. Law and Security Program. "The United States government is holding prisoners in a secret system of off-shore prisons beyond the reach of adequate supervision, accountability, or law."

Human Rights First is calling for a comprehensive global response by U.S. authorities to end secret detentions, to investigate abuses, and to put necessary corrective measures in place.

Now, it goes without saying that this is not only wrong but depressing, not just because people are being held without anyone being notified of their detention, but also because it's not surprising. The U.S. has held secret prisoners in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo bay just that we know of, among many others that have been expressed. This travesty should be ended immediately, and all prisoners should be released if there is nothing to charge them with, or they should be charged and tried fairly.