The locale is claimed by the United Kingdom as part of their British Indian Ocean Territory. To some in France, Black Friday is "another English word, it's annoying", How a NAFTA repeal would affect Mexican business depends on who you ask. Posted on June 2, . In fact, they could not prove if they had ever existed at all. US Suspected of Keeping Secret Prisoners on Warships: UN Official The UN has learned of "very, very serious" allegations that the United States is secretly detaining terrorism suspects in various locations around the world, notably aboard prison ships, the UN's special rapporteur on terrorism said. Many families, in fact, believe that their loved ones husbands, fathers, sons had disappeared. Many of the Coast Guard officials that I talked to were really uncomfortable about the detention conditions and the amount of time that people were being held during their detention. So, Johnny Arcentales and the other men that I've spoken to know, they're not thinking about where these drugs are going. The report also stated that the site had been used as recently as 2012 by the Obama administration, despite President Obama signing an executive order in 2009 banning the use of black sites by the CIA. These are 10 Secret Prisons The Government Are Hiding.Click to Subscribe. The CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program was inherently unsustainable and had effectively ended by 2006 due to unauthorized press disclosures, reduced cooperation from other nations, and legal and oversight concerns. "[99] According to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats, there is a network of foreign prisons that includes or has included sites in several European democracies, Thailand, Afghanistan, and a small portion of the Guantnamo Bay prison in Cubathis network has been labeled by Amnesty International as "The Gulag Archipelago", in a clear reference to the novel of the same name by Russian writer and activist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. But they've said there's nothing we can really do about it. This was in direct opposition to a public legal opinion issued in December 2004 that declared torture "abhorrent". Located at Djiboutis Ambouli International Airport is Camp Lemonnier, a US Naval Expeditionary Base. And so when I talked to Arcentales, for example, about the sea, he said to me "the ocean used to be a place that for me represented freedom. This story first appeared on the website of PRI. [71][72][73] In 2007, it was disclosed by Dick Marty (investigator) that the CIA allegedly had secret prisons in Poland and Romania. [70], In June 2008, a New York Times article claimed, citing unnamed CIA officers, that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was held in a secret facility in Poland near Szymany Airport, about 160km (100mi) north of Warsaw and it was there where he was interrogated and the waterboarding was applied. Asked a question about waterboarding, Hayden mentioned attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey, saying, "Judge Mukasey cannot nor can I answer your question in the abstract. Log into your account. In an interview, Seth Freed Wessler, who wrote the November 20, 2017 Times article, noted the practice of holding suspects at sea for long periods of time has been condoned by the judicial system. I would wake up sweating; almost crying, thinking I was still chained. [66][67], While the revelation was expected to cause considerable embarrassment for both governments, UK officials were expected to face considerable exposure since they had previously quelled public outcry over U.S. detainee abuse by falsely reassuring the public no U.S. detainment camps were housed on any UK bases or territories. However, they aren't shackled to the deck of a ship for a few hours or even a few days. snapchat chat bitmoji peeking. Chechnya is arguably the most homophobic area in Russia, with 95% of its population adhering to Orthodox (Sunni) Islam. [142][143][144] Panetta informed his fellow employees that the CIA would only use interrogation techniques authorized in the US Army interrogation manual, and that any individuals taken into custody by the CIA would only be held briefly, for the time necessary to transfer them to the custody of authorities in their home countries, or the custody of another US agency. The property was purchased in 2004 by Elite LLC, a company registered in Washington, DC. The CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program damaged the United States' standing in the world, and resulted in other significant monetary and non-monetary costs. Stafford Smith also said that up to 17 ships have been used as floating prisons, beyond the . Lets see. [118], After a media and public outcry in Europe concerning headlines about "secret CIA prisons" in Poland and other US allies, the EU through its Committee on Legal Affairs investigated whether any of its members, especially