A US military spokeswoman has dismissed suggestions that a new prison planned for Afghanistan is intended to receive prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, the detention centre in Cuba that is facing increasing criticism in America.
“This is not going to be Guantanamo Two,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Rumi Nielson-Green, based at Bagram Airfield. “That is absolutely false.”
Nielsen-Green also rejected reports by Afghan and US human rights groups that children as young as nine were being held at the existing detention facility. “That is absolutely false. We have no children at Bagram,” she said.
According to Nielson-Green, the new prison will receive only “unlawful enemy combatants”, approximately 16 or older…
Last month, a report by the US government to the UN’s Committee on the Rights of the Child also claimed juveniles were being held. But the US military has repeatedly denied that this is the case.
Of course, the US military denials only mean the name won’t be “Guantanamo Two”.
That’s good… now they can recycle the Talibans.
The taliban doesn’t care how old their fighters are as long as they can get both ends of a gun off the ground or be talked into walking up to somebody carrying a bomb.
Anything is all right as long as you do it in the name of Allah.
Most likely the gov’ment will try to sort out those who are obviously kids. At least with kids there is some hope you might convince them that murder is wrong.
They should build one in Crawford.
Don’t we already have those torture camps in Egypt, Germany and Iraq?
Doesn’t this make you proud to be an American?
Of course, the US military denials only mean the name won’t be “Guantanamo Two”
Poor Eideard. Your life must be so sad if you are this cynical about everything. Not everyone lies about everything. (Got to be a PT Barnum quote in there somewhere!)
I lived and worked in Afghanistan for over 8 years (ending in 2006) and have been on Bagram Airbase many, many times. I’ve had the sad duty to be inside the prison facility on several occasions. While it was a pretty dismal place, I never saw a child in there.
Once it opens, how many days will pass before it becomes widely referred to as Gitmo (fill in the blank)?
I don’t get it. The CIA has been running a secret Gitmo at Bagram since 2001. How can they announce the building of a prison camp that already exists?