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In 2005, The New York Times obtained a 2,000-page United States Army report concerning the homicides of two unarmed civilian Afghan prisoners by U.S. armed forces in 2002 at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility (also Bagram Collection Point or B.C.P.) in Bagram, Afghanistan. The prisoners, Habibullah and Dilawar, were chained to the ceiling and beaten, which caused their deaths. Military coroners ruled that both the prisoners' deaths were homicides. Autopsies revealed severe trauma to both prisoners' legs, describing the trauma as comparable to being run over by a bus. Seven soldiers were charged.

File:Bagram prisoner abuse.184.1.450.jpg

A sketch showing how Dilawar was chained to the ceiling of his cell by Thomas V. Curtis, a former sergeant in the Reserve United States Army Military Police Corps

Location[]

File:Bagram Airbase Hospital.PNG

The former hospital on-base, where lawyer Dennis Edney alleges abuse of Omar Khadr began.[1]

The alleged torture and homicides took place at the military detention center known as the Bagram Theater Internment Facility, which had been built by the Soviets as an aircraft machine shop during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1980–1989). A concrete-and-sheet metal facility that was retrofitted with wire pens and wooden isolation cells, the center is part of Bagram Air Base in the ancient city of Bagram near Charikar in Parvan, Afghanistan.

Detainees[]

In January 2010, the American military released the names of 645 detainees held at the main detention center at Bagram, modifying its long-held position against publicizing such information. This list was prompted by a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in September 2009 by the American Civil Liberties Union, whose lawyers had also demanded detailed information about conditions, rules and regulations.[2][3]

Victims[]

Habibullah[]

Main article: Habibullah (torture victim)

Habibullah died on December 4, 2002. Several U.S. soldiers hit the chained man with so-called "peroneal strikes," or severe blows to the side of the leg above the knee. This incapacitates the leg by hitting the common peroneal nerve.[4] According to the New York Times:

By Dec. 3, Mr. Habibullah's reputation for defiance seemed to make him an open target. [He had taken at least 9 peroneal strikes from two M.P.'s for being "noncompliant and combative."]
... When Sgt. James P. Boland saw Mr. Habibullah on Dec. 3, he was in one of the isolation cells, tethered to the ceiling by two sets of handcuffs and a chain around his waist. His body was slumped forward, held up by the chains. Sergeant Boland ... had entered the cell with [Specialists Anthony M. Morden and Brian E. Cammack]...
kneeing the prisoner sharply in the thigh, "maybe a couple" of times. Mr. Habibullah's limp body swayed back and forth in the chains.[5]

When medics arrived, they found Habibullah dead.

Dilawar[]

Main article: Dilawar (torture victim)

Dilawar, who died on December 10, 2002, was a 22-year-old Afghan taxi driver and farmer who weighed 122 pounds and was described by his interpreters as neither violent nor aggressive.

When beaten, he repeatedly cried "Allah!" The outcry appears to have amused U.S. military personnel, as the act of striking him in order to provoke a scream of "Allah!" eventually "became a kind of running joke," according to one of the MP's. "People kept showing up to give this detainee a common peroneal strike just to hear him scream out 'Allah,'" he said. "It went on over a 24-hour period, and I would think that it was over 100 strikes."

The Times reported that:

On the day of his death, Dilawar had been chained by the wrists to the top of his cell for much of the previous four days.
"A guard tried to force the young man to his knees. But his legs, which had been pummeled by guards for several days, could no longer bend. An interrogator told Mr. Dilawar that he could see a doctor after they finished with him. When he was finally sent back to his cell, though, the guards were instructed only to chain the prisoner back to the ceiling.
"Leave him up," one of the guards quoted Specialist Claus as saying. Several hours passed before an emergency room doctor finally saw Mr. Dilawar. By then he was dead, his body beginning to stiffen.
It would be many months before Army investigators learned a final horrific detail: Most of the interrogators had believed Mr. Dilawar was an innocent man who simply drove his taxi past the American base at the wrong time.[6]

There has been a movie created about the incident called Taxi to the Dark Side. In this movie they claim Dilawar was not captured driving past Bagram air base, but while driving through militia territory. He was stopped at a roadblock and given over to the U. S. Army for money reward, because the militia said he was a terrorist.

