A Report On The Dark Prison of the Bagram Torture Camp

For many, the prison on Bagram air base in Afghanistan is synonymous with a dark period in U.S. military history. In 2002, two prisoners were killed in the Bagram prison while in U.S. custody after being suspended from the ceilings of their cells and brutally beaten. The BBC’s Hilary Andersson gained rare access to the new prison on the Bagram air base, and also spoke to ex-prisoners who say they have been abused in a separate "secret jail" at the Bagram air base. The abuses are all said to have taken place since President Obama was elected, promising to end torture. Hilary Andersson reports on what she saw at Bagram, and what she heard from ex-prisoners.

Guantanamo`s more evil twin

"Lying on the floor of the compound, all night I would hear the screams of others in the rooms above us as they were tortured and interrogated," he says. "My number would be called out, and I would have to go to the gate. They chained me and put a bag over my head, dragging me off for my own turn. They would force me to my knees for questioning, and threaten me with more torture." - Omar Deghayes As American actions in Guantanamo became more visible, Bagram's role in the system changed.While Guantanamo's population declined, Bagram's increased. With the former coming under increasing scrutiny, the latter had become a destination as well as a hub.Last summer, while Barack Obama campaigned on promises to close Guantanamo Bay and end CIA detentions, the US government approved plans for a $50mn redevelopment of the prison at Bagram.

Obama Administration Continues to withhold Vital Information about Bagram captives

“Hundreds of people have languished at Bagram for years in horrid and abusive conditions, without even being told why they’re detained or given a fair chance to argue for release,” she said.

But she added, “The information the government continues to withhold is just as vital as the names of prisoners. Full transparency and accountability” about Bagram requires full disclosure.

“The public has long been kept in the dark about what goes on at Bagram. It is time to shine a bright light on the secretive prison,”

Bagram Prison a Brutal U.S Torture Camp

Bagram prisoner, was blindfolded, handcuffed, gagged, and forced to bend down over a table by three American soldiers. He said, “They forcibly rammed a stick up my rectum… I could not stop screaming when this happened.” In another case reported by the Guardian, a Jordanian prisoner, Wesam Abdulrahman Ahmed Al Deemawi, said that during a 40-day period at Bagram he was threatened with dogs, stripped and photographed “in shameful and obscene positions” and placed in a cage with a hook and a hanging rope. He was hung from this hook, blindfolded, for two days. Dilawar, a 22-year-old Afghan taxi driver and farmer, was killed by U.S. torturers at Bagram in December 2002. He had been beaten and chained by his wrists for four days. After his last torture session, Dilawar was chained back to the ceiling. Several hours passed before a doctor saw him—by which time he was dead and already beginning to stiffen

A List of some of the Prisoners known to have been held , or are being held at Bagram

On Friday January 15, 2010, the Pentagon responded to a FOIA request submitted by the ACLU last April, and released the first ever list of 645 prisoners held, as of September 22, 2009, in the US prison at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan (the Bagram Theater Internment Facility).

Around 3,000 prisoners have been held at Bagram in the last six years, but also how the majority of the prisoners listed here were seized in 2008 and 2009

U.S Unveils extended Bagram Prison

Bagram, unlike its Guantanamo counterpart, was clearly not going to be shut down soon. "The new prison wing cost some $60 million to build ... and is meant to be part of a new era of openness and transparency," Bays said. "But we were not shown the detainees. Human-rights lawyers say that, while the environment for the prisoners may be changing, their legal situation is not ... not having been charged. Nor has any civilian lawyer ever been allowed inside."Bays said the extended prison could hold up to 1,000 detainees, but was at present holding around 700 inmates, including 30 foreign prisoners. Omar Deghayes, a former detainee at Bagram and Guantanamo Bay, said the Bagram prison resembled a concentration camp. "People were beaten, dragged, tortured in it. There were high places where guards stood with guns. It was a hard, difficult place," But he said he doubts the newly refurbished Bagram prison will improve conditions for its detainees.

Bagram Reckoning

Unlike Guantánamo, Bagram is in an active theater of war, and habeas corpus has not applied to detainees held abroad in zones of combat. But the prisoners at issue were not captured in the war zone. The federal courts have shown themselves to be fully capable of handling similar cases from Guantánamo.

There is clearly a need for hearings. Judge Bates found that the screening process in Bagram was even “less sophisticated and more error-prone” than the sorting process at Guantánamo, which the Supreme Court deemed inadequate. The administration is housing Bagram prisoners in a new and physically less oppressive facility, and has given prisoners greater ability to challenge their custody without lawyers. But that does not justify stripping courts of their role.