Poland, the Czech Republic or Romania had any of these "secret CIA prisons". The Outlaw Ocean Project. [80] The allegations resulted in a parliamentary inquiry, and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskait stated that she had "indirect suspicions" about a black site in her country. Competitive Shopping. The UN considered evidence presented by the Moroccan government as well as by Amnesty International. Courts have generally bought the governments argument, he said. According to the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act of 1986, drug smugglers caught in international waters are considered to be committing a crime against the United States,even when there was no proof that the drugs, often carried on foreign boats, were bound for the United States. In 2014, the US government declassified a US Senate Report on the CIAs Detention and Interrogation Program. : http://amzn.to/2p8Y4G2What mic do we use for our voice overs? I remember one time I asked the nurse officer if he could do me a favor, Payan wrote later in a letter, just shoot me and kill me, I would appreciate, because I cannot take this anymore. As day after mind-numbing day dragged on, hunger began to rival their families as their central preoccupation. [134] On December 13, 2005, Marty, investigating illegal CIA activity in Europe on behalf of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, reported evidence that "individuals had been abducted and transferred to other countries without respect for any legal standards". The CIA's justification for the use of its enhanced interrogation techniques rested on inaccurate claims of their effectiveness. Some media sources have noted her comments do not exclude the possibility of covert prison sites operated with the knowledge of the "host" nation,[19] or the possibility that promises by such "host" nations that they will refrain from torture may not be genuine. A report by the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, entitled "Enduring Freedom - Abuses by US Forces in Afghanistan", states that the CIA has operated in Afghanistan since September 2001;[97] maintaining a large facility in the Ariana Chowk neighborhood of Kabul and a detention and interrogation facility at the Bagram airbase. Whatever happened to Johnny Arcentales? Buy, Sell, and Trade your Firearms and Gear. Siemitkowski is charged with facilitating the alleged CIA detention operation in Poland, where foreign suspects may have been tortured in the context of the War on Terror. She was allegedly detained for five years at Bagram with her children; she was the only female prisoner. views, likes, loves, comments, shares, Facebook Watch Videos from The Infographics Show: We all know prisoners are kept locked inside prison cells and monitored. Presenter Paula Harriott is Head of Prisoner Engagement for the Prison Reform Trust, having spent time behind bars. These have been alleged to constitute "severe pain or suffering" under the UN convention, which would be a violation of the treaty and thus US law. Next up in 5. Over time, it passes. In 2011, the Obama administration admitted that it had been holding a Somali prisoner for two months aboard a U.S. naval ship at sea for interrogation. duh The other suspected aircraft would have landed in Brest on March 31, 2002. [136], On June 27, 2007, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe voted on Resolution 1562 and Recommendation 1801 backing the conclusions of the report by Dick Marty. First the land to build the prison on, needs to go through a permitting stage . Coast guard cutters on missions to interdict suspected drug smugglers in international waters have become de facto prisons for detainees. ", And all of these men say "we understand that we've broken laws. [58], Some reported sites in Egypt, Libya and Morocco,[59][60] as well as Djibouti. Among those ships was the USS Ashland, a Whidbey Islandclass dock landing ship that weighs 16,000 tons and measures 186 meters (610 ft) in length. Top Searches. In their report, they've also stated that a huge number of those people are held on ships that are known as "floating prisons". In 2002, the site was converted into a detainee center by the CIA, which earmarked more than $200,000 for its construction. If you've followed the War on Terror at all, you're almost certainly familiar with the U.S. detention facility at Guantnamo Bay, Cuba a U.S. prison that exists outside the realm of the U.S. justice system. [11] According to Danner, the report was marked "confidential" and was not previously made public before being made available to him. Just give them a story premise and Im sure theyd be happy to run with it. She was known to the male detainees as "Prisoner 650." The wide open seas must be convenient to dump the bodies/dispose of the evidence. Yes exactly right, and we are going to have a hell of a time righting things. More evidence supporting the airports