New York Times: The Next Guantánamo

New York Times: "Detention at Afghan Base Is Subject to U.S. Courts"

Bagram Air Base is a U.S. military base in Afghanistan. It is home to the Bagram Theatre Internment Facility at which over 600 individuals detained by the U.S. in the so-called Global War on Terror are currently being held. Plans are underway to expand the size of Bagram to house 1100 detainees. Those detained at Bagram come both from Afghanistan as well as those who have been “rendered” to Bagram by the U.S. military.

Bagram is destined to supplant Guantanamo should that facility be closed by President Obama. Indeed, starting in 2004 the flow of detainees to Guantanamo largely ended and detainees instead were sent to Bagram, with a significant increase in the size of Bagram’s detainee population.

Because the U.S. both denies detainees access to the U.S. courts to challenge their detention and also claims that they are “unlawful combatants” without access to prisoner of war status, those held at Bagram have no legal recourse. This clearly violates not only the U.S. Constitution’s protection of ‘habeas corpus” rights but also violates international law.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of which the United States is a member, states, "Anyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings before a court, in order that that court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his detention and order his release if the detention is not lawful."

See also: Afghanistan's Bagram Air Base Will Be Obama's Guantanamo