U.S. Closes Bagram Prison In Afghanistan

U.S. Closes Bagram Prison, Says No More Detainees Held In Afghanistan -- Reuters

(Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday it had shut its last detention facility in Afghanistan and no longer had custody of detainees there, closing a much-criticized chapter in Washington's fight against Islamic extremism.

The U.S. Defense Department said it had recently transferred the last detainees from Bagram Airfield north of the capital, Kabul. It closed the prison there on Dec. 10, a day after a Senate report detailed abuse at a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan.

The U.S. embassy in Kabul said the closure decision was linked to a deadline to end the detention program in Afghanistan this year, not to the Senate report.

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More News On The Closure Of Bagram Prison

U.S. Closes Bagram Detention Center, Hands Over Last Afghan Prisoners -- NBC
US ends control of Parwan, last of Afghan prisons under US operation -- AP
US shuts its last prison in Afghanistan -- The Guardian
US says it has no detainees in Afghanistan -- SKY News
US Military Hands Over Last 3 Prisoners in Afghanistan -- Military.com
US No Longer Has Detainees in Closed Afghan Detention Facilities: Pentagon -- Sputnik
US closes Bagram detention center in Afghanistan -- RT
The US says it no longer holds any detainees in Afghanistan as a CIA torture report mentions a "black site" outside Bagram Air Base. -- SBS
The closure of Bagram prison marks an end of an era in Afghanistan -- Euronews

Afghanistan To Free 88 'Dangerous' Prisoners Despite U.S. Objections

This file photo shows the prison at Bagram air base in Afghanistan. Press TV

Afghanistan To Free 88 'Dangerous' Prisoners -- The Guardian

US claims prisoners held at Bagram pose security threat and there is proof of their involvement in deaths of foreign troops

Afghanistan is to release 88 prisoners even though the US considers them dangerous and wants them to remain in detention, the board reviewing their cases has said.

The prisoners are being held at a jail at the Bagram airbase, north of Kabul. The US only recently transferred the prison to Afghan control after it had become a serious source of tension with the government.

President Hamid Karzai instructed Afghan intelligence officials to provide the review board with more evidence against the prisoners, after the US said there was proof of their involvement in the killing of foreign troops and they posed a serious threat to security.

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More News On Afghanistan To Free 88 'Dangerous' Prisoners Despite U.S. Objections

Afghanistan says 88 prisoners to be freed, despite U.S. concern -- Reuters
Afghan Official Says Prisoners To Be Freed Despite U.S. Concern -- Radio Free Europe
Kabul to free prisoners, ignoring US calls -- The Australian
Afghanistan to Free Prisoners Despite US Objection -- Military.com/Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Afghanistan to free dangerous Bagram prisoners, despite US concerns -- Khaama Press

My Comment: This release apparently violates a U.S. - Afghan agreement .... if true .... so much for making agreements with the Kabul government.

The Other 'Guantanamo’

Ghulam Fatima, 27, is calling for the release of her husband Iftikhar Ahmed from Bagram prison outside Kabul, Afghanistan. Fakhar Ur Rehman / NBC News

Bagram Prison: Another Guantanamo In The Making? -- NBC

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan –The Bagram prison in Afghanistan is at risk of becoming the next Guantanamo Bay detention facility with some inmates being held without basic legal rights, a Pakistani human rights law firm said Wednesday.

“The majority of these detainees are Pakistani citizens; some were cleared for release in 2010 yet remain trapped in indefinite detention,” Justice Project Pakistan, a non-profit organization that provides free legal services for poor prisoners, said in a report.

“Pakistani detainees are losing hope. This raises the worrying specter of another Guantanamo Bay on Afghan soil,” it said.

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Update: ‘The Other Guantanamo’ - Indefinite detention at Bagram Air Force Base -- RT

My Comment: I suspect that these detainees are going to be in prison for a very long time .... especially the high risk detainees.

What Is Next For America's 'Second Guantanamo' In Afghanistan?

A general view of the prison compound before a ceremony handing over the Bagram prison to Afghan authorities, at the U.S. airbase in Bagram, north of Kabul September 10, 2012. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

In Afghanistan, A Second Guantanamo -- Washington Post

KABUL — Of all the challenges the United States faces as it winds down the Afghanistan war, the most difficult might be closing the prison nicknamed “The Second Guantanamo.”

The United States holds 67 non-Afghan prisoners there, including some described as hardened al-Qaeda operatives seized from around the world in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. More than a decade later, they’re still kept in the shadowy facility at Bagram air base outside Kabul.

Closing the facility presents many of the same problems the Obama administration has encountered in its attempt to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba. Some U.S. officials argue that Bagram’s resolution is even more complicated — and more urgent. The U.S. government transferred the prison’s Afghan inmates to local authorities this year. But figuring out what to do with the foreign prisoners is proving to be an even bigger hurdle to shutting the American jail.

“Is there a plan? No. Is there a desire to close the facility? Yes,” Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, said in an interview.

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My Comment: Some of these prisoners are hard core Al Qaeda members .... you cannot bring them to the U.S. (not enough evidence to convict). The White House certainly does not want them in Guantanamo (obviously). And trusting them to be imprisoned by the Afghan (yeah right). And Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. sums it up best .... “Is there a plan? No. Is there a desire to close the facility? Yes,”.