role in CIA detentions arose in 2010 when Der Spiegel reported that the Swiss intelligence agencys Onyx satellite surveillance system had intercepted a fax between an Egyptian foreign minister and his ambassador in London. Purportedly sent by the Egyptian embassy in London to foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the document states that 23 Iraqi and Afghan citizens were interrogated at Mihail Koglniceanu base near Constana, Romania. Often, these waits can last weeks or months, according to new reporting from The New York Times. The war on drugs has produced the vilest police state one can imagine. According to The Washington Post, the school was converted into a jail by the CIA in 2004. He also writes for online publications such as OZY and Bloody Elbow. The reality is that when the Coast Guard has had to move people more quickly, they do. 1. The decision was made in Geneva following two days of hearings at which a 26-member U.S. delegation defended the practices.[17][18]. Torture was par for the course at the Salt Pit, and prisoners were often subjected to inhumane punishments and conditions, including mock executions. On October 9, 2007, the United States Supreme Court declined without comment to hear an appeal of El-Masri's civil lawsuit against the United States (El-Masri v. Tenet), letting stand an earlier verdict by a federal district court judge, which was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She said she had no doubt that illegal flights were frequently permitted during the Duro Barroso (20022004) and Santana Lopes (20042005) governments, and that "during the [present Socialist] government of Jos Scrates, 24 flights which passed through Portuguese territory" are documented. In 2005, two Bosnian men, Nihad Karsic and Almin Harbeus, spoke to Bosnias public television broadcaster BHTV about their ordeals at Camp Eagle, near Tuzla, close to the Bosnian border with Serbia. And we represent prisoners denied justice in the name of the War on Terror, including those held without charge or trial in Guantnamo Bay and the countless secret prisons beyond. Do you people actually believe all of this idiotic crap? In the United States, when defense attorneys have tried to argue that the conditions amount to inhumane treatment, some cases judges have agreed. He also announced that the CIA was no longer allowing outside "contractors" to carry out interrogations and that the CIA no longer employed controversial "harsh interrogation techniques". A further 15 ships are suspected of having operated around the British territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, which has been used as a military base by the UK and the Americans. Wojciech Czuchnowski and Jacek Harukowicz, Last edited on 15 February 2023, at 19:30, Learn how and when to remove this template message, United Nations Convention Against Torture, the section below on the media and investigative history, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture, European Parliament report of February 2007, International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Message from the Director: Interrogation Policy and Contracts, Extrajudicial prisoners of the United States, Extraordinary rendition by the United States, "The Latin American Exception: How a Washington Global Torture Gulag Was Turned Into the Only Gulag-Free Zone on Earth", "Bush: Top terror suspects to face tribunals", "CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons", "Poland feels sting of betrayal over CIA 'black site', "Black Letter Abuse: the US Legal Response to torture since 9/11", "US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites", "Bush admits CIA held terrorism suspects outside U.S.", "Sources Tell ABC News Top Al Qaeda Figures Held in Secret CIA Prisons", "US Groups Hail Censure of Washington's "Terror War", "Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 19 of the Convention: Conclusions and recommendations of the Committee against Torture", 'Rendition' does not involve torture, says Rice, "U.S. Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations", "Colleagues Say C.I.A. likes, 175 loves, 691 comments, 1,8 . 1,3 . [108], On September 14, 2007, The Washington Post reported that members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence had requested the withdrawal of the nomination of John A. Rizzoa career CIA lawyerfor the position of general counsel, due to concerns about his support for Bush administration legal doctrines permitting "enhanced interrogation" of terrorism detainees in CIA custody. ", "Supreme Court rejects Guantnamo prisoner's request to interview torturers", Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism, Association for the Protection and Assistance of the Convicted, International Network of Prison Ministries, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black_site&oldid=1137606082, Detention centers for extrajudicial prisoners of the United States, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 15:17. In 2008, a British newspaper published a huge story stating that the CIA and other US secret services have been holding up to 25,000 people captive in secret sites across the world. [5] Gay men in other parts of Russia have been kidnapped and transported to sites in Chechnya, where over 100 have been tortured, and some killed. