[R-G] US expands prison in Afghanistan

[Anthony Fenton]

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/02/200922041829271189.html

US expands prison in Afghanistan
Obama has been urged to give Bagram detainees basic legal rights [AFP]

The US military is about to complete a $60m expansion to its prison at  
the Bagram air base in Afghanistan, where it holds more than 600 so- 
called enemy combatants.

The near doubling of the jail's size comes as Robert Gates, the US  
defence secretary, prepares on Friday  to "refine" Washington's  
position on its use of Bagram and other facilities, including  
Guantanamo Bay.

Gates, along with Eric Holder, the US attorney general, has been  
tasked with carrying out a review to determine the fate of detainees  
held in the US facilities.

Barack Obama, the US president, was widely praised for moving to shut  
down the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within days of his  
inauguration last month.

But with his move to send 17,000 troops to Afghanistan to shore up US  
operations there, the Bagram prison looks set to become more visible  
and controversial.

Rumi Nielson-Green, a spokeswoman for the US military, told Al Jazeera  
that the detainees held at Bagram were "unlawful enemy combatants".

"They are individuals who have been removed from the battlefield  
because they are dangerous to our forces or our coalition partners,"  
she said.

Basic rights urged

Amnesty International has urged Obama to continue its break from his  
predecessor's "unlawful detention policies" by ensuring that "all US  
detentions in Afghanistan comply with international law" and giving  
the detainees access to US courts.

"Judicial review is a basic safeguard against executive abuse and a  
protection against arbitrary and secret detention, torture and other  
ill-treatment and unlawful transfers from one country or government to  
another," the human rights group said.

The rights group says that most of the 615 detainees being held at  
Bagram without access to courts or legal counsel are Afghan nationals,  
and that some of them have been held for years.

While the Obama administration has committed itself to resolving the  
240 or so Guantanamo cases within a year, it has not stated its  
intentions on Bagram.

John Bates, a US district court judge who is hearing petitions filed  
by four detainees held at Bagram, has given the administration until  
Friday to "refine" its position on the use of the air base as a  
detention facility.

The administration of George Bush, Obama's predecessor, had argued  
that as "enemy combatants", Bagram detainees had no right to challenge  
their detention in US courts – the same argument it made concerning  
detainees at Guantanamo.

But the US Supreme Court ruled last year that inmates at Guantanamo  
had the right to challenge their detentions in US courts, a ruling  
that rights groups hope will be extended to Bagram detainees.