U.S. Hands Over Bagram Prison To The Afghans But Not Certain Detainees

U.S. Not Handing Over All Afghan Prisoners -- CBS

(CBS News) KABUL - In Afghanistan, as American forces draw down, a milestone was reached Monday. The U.S. transferred control of the Bagram Prison outside Kabul to the Afghans. They now control the fate of thousands of prisoners, including many Taliban.

About 3,000 prisoners were handed over to the Afghans, but that's not all of them.

A U.S. military spokesman told CBS News that several hundred Afghan prisoners will remain under U.S. custody, and it's a discrepancy between the U.S. system that's in place at Bagram now and the Afghan system which will be in place.

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More News On The Transfer Of Bagram Prison To Afghan Authorities

U.S. holds on to some detainees during handover of prison to Afghan control -- CNN
Bagram prison handed over to Afghan forces despite US concerns over future of inmates -- CBS/AP
Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan takes control of Bagram's prisoners of war -- The Independent
US transfers Bagram jail to Afghans -- Al Jazeera
United States transfers Bagram prison to Afghan control -- Reuters
Afghanistan: US hands over controversial Bagram jail -- BBC
U.S. hands over Bagram prison to Afghans -- USA Today/AP
U.S. transfers control of Bagram prison to Afghan officials -- Washington Post
US Hands Over Bagram Prison to Afghan Authorities -- Voice of America
U.S. turns over control of Bagram prison to Afghan authorities -- L.A. Times
Afghanistan 'takes control' of controversial US prison -- Straits Times/AFP
Afghan army takes control of Bagram prison -- UPI
The Deep Divide Over Bagram Prison: Interview With Chris Rogers -- Radio Free Europe

Inmates At Afghan Prison Can Challenge Detention: US Judge

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Cody Collins and Spc. Daniel Camino walk across a stream during a village assessment in Jalrez Valley, Wardak province, Afgahnistan, March 12, 2009. The soldiers, assigned to Company A, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, focus on assessing the villages, talking with local leaders and identifying needed projects. DoD photo by Fred W. Baker III

From Yahoo News/AFP:

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A federal judge on Thursday ruled that some inmates held at a US military base in Afghanistan have the legal right to challenge their detention in US courts.

The Supreme Court has previously ruled that detainees held at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have the right to challenge their detention. But the government had argued that inmates at the US air base in Bagram, Afghanistan did not have such a constitutional right.

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My Comment: This is not a problem. Just put as a figurehead an Afghan Minister or General as Director of the Prison ... and presto .... it is now an Afghan prison in Afghanistan.

This ruling is a classic over reach by a judge in the U.S. legal system .... its ruling will go nowhere except to serve as propaganda fodder for antiwar activists and/or for the Taliban itself.

After Guantanamo, What Next For Bagram?

Bagram Air Base. Google Earth / DigitalGlobe

From Der Spiegel:

While the world celebrates the planned closure of Guantanamo there is another US military prison full of terror suspects -- at the Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. How Obama deals with the camp will indicate how serious he is about breaking with his predecessor.

Everyone is talking about Guantanamo these days. Almost every country in the world reacted with relief, if not outright euphoria, to one of the very first announcements by the new President Barack Obama: The US military prison for terror suspects on Cuba would be closed. Torture and CIA secret prisons were finally to be a thing of the past.

One week after Obama's inauguration another black mark on the US war on terror is in the headlines, another of the sins of his predecessor George W. Bush. On Monday the New York Times devoted its top story to the Bagram prison in Afghanistan.

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My Comment: President Obama is not going to close Bagram. It is too important of a facility for both the U.S. and Afghanistan in detaining Taliban and foreign fighters that are captured (almost daily) in Afghanistan.

Pentagon Keeps Mum On Who's At Bagram

Photo from The Atlantic.

From Huffington Post:

An untold portion of the 600 detainees at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan were captured outside the country while engaged in peaceful activities, lawyers and court documents say, and imprisoned alongside Afghan warriors. The U.S. government has argued that battlefield rules put the prisoners beyond the reach of civilian justice, even though they weren't captured in the Afghan war zone.
The total number of captives nabbed abroad and held at Bragram is redacted from this public court document.

A lawsuit by four Bagram detainees has revealed striking similarities between the prison in Afghanistan and the Guantanamo Bay facility. To determine the full measure of that resemblance, District Court Judge John D. Bates instructed government lawyers to turn over the total number of captives nabbed abroad. That crucial number was redacted from public court documents (PDF) filed in the case. Recently, Bates has turned to the Obama administration, which recently put the Gitmo military commissions on hold, for guidance.

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My Comment: The problem of Bagram and its housing of detainees stems from the Afghan Government itself. Canadian forces in the south of the country now scrutinize the well being of detainees after they have passed them onto the Afghan Government .... this happened when it was learned that pass detainees were tortured .... and in some cases had disappeared .... when they had been transferred to the Afghan prison system.

The jailbreak out of Kandahar Prison last summer in which hundreds of hardened Taliban escaped also revealed the inadequacies of the Afghan penal system, and the need for Nato to supervise the prison care for the most dangerous detainees.

With the closing of Guantanamo now in the works, expect combatants and/or Al Qaeda leaders who are captured to now be housed in Bagram. The alternative of leaving them with Afghan and/or other country jurisdiction will just open a Pandora's box of abuse, unlawful conduct, and/or the release of dangerous men.

Afghanistan's 'Guantanamo' Poses New Prison Problem For Barack Obama

Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention camp Photo: REUTERS

From The Telegraph:

As Guantanamo Bay prepares to close, President Barack Obama will have to deal with a new problem with suspected terrorist detainees, this time at Bagram in Afghanistan.

Every Monday, at a Red Cross compound in Kabul, Pashtu families gather for a glimpse by live video feed of brothers, sons and husbands who have disappeared into a feared detention centre at the main American base in Afghanistan.

As President Barack Obama declared with a fanfare his intention to close the controversial Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention camp last week, he made no mention of another growing US-run prison - with more than twice as many inmates and an even murkier legal status.

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My Comment: If he wanted to close the Bagram prison, he would have done it in his Gunatanamo announcement. This is the loophole that gives President Obama options when it comes to captured Al Qaeda terrorists. It is also the option that he is not going to get rid of.

For supporters of Al Qaeda, they will now be focusing on Bagram when Guantanamo is closed.