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) prepared a report based on interviews with black site detainees, conducted October 611 and December 414, 2006, after their transfer to Guantanamo Bay. Well, John Kelly was in charge of Southern Command, the Department of Defense area of operation in Latin America that's in charge of managing the drug war in Latin America. Give us the quick thumbnail sketch of this one guy, in particular, Jhonny Arcentales, and how he ended up there? Is this 'secret prison' number including all the Iraqi detainees in camps in Iraq, or is there some other network of major camps?). In the past Chevalier Floatels has come up with an innovative solution to provide a fast solution to governments who had a sudden increase of detainees. The practices of the Coast Guard would be unlikely to satisfy international human rights requirements either, said Oxford maritime-law scholar Efthymios Papastavridis. He didn't tell anyone and disappeared. [4], In Chechnya, gay men have allegedly been tortured at black sites by Chechen security forces. On November 20, 2002, Gul Rahman died of hypothermia after being beaten, stripped naked, and chained to the floor during a freezing cold night. At some point prior to 2005, the prison was again relocated, this time to an unknown site. [85], The Washington Post on December 26, 2002, reported about a secret CIA prison in one corner of Bagram Air Force Base (Afghanistan) consisting of metal shipping containers. Department of Defense: Art Created by Guantnamo Bay Detainees Belongs to U.S. Palestinian Prisoners Stage Hunger Strike, With General Inch in Charge, We Can Expect Further Militarization of the Prison System, PrisonCloud Provides Limited Internet Access to Belgian Prisoners, The Other Conspirator: Secret Origins of the CIA's Torture Program, China Pledges to Stop Taking Organs from Executed Prisoners, China Vows to Finance Mass Incarceration with Public Funds, Not Prison Profits. According to the same document, similar interrogation centers exist in Bulgaria, Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, and Ukraine. [13] The report was submitted to Bush administration officials. The airport manager said that airport officials were told to keep away from the aircraft, which parked at the far end of the runway and frequently kept their engines running. Since the 2012 launching of Operation Martillo, or hammer in Spanish, the Coast Guard has detained more than 2,700 people in international waters on suspicion of smuggling cocaine to Central America. None of these prisoners can afford to pay for representation. detention and torture or about hosting prisons. ; . 200 meter long iceburg floating just off the coast: 03/31/05: 2: Is Obama Bin Laden body Floating in the Ocean? Djibouti is a highly strategic location for the US military, primarily due to its close proximity to terrorist hot zones such as Somalia and Yemen as well as the pirate-filled Gulf of Aden. A number of the alleged detainees listed above were transferred to the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba in the fall of 2006. US News: The US is operating 'floating prisons' to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an at. The CIA's claims about the number of detainees held and subjected to its enhanced interrogation techniques were inaccurate. Reports state that he, too, was waterboarded, in addition to being threatened with sodomy. The Clive Stafford Smith quoted in the article heads Reprieve-UK, which describes itself as follows: Reprieve provides frontline investigation and legal representation to prisoners denied justice by powerful governments across the world, especially those governments that should be upholding the highest standards when it comes to fair trials. So there are these delays that people in the Coast Guard Coast Guard officials I interviewed though really are actually unreasonable, considering that they're near an airport. Makes me think it was a load of bs. United States Coast Guard Is Operating Secret Floating Prisons In The Pacific Ocean! According to research carried out by Reprieve, the US may have used as many as 17 ships as floating prisons since 2001. Thailand denies the existence of any black sites in its territory, despite multiple reports describing the mysterious Detention Site Green and hinting that it may be located just outside of Bangkok or somewhere in the northern province of Udon Thani. [36], In Thailand, the Voice of America relay station in Ban Dung District of