Much has been made of various Torture Techniques deployed at Guantanamo Bay, and the Obama Administration has both promised to close the base as well as imposed the guidelines of the Army Field Manual (Which abides by the Geneva Conventions), but little has been said or done about the other American Torture Chamber - the Detention Center at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan.
Although the Right Wing has been running about like Chicken Little expecting the sky to come raining down around us all because Obama has gradually begun to fulfill both his and President Bush's promise to close down the Guantanam Detention Center - No one talks about the other detention center at Bagram.
And in fact, the Obama Administration is actually planning to expand the Bagram detention center and presenting even more legal challenges to these detainees by contesting the decision by Federal Judge John Bates in the Boumediene Case which re-established Habeus protection for detainees at GTMO.
The Obama administration is challenging this ruling in the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., arguing that Bates’ ruling would for the first time in American history extend habeas corpus rights to non-Americans in a theater of war in a foreign territory.
The Bagram site, they contend, is not like Guantanamo because the United States has become de facto ruler of the Cuban base after maintaining control of it since 1903.
But Bates ruled that some of those held at Bagram who were captured outside Afghanistan “are virtually identical to the detainees in Boumediene,” describing them as “non-citizens who were... apprehended in foreign lands far from the United States and brought to yet another country for detention.”
Autopsy Reports obtained by the ACLU show that at least 21 former Bagram Detainees may have been Killed During Interrogations.
Some of them were just plain beaten to death
Multiple blunt force injuries. Abrasion in upper right forehead. Abrasion on right lower forehead above eyebrow. Multiple contusions on right cheek and lower nose, left upper forehead, back of head. Abrasions on chest, lower costal margin. Contusions on arm, elbow, forearm, wrist, upper inner arm, groin, inner thigh, right back of knee and calf, left calf, left lower leg. Cause of death was pulmonary embolism due to blunt force injuries.
And this case:
Detainee was found unresponsive restrained in his cell. Death was due to blunt force injuries to lower extremities complicating coronary artery disease.Contusions and abrasions on forehead, nose, head, behind ear, neck, abdomen, buttock, elbow, thigh, knee, foot, toe, hemorrhage on rib area and leg. Detainee died of blunt force injuries to lower extremities, complicating underlying coronary artery disease. The blunt force injuries to the legs resulted in extensive muscle damage, muscle necrosis and rhabomyolysis. Electrolyte disturbances primarily hyperkalemia (elevated blood potassium level) and metabolic acidosis can occur within hours of muscle damage. Massive sodium and water shifts occur, resulting in hypovolemic shock and casodilatation and later, acute renal failure. The decedent's underlying coronary artery disease would compromise his ability to tolerate the electrolyte and fluid abnormalities, and his underlying malnutrition and likely dehydration would further exacerbate the effects of the muscle damage. The manner of death is homicide.
This was Not at Abu Ghraib. Not at GITMO. Not with KSM or Abu Zubaydah - at Bagram.
If the abuse which occured at Abu Ghraib and GITMO have been a rallying cry to help recruit enemies which have killed U.S. Troop as Air Force Interrogator "Matthew Alexander" alleges, it might be well past time to start squaking about this continuing hell hole, particularly since the bodies have been piling up for some time, out of sight - out of mind.
Vyan
No comments:
Post a Comment