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui/Prisoner 650[]

Main article: Aafia Siddiqui

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, an American of Pakistani Origin neuroscientist, was suspected of the attempted assault and killing of U.S. personnel in Afghanistan. She mysteriously disappeared in 2003 with her three children, and was allegedly detained for five years at Bagram; she was the only female prisoner. She was known to the male detainees as "Prisoner 650" and has been dubbed the "Mata Hari of al-Qaida" or the "Grey Lady of Bagram" by the media. In addition to former detainees of Bagram, Yvonne Ridley maintains that Siddiqui is the "Grey Lady of Bagram" – a ghostly female detainee, who kept prisoners awake "with her haunting sobs and piercing screams". In 2005 male prisoners were so agitated by her plight, Yvonne said, that they went on hunger strike for six days. Siddiqui's family maintains that she has been abused.[7] Her oldest son, who was seven years old when they disappeared, was detained in Afghanistan until 2008,[7] and the whereabouts of her remaining two children are still unknown. Siddiqui was convicted and is awaiting sentencing.

“It is my judgment that Dr Siddiqui is sentenced to a period of incarceration of 86 years,” (for the attempted murder of US officers in Afghanistan) "http://tribune.com.pk/story/53632/it-is-time-for-the-us-to-show-goodness-and-pardon-aafia-siddiqi/" said Judge Richard Berman, US District Court Judge of a Federal Court in Manhattan on Sept. 23 2010. Pakistani citizen Dr. Aafia Siddiqui denounced the trial saying “(an appeal would be) a waste of time. I appeal to God.”

"http://www.dawn.com/2008/09/16/top4.htm" According to reports, 12-year old Ahmed (Dr Aafia’s son) was handed over to his aunt Fauzia Siddiqui in September 2008 after years of detention in a US military base in Afghanistan. Later on, "http://www.draafia.org/2010/04/11/has-aafia-siddiqui%E2%80%99s-daughter-surfaced/" reported that a little girl named Fatima, was dropped off in front of the home of Siddiqui’s sister and the girl’s DNA matched that of Ahmed (Dr Aafia’s son). Meanwhile, a Pakistani Senator and chairman of the Pakistani Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior, Senator Talha Mehmood, “slammed the US for keeping the child in a military jail in a cold, dark room for seven years.”

Binyam Mohamed[]

Main article: Binyam Mohamed

Mohamed arrived in the U.K. from Ethiopia in 1994 and sought asylum. In 2001 he converted to Islam and travelled to Pakistan followed by Afghanistan, by his own admission, to see whether Taleban-run Afghanistan was "a good Islamic country". Considered by the U.S. authorities as a would-be bomber, who fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan, he was arrested in Pakistan at the airport by Pakistani immigration officials in April 2002 on his way back to the U.K. But Mohamed insisted the only evidence against him was obtained using torture Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan between 2002 and 2004 before being secretly rendered to Guantánamo Bay. He alleges being beaten, scalded, cut and held captive in a black hole at the "Prison of Darkness", where he was deprived of sleep, blasted with sound, starved, beaten and hung up. In October 2008, the U.S. dropped all charges against him. Mohamed was reported as being very ill as a result of a hunger strike in the weeks before his release, while US authorities were reviewing his case.[8] Mohamad also said to fellow Bagram detainee Moazzam Begg in an interview in February 2009 that the woman he and the other male detainees saw at Bagram, named "Prisoner 650", was Aafia Siddiqui, when Begg showed him a picture of her.[9]

Others[]

Main article: Detainees held in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility

Somalian refugee Mohammed Sulaymon Barre, who worked for a funds transfer company, described his Bagram interrogation as "torture."[10] Barre said he was picked up and thrown around the interrogation room when he wouldn't confess to a false allegation. He was then put into an isolation chamber that was maintained at a piercingly cold temperature for several weeks. He said he was deprived of sufficient rations during his time in isolation. He said, as a result of this treatment his hands and feet swelled, causing him such excruciating pain he couldn't stand up.

Zalmay Shah, a citizen of Afghanistan, was detained at Bagram air base and alleges mistreatment there.[11] An article published in the May 2, 2007 issue of The New Republic contained excerpts from an interview with Zalmay Shah.[11] He said he had originally cooperated closely with the Americans. He had worked with an American he knew only as "Tony" in the roundup of former members of the Taliban. According to the article:[11]

"While delivering one wanted man into U.S. custody, Shah was himself arrested, hooded, shackled, and stripped. Soldiers taped his mouth shut, refusing to let him spit out the snuff he was chewing. For three days, his jailers in Bagram denied him food. All the while, Shah pleaded his innocence and reminded the Americans of his friendship with 'Tony.'"

