Ghost detainee

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Ghost detainee is an official term used by the US George W. Bush administration to designate a person held in a detention center, whose identity has been hidden by keeping them unregistered and therefore anonymous.^[1] It was also used by the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center (JIDC) at the Abu Ghraib prison to designate a person held in a detention center whose identity has been hidden by keeping them unregistered and therefore anonymous.^[1] According to Swiss senator Dick Marty's memorandum on "alleged detention in Council of Europe states", about a hundred persons have been captured by the CIA on European territory and subsequently rendered to countries where they may have been tortured. This number of a hundred extraordinarily rendered persons does not overlap, but adds itself to the U.S. detained 100 ghost detainees.^[2]

1 Extraordinary rendition
2 Abu Ghraib's "ghost detainees"
3 Criticism
4 See also
5 References

[edit] Extraordinary rendition

Main article: Extraordinary rendition

Most, if not all, of these detainees have been apprehended and sent around the globe using extraordinary rendition, which is a controversial policy of the Bush administration. Since both are kept from public scrutiny, the exact numbers of prisoners transported and turned into ghost detainees is not known. However, International Human Rights organisations have made estimates as to the use of extraordinary rendition, and the amount of ghost detainees.

One example is the case of Khalid El-Masri, a German citizen abducted by the CIA in the Republic of Macedonia in January 2004 and taken to a secret CIA site in Afghanistan known as the Salt Pit for severe treatment and interrogation before being determined innocent in March and eventually released in May 2004 after some additional delays. His abduction was apparently a case of mistaken identity. Germany initially claimed that it didn't know of el-Masri's abduction until his return to the country in May 2004. However, the BND (German intelligence agency) declared on June 1, 2006 that it had known of El-Masri's seizure 16 months before Germany was officially informed of his arrest. ^[3]

[edit] Abu Ghraib's "ghost detainees"

The practice of ghosting first achieved widespread attention in 2004 when the Washington Post broke a story suggesting that the U.S. Army and the CIA were detaining "unlawful enemy combatants" at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq with little or no due process.^[4]

The Army and the Defense Department have acknowledged that the United States has used ghosting in the past, but have said it was limited to isolated incidents. According to documents obtained by the Post, "unregistered CIA detainees were brought to Abu Ghraib several times a week in late 2003."

The Post cited as evidence a report by Major General Antonio Taguba:^[1]

... in a report describing abuses of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, [he] blamed the 800th Military Police Brigade, which guarded the prison, for allowing 'other government agencies' — a euphemism that includes the CIA — to hide 'ghost' detainees at Abu Ghraib. The practice, he wrote, 'was deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine, and in violation of international law'.

When news of a detainee known only as Triple X became known to the public in late 2003, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was questioned about him.^[5] Rumsfeld was evasive, and speculated about why someone would want to keep a prisoner hidden from the Red Cross, which is considered a war crime under international law.

On September 9, 2004 General Paul J. Kern testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that an inquiry he lead found that the Army had cooperated with the CIA in hiding dozen of ghost detainees from the Red Cross.^[6] Kern told the Committee there may have been as many as 100 ghost detainees.

[edit] Criticism

The practice has been criticized by Amnesty International and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as improper and illegal because it prevents these prisoners from having contact with inspectors and human rights advocates, while the families of the victims are confronted with the fact of a "forced disappearance". One report by Amnesty International indicates that over one hundred ghost detainees may currently be being held in U.S.-operated black sites.

"Guantanamo has become the gulag of our times, entrenching the notion that people can be detained without any recourse to the law. If Guantanamo evokes images of Soviet repression, "ghost detainees" – or the incommunicado detention of unregistered detainees - bring back the practice of "disappearances" so popular with Latin American dictators in the past. According to U.S. official sources there could be over 100 ghost detainees held by the U.S. In 2004, thousands of people were held by the US in Iraq, hundreds in Afghanistan and undisclosed numbers in undisclosed locations. AI (Amnesty International) is calling on the U.S. government to "close Guantanamo and disclose the rest." What we mean by this is: either release the prisoners or charge and prosecute them with due process."^[7]

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued a response to this criticism in December 2005.

"The United States has not transported anyone, and will not transport anyone, to a country when we believe he will be tortured. Where appropriate, the United States seeks assurances that transferred persons will not be tortured. The United States, and those countries that share the commitment to defend their citizens, will use every lawful weapon to defeat these terrorists"^[8]

The process of detention without charges lodged or trial by peers violates Article 39 of the Magna Carta, which reads: 39. No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or disseized, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way harmed--nor will we go upon or send upon him--save by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. It should be noted that the Magna Carta is not a treaty and has no applicable present-day force.