Udon Thani Province was reported to be a CIA black site known as "Cat's Eye" or "Detention Site Green". June 27, 2014. Listen to music from Secret Floating Prisons. Both men stated that they were violently abducted by Bosnian soldiers, who then accused them of being terrorists. [127], Approximately 150 CIA flights have been identified as having flown through Portugal. For full details, see the section below on the media and investigative history. The installation is currently home to roughly 4,000 military personnel and independent contractors. As he was driving the boat with an arbitrary substance deemed illegal by the state, Arcentales was intercepted by a coast guard vessel. Officially, it is home to the Combined Joint Task ForceHorn of Africa, a US combat unit that was mobilized during Operation Enduring Freedom, aka The War on Terror. Their findings were that, although human rights had generally improved in Morocco over recent years, there was also an increase in reported torture cases in the North African nation. [69], Several European countries (particularly the former Soviet satellites and republics) have been accused of and have denied hosting black sites: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Armenia, Georgia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. How can the Coast Guard get away with keeping people under those conditions when the men haven't even been charged? [11], A European Union (EU) report adopted on February 14, 2007, by a majority of the European Parliament (382 MEPs voting in favor, 256 against and 74 abstaining) stated the CIA operated 1,245 flights and that it was not possible to contradict evidence or suggestions that secret detention centers where prisoners have been tortured were operated in Poland and Romania. [79], In November 2009, reports alleged a black site referred to in The Washington Post's 2005 article had been located in Lithuania. Two of the Italians were also convicted in person. The court ordered the Polish government to pay each of the men 100,000 euros in damages. [68] On 21 February 2008, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband admitted that two United States extraordinary rendition flights refuelled on Diego Garcia in 2002, and was "very sorry" that earlier denials were having to be corrected. The US government is holding hundreds of people without trial, shackled to the decks of Coast Guard boats for months, all to enforce the drug war. :confused: How could a wall prevent maritime insertion? Watch, crop and share YouTube videos safely without comments, ads, or other distractions. Aafia's case gained notoriety due to Yvonne Ridley's allegations in her book, The Grey Lady of Bagram, a ghostly female detainee, who kept prisoners awake "with her haunting sobs and piercing screams". Diego Garcia is an atoll in the Indian Ocean located around 1,600 kilometers (1,000 mi) south of India and 3,200 kilometers (2,000 mi) east of Tanzania. This was apparently due to a misunderstanding that arose concerning the similarity of the spelling of El-Masri's name with the spelling of suspected terrorist Khalid al-Masri. By its own admission, the US government is currently detaining at least 26,000 people without trial in secret prisons, and information suggests up to 80,000 have been 'through the system' since 2001. [129][130], The future robustness of the highly secret investigation, in progress since 2008, may however be in some doubt. In 2015, The Intercept revealed aerial shots of Camp Lemonnier showing how the base, which is a crucial takeoff point for Reaper and Predator drones, has been steadily expanding. Malinowski's comments prompted quick denials by both Polish and Romanian government officials as well as sparking the concern of the International Committee of the Red Cross ("ICRC"), who called for access to all foreign terrorism suspects held by the United States. On October 11, 2007, The New York Times reported that Michael Hayden had ordered an unusual internal inquiry into the work of the agency's inspector general, John L. Helgerson, whose aggressive investigations of the CIA's detention and interrogation programs and other matters have created resentment among agency operatives. [2] Black sites in China are also known as black jails. In its 26 December 2020 video statement SAM cited one of its reports citing that the Saudi and UAE forces subjected the Yemeni detainees to cruel forms of torture.[55][56][57], Mwatana for Human Rights reported on 11 April 2021 about the continued forceful detention of approximately 27 civilians at the Al Munawara Central Prison, Mukalla City, Yemen by UAE authorities. This number of 100 persons does not overlap, but adds itself to the U.S.-detained 100 ghost detainees.