Zalmay Shah was eventually released.[11] He said that Americans continue to ask for his cooperation, but he now declines.

Others include Mohammed Salim and Moazzam Begg.

Investigation and prosecution[]

In October 2004, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command concluded that there was probable cause to charge 27 officers and enlisted personnel with criminal offenses in the Dilawar case ranging from dereliction of duty to maiming and involuntary manslaughter. Fifteen of the same soldiers were also cited for probable criminal responsibility in the Habibullah case. Seven soldiers have been charged so far.

According to an article published in the October 15, 2004 New York Times 28 soldiers were under investigation.[12] Some of the soldiers were reservists in the 377th Military Police Company under the command of Captain Christopher M. Beiring. The rest were in the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion under the command of Captain Carolyn A. Wood.

On October 14, 2004, the Criminal Investigation Command forwarded its report from its investigation to the commanders of 28 soldiers.[13]

As of November 15, 2005, 15 soldiers have been charged.[14]

Soldier Unit Charges
Sgt. James P. Boland 377th MP

Charged in August 2004 with assault, maltreatment of a detainee, and dereliction of duty for alleged conduct in connection with treatment of a detainee on December 10, 2002 at Bagram. He was charged with a second specification of dereliction of duty in the death on December 3, 2002 of another detainee.[15][16][17] All charges were dropped. He was given a letter of reprimand and eventually left the Army.[14]

Spc. Brian Cammack 377th MP

Pled guilty on May 20, 2005 to charges of assault and two counts of making a false statement, and agreed to testify in related cases in exchange for a dismissal of the charge of maltreating detainees. Sentenced to three months in prison, reduction to the rank of private, and a bad-conduct discharge.[15] Cammack claimed he hit Habibullah because Habibullah had spit on him.[18]

Pfc. Willie V. Brand 377th MP

Charged with involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, simple assault, maiming, maltreatment, and making a false sworn statement. Convicted in August, 2005 of assault, maltreatment, making a false sworn statement, and maiming, charges involving Dilawar. Acquitted on charges involving Habibullah. Reduced to the rank of private.[15][19][20]

Sgt. Anthony Morden 377th MP

Charged with assault, maltreatment and making a false official statement. Pled guilty. Sentenced to 75 days of confinement, reduction to the rank of private, and a bad-conduct discharge.[15][21][22]

Sgt. Christopher W. Greatorex 377th MP

Acquitted of charges of abuse, maltreatment and making a false official statement.[23]

Sgt. Darin M. Broady 377th MP

Acquitted of charges of assault, maltreatment and making a false official statement.[24]

Capt. Christopher M. Beiring 377th MP
  • charged with dereliction of duty and making a false official statement.[14][25]
  • all charges dropped on 6 January 2006.[26]
Staff Sgt. Brian L. Doyle 377th MP
  • Charge on October 13, 2005[27][28]
  • Acquitted of dereliction of duty and maltreatment.[14]
Sgt. Duane M. Grubb 377th MP

Accused of assault, maltreatment and making a false official statement. Prosecutors said Grubb repeatedly struck handicapped captive Zarif Khan with his knees. Grubb testified that he had never hit the prisoner. He was acquitted of all charges.[29][30]

Sgt. Alan J. Driver 377th MP
  • Charged with assault.[31]
  • Acquitted Thursday February 23, 2006.[14][32]
Spc. Nathan Adam Jones[14] 377th MP
  • charged with assault, maltreatment and making a false official statement.[31]
  • charges have all been dropped
Spc. Glendale C. Walls 519th MI
Specialist Glendale C. Walls II was charged in early May 2005 with assault, maltreatment of a detainee, and failure to obey a lawful order. The charges stemmed from allegations of using abusive interrogation techniques at Bagram, Afghanistan. One of the detainees interrogated by Specialist Walls in December 2002 died a short time later at the detention facility. At trial in August 2005, Specialist Walls admitted to abusing the detainee and was sentenced to a reduction to E-1, two months of confinement, and a bad-conduct discharge."[15]
  • Pled guilty on August 23, 2005.[33]
  • Received a sentence of two months imprisonment.[34]
Sgt. Selena M. Salcedo 519th MI

Charged in May 2005 with assault, dereliction of duty, and lying to investigators. Suspected of stepping on Dilawar's bare foot, grabbing his beard, kicking him, and then ordering the detainee to remain chained to the ceiling. At trial Salcedo pled guilty and received a sentence of a one-grade reduction in rank, $1000 fine, and a written reprimand.[15][21][35][36]

Sgt. Joshua Claus 519th MI
"Specialist Joshua R. Claus has been charged with assault, maltreatment of a detainee, and making a false statement to investigators for his participation in interrogations that led to the death of an Afghan detainee at Bagram in December 2002."[15]
  • Charged May 17, 2005 with assault, maltreatment and making a false statement.[21]
Pfc. Damien M. Corsetti 519th MI
"Specialist Damien M. Corsetti remains under investigation for assault, maltreatment of detainees, and indecent acts related to abusive interrogation techniques used toward detainees at Bagram, Afghanistan. On 01 June 2006, PFC Corsetti was found not guilty of all charges. While serving at Abu Ghraib, SPC Corsetti allegedly forced an Iraqi woman to strip during questioning; he was fined and demoted."[15]

Involved but uncharged[]

Some interrogators involved in this incident were sent to Iraq and were assigned to the now infamous Abu Ghraib prison.

PFC Corsetti was fined and demoted for not having permission to conduct an interrogation at Abu Ghraib.

Allegations of a widespread pattern of abuse[]

An editorial of the New York Times noted a parallel with the later abuse and torture of prisoners in Iraq:

(W)hat happened at Abu Ghraib was no aberration, but part of a widespread pattern. It showed the tragic impact of the initial decision by Mr. Bush and his top advisers that they were not going to follow the Geneva Conventions, or indeed American law, for prisoners taken in antiterrorist operations.
The investigative file on Bagram, obtained by The Times, showed that the mistreatment of prisoners was routine: shackling them to the ceilings of their cells, depriving them of sleep, kicking and hitting them, sexually humiliating them and threatening them with guard dogs -- the very same behavior later repeated in Iraq.[37]

In November 2001, SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) program's chief psychologist, Col. Morgan Banks, was sent to Afghanistan, where he spent four months at Bagram. In early 2003, Banks issued guidance for the "behavioral science consultants" who helped to devise Guantánamo's interrogation strategy although he has emphatically denied that he had advocated the use of SERE counter-resistance techniques to break down detainees.

U.S. government response[]

Main article: Periodic Report of the United States of America to the United Nations Committee Against Torture

The United States government through the Department of State makes periodic reports to the United Nations Committee Against Torture. In October 2005, the report focused on pretrial detention of suspects in the War on Terrorism, including those held at Guantanamo Bay detention camp and in Afghanistan. This particular report is significant as the first official response of the U.S. government to allegations that there is widespread abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan. The report denies the allegations.

McCain Amendment[]

Main article: Detainee Treatment Act of 2005

The McCain amendment was an amendment to the United States Senate Department of Defense Authorization bill, commonly referred to as the Amendment on (1) the Army Field Manual and (2) Cruel, Inhumane, Degrading Treatment, amendment #1977 and also known as the McCain Amendment 1977. The amendment prohibited inhumane treatment of prisoners. The Amendment was introduced by Senator John McCain, a candidate for the 2000 presidential Republican primary, who was a candidate for the 2008 elections. On October 5, 2005, the United States Senate voted 90-9 to support the amendment.[38]

Second secret prison[]

In May 2010, the BBC reported about nine prisoners who "told consistent stories of being held in isolation in cold cells where a light is on all day and night. The men said they had been deprived of sleep by US military personnel there." When the BBC inquired with the International Committee of the Red Cross about this, the ICRC revealed that since August 2009 it was informed by US authorities about inmated of a second prison where detainees are held in isolation and without access to the International Red Cross that is usually guaranteed to all prisoners.[39]

See also[]

File:Flag of Iraq.svg Iraq portal
  • Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
  • Abuse
  • Canadian Afghan detainee abuse scandal
  • Command responsibility
  • Criticism of the War on Terrorism
  • Enhanced interrogation
  • Iraq prison abuse scandals
  • International public opinion on the war in Afghanistan
  • Military abuse
  • Opposition to the War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
  • Prisoner abuse
  • Protests against the invasion of Afghanistan
  • Public opinion in Canada on the war in Afghanistan
  • Qur'an desecration controversy of 2005
  • The Salt Pit
  • Taxi to the Dark Side
  • Torture and the United States
  • Uses of torture in recent times
  • War in Afghanistan (2001–present)