[28]. We've done stories about that. I would wake up feeling the chains digging into my ankle and jerking my leg thinking I was shackled, and feel my leg freed and be relieved that I was not chained there on the boat. It is only at that point that the detainees are formally arrested. U.S. Coast Guard Holding Detainees In Secret Floating Prisons in Pacific Ocean - Legal News India, Legal News World, Supreme Court, Supreme Court of India, Delhi high court Floating Prisons by Anne McMahon. By 2005, the CIA had overwhelmingly outsourced operations related to the program. The reason cited for the destruction of the tapes was that the tapes posed a security risk for the interrogators shown on the tapes. [3] On March 14, 2004, The Guardian reported that three British citizens were held captive in a secret section (Camp Echo) of the Guantnamo Bay complex. In May 2018, the BBC reported that the Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base was the location of the black site used to interrogate Abu Zubaydah, a 31-year-old Saudi-born Palestinian, believed to be one of Osama Bin Laden's top lieutenants. The prosecutor of Bobigny court, in France, opened up an investigation in order "to verify the presence in Le Bourget Airport, on July 20, 2005, of the plane numbered N50BH". 4. This is according to the flight log of the aircraft obtained from Washington, D.C., by Village. On December 2, 2005, conservative newspaper Le Figaro had revealed the existence of two CIA planes that had landed in France, suspected of transporting CIA prisoners. Under the Trump administration, he became head of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Coast Guard. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Men. A former riding school in Antaviliai, a village some 25 kilometres (16mi) from Vilnius, was said to have been converted into a jail by the CIA in 2004. On November 8, 2005, rights group Amnesty International provided the first comprehensive testimony from former inmates of the CIA black sites. [7][8], CIA controlled black sites are used by the U.S. government in its War on Terror to detain enemy combatants. A Coast Guard official told me people have been held for 90 days. Copyright A. Michael Froomkin (some rights reserved), June 2, 2008 14 comments. In the February 26 March 4, 2005, edition of Ireland's Village magazine, an article titled "Abductions via Shannon" claimed that Dublin and Shannon airports in Ireland were "used by the CIA to abduct suspects in its 'war on terror'". Flight records obtained by the group documented the Boeing 737 'N4476S' leased by the CIA for transporting prisoners leaving Kabul and making stops in Poland and Romania before continuing on to Morocco, and finally Guantnamo Bay in Cuba. [81] On December 22, 2009, the parliamentary commission finished its investigation and stated they found no proof that a black site had existed in Lithuania. Yet the department also stated that the tapes "had no more intelligence value and were not relevant to any inquiries". Then they built the Preston Castle which is now known as California youth Authority P. More than a year ago, there was a major earthquake in Ecuador that left families in dire economic straits. Do private prisons still exist in the US? [145], On December 9, 2014 United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) released a 525-page portion that consisted of key findings and an executive summary of the report called Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program. In December 2014 the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) published an executive summary of a secret 6,000-page report on CIA techniques. [135], In its edition of January 8, 2006, the Swiss newspaper Sonntagsblick published a document intercepted on November 10 by the Swiss Onyx interception system (similar to the UKUSA's ECHELON system). "[119], Nonetheless, the CIA's alleged programme prompted several official investigations in Europe into the existence of such secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers involving Council of Europe member states. Ultimately, most of the cocaine on these smugglers' small boats is probably headed for the United States. Iliescu further stated that had he known of the intended use of the site, he would certainly not have approved the request. [112] On October 5, 2007, President George W. Bush responded, saying "This government does not torture people. : http://amzn.to/2pbMv1AWhat computer do we edit on? Danner also provided excerpts of the ICRC report characterizing procedures used at the black sites, dubbed "an alternative set of procedures" by President Bush, and discussed whether they fit the definition of torture.[14]. Rinoplastia; Blefaroplastia likes, 174 loves, 691 comments, 1,8 . So this guy, Arcentales, and another guy they're on a ship. On December 28, 2006, the BBC reported that during 2003, a well-known CIA Gulfstream V aircraft implicated in extraordinary renditions, N379P, had on several occasions landed at the Polish airbase of Szymany. The UK may also face liabilities over apparent violations of international treaties.