References[]

  1. Chow, Kara. Omar Khadr's lawyer visits TRU, September 10, 2008
  2. "Bagram Detainees Named by U.S."
  3. "US releases names of prisoners at Bagram, Afghanistan"
  4. MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia: Common peroneal nerve dysfunction
  5. In U.S. Report, Brutal Details of 2 Afghan Inmates' Deaths [1] May 20, 2005
  6. Army Faltered in Investigating Detainee Abuse [2] May 22, 2005
  7. 7.0 7.1 The mystery of Dr Aafia Siddiqui [3] 2009-11-24
  8. Profile: Binyam Mohamed
  9. Moazzam Begg in Conversation with Binyam Mohamed
  10. Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Mohammed Sulaymon Barre's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 30-37
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Eliza Griswold (May 2, 2007). The other Guantánamo. Black Hole. The New Republic. http://www.tnr.com/article/black-hole-the-other-guantanamo. Retrieved 2007-05-03. 
  12. 28 soldiers tied to 2 Afghan deaths [4] October 15, 2004
  13. "Army completes investigations of deaths at Bagram and forwards to respective commanders for action". United States Army. October 14, 2004. Archived from the original on 2007-12-24. http://web.archive.org/web/20071224110128/http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/read.php?story_id_key=6450. Retrieved 2007-09-21. 
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 A look at the soldiers accused in Afghanistan abuse investigation [5] December 5, 2005
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 Integrating Title 18 War Crimes into Title 10 [6] Myndia G. Ohman
  16. Army Details Scale of Abuse of Prisoners in an Afghan Jail [7] Douglas Jehl 2005-03-12
  17. THE REACH OF WAR: THE PRISONS; Afghan Abuse Charges Raise New Questions on Authority [8] Carlotta Gall, David Rohde, Eric Schmitt 2004-09-17
  18. US soldier sentenced to 3 months, demoted in Afghan assault [9] Tom Henry 2005-05-23
  19. Reservist Convicted of Abusing Afghan Inmate [10] 2005-08-17
  20. US Army reservist found guilty in Afghan abuse case [11] Tom Henry 2005-08-18
  21. 21.0 21.1 21.2 Army charges three more soldiers in deaths of Afghan detainees [12] Krista-Ann Staley 2005-05-17
  22. Prisoner abuse trial continues in Texas [13] 2005-08-29
  23. Army reservist acquitted of Afghanistan abuse charges [14] Chris Buell 2005-09-07
  24. Second soldier acquitted in Afghan detainee death [15] Chris Buell 2005-12-09
  25. More army officers charged in Afghan prisoner abuse investigation [16] Sara R. Parsowith 2005-09-14
  26. Charges dropped against US Army officer in Afghan prisoner abuse case [17] Jeannie Shawl 2006-01-09
  27. "Afghanistan". International Institute for Strategic Studies. 2005. http://acd.iiss.org/armedconflict/mainpages/dsp_ConflictTimeline.asp?ConflictID=181&YearID=992&DisplayYear=2005. Retrieved 2007-09-21. 
  28. US soldier charged in abuse case [18] 2005-10-13
  29. Afghanistan: Soldier Cleared In Abuse Case [19] 2005-11-05
  30. Military jury clears soldier of Afghan prisoner abuse [20] Holly Manges Jones 2005-11-04
  31. 31.0 31.1 New charges filed in Afghan prisoner abuse investigation [21] Holly Manges Jones 2005-09-22
  32. US soldier not guilty in Afghan prisoner abuse case [22] Asha Puttaiah 2006-02-24
  33. Military interrogator pleads guilty to Afghan detainee assault [23] Jamie Cortazzo 2005-08-23
  34. US soldier sentenced in Afghan abuse case, Karzai criticizes leniency [24] Tom Henry 2005-08-25
  35. US interrogator demoted for assaulting Afghan prisoner [25] Holly Manges Jones 2005-08-04
  36. No Prison for Soldier Guilty of Detainee Abuse [26] 2005-08-17
  37. Patterns of Abuse [27] Editorial May 23, 2005
  38. "McCain Amendment roll call". http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00249. 
  39. Red Cross confirms 'second jail' at Bagram, Afghanistan; BBC, 11 May 2010.

External links[]


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it:Tortura e abusi su prigionieri a Bagram nl:Bagram Collection Point

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