The Unaccounted Cost Of War: Examining The Plight Of Us Prisoners In Afghanistan

The War in Afghanistan was the longest war in US military history, lasting from 2001 to 2021. It was sparked by the September 11 attacks, which were planned by Osama bin Laden, who was harboured by the Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In the aftermath of the attacks, President George W. Bush demanded that the Taliban extradite bin Laden to the US, but the Taliban refused. This refusal, coupled with the Taliban's harbouring of al-Qaeda, led to a US-led invasion of Afghanistan, which toppled the Taliban regime and established the Islamic Republic.

The US-led coalition remained in Afghanistan, forming a security mission to prevent the Taliban from returning to power and to create a new democratic authority in the country. However, the Taliban reorganised and began a widespread insurgency against the new Afghan government and coalition forces. The conflict resulted in the deaths of an estimated 176,000-212,000+ people, including 46,319 civilians.

The US military held prisoners of war in Afghanistan, with thousands of people detained as terror suspects. The US also operated its own detention facilities, where Afghan prisoners were reportedly denied access to lawyers and were unable to challenge the basis for their imprisonment. Additionally, there were widespread concerns about abuses of Afghan prisoners who were handed over to Afghan authorities by the US.

The US-led war in Afghanistan resulted in a significant number of prisoners of war, with the conflict causing immense loss of life and displacement.

The US has operated detention facilities in Afghanistan, where prisoners reportedly had no access to lawyers

In both Iraq and Afghanistan, many reports emerged of “black jails,” such as the now-closed Bagram Airbase prison north of Kabul, where detainees were held secretly without the International Red Cross (ICRC) oversight required by the Geneva Conventions. The CIA orchestrated a system of black sites throughout the world in which it rendered and secretly detained at least 119 foreign Muslim men, and tortured at least 39.

The US has secreted away suspects to other CIA-run “black site” prisons or passed them to foreign countries with more lax human rights standards to be interrogated via the seizure process known as “extraordinary rendition”. A February 2013 report by the Open Society Foundations (OSF) confirmed that black sites were located in seven countries, and that as many as 47 additional countries were complicit in such operations, including proactive assistance and failure to act in protecting detainees.

The Bagram Airbase prison, also known as the Parwan Detention Facility, was the US's main detention facility in Afghanistan. It was built by the US during the George W. Bush administration and was maintained by the Afghan National Army. The facility housed foreign and local combatants and once held 1,700 prisoners; there had been 600 prisoners under the Bush administration. None of the prisoners received prisoner of war status.

The treatment of inmates at the facility came under scrutiny after two Afghan detainees died in the 2002 Bagram torture and prisoner abuse case. Their deaths were classified as homicides, and prisoner abuse charges were made against seven American soldiers. Concerns about lengthy detentions there prompted comparisons to US detention centers in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Part of the internment facility was known as the black jail.

The closure of the Bagram jail was announced the day after the release of a report on CIA use of torture, which highlighted gruesome abuse at four jails in Afghanistan. Although all the sites in the report were given code names, one is believed to have been on Bagram Airbase, in a separate location from the military prison where abuses also occurred.

The US handed over the Bagram prison to the Afghan government in 2014.

The US has also handed over Afghan prisoners to Afghan authorities, despite concerns about the mistreatment of prisoners

The US has handed over Afghan prisoners to Afghan authorities, despite concerns about the mistreatment of prisoners. The US has operated its own detention facilities, where Afghan prisoners reportedly had no access to lawyers and were unable to challenge the basis for their imprisonment.

The US has also encouraged local Afghan authorities to detain hundreds of persons taken into custody during joint US-Afghan operations. These persons are held without charge and in poor conditions, and some have been subjected to torture and other mistreatment.

In 2002, two Afghan detainees died at Bagram. Both of their deaths were ruled homicides by US military doctors who performed autopsies. Department of Defense officials claimed to have launched an investigation into the deaths in March 2003. In June 2003, another Afghan died at a detention site near Asadabad, in Kunar province. The Department of Defense has yet to explain adequately the circumstances of any of these deaths.

The US has also been accused of mistreating detainees at the Kandahar airport facility. Detainees have reported being beaten, kicked, and forced to lie on the frozen ground until they were numb with cold.

In 2012, Afghan investigators accused the US Army of abusing detainees at Bagram. The investigators said prisoners had reported being tortured, held without evidence, and subjected to humiliating body searches.

In 2014, the US handed over to Afghanistan the only prison still under American control, resolving an issue that had strained ties between the countries. The prison had a chequered reputation, having been at the centre of a number of prisoner abuse allegations.

The US has used black jails, such as the Bagram Airbase prison, to hold detainees without International Red Cross (ICRC) oversight

The Bagram Airbase prison, also known as the Bagram Collection Point, the Parwan Detention Facility, or "Afghanistan's Guantanamo", became synonymous with torture and prisoner abuse. In 2002, two Afghan prisoners, Habibullah and Dilawar, were tortured and beaten to death by US military personnel. Seven soldiers were charged in 2005.

In 2010, nine former detainees reported to the ICRC that they had been held in a separate facility within the prison (known as the black jail) where they were subjected to isolation, sleep deprivation, and other forms of torture. The US military denied the existence of this separate facility.

In 2014, the US shut down the detention facility at Bagram Airbase, ending a controversial programme that had caused strife in Kabul for over a decade. The last foreign prisoners were flown out of the country that month, and control of the prison was handed over to the Afghan government.

The CIA has orchestrated a system of black sites throughout the world, where at least 39 detainees have been tortured

The CIA's Black Sites

The CIA controls black sites used by the US government in its War on Terror to detain people deemed to be enemy combatants. The existence of these black sites was acknowledged by President George W. Bush in 2006.

Locations

Black sites have been reported in Afghanistan, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Thailand, and a secret site on the Guantanamo Naval Base, known as Strawberry Fields.

Detainees

Detainees held at these black sites include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Riduan Isamuddin, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Abu Zubaydah. Khalid El-Masri, a German citizen, was also detained and tortured by the CIA for several months. Mustafa al-Hawsawi, a Guantanamo detainee, was anally raped in CIA custody.

Torture Techniques

Torture techniques used by the CIA include:

• Waterboarding
• Sleep deprivation
• Walling (slamming a detainee's head into a wall)
• Sensory deprivation
• Sexual assault
• Rectal feeding (a form of rape)
• Forced nudity
• Threats of violence against detainees and their family members
• Holding detainees in stress positions
• Dousing detainees with cold water
• Holding detainees in small, coffin-like boxes
• Holding detainees in cold conditions
• Forcing detainees to listen to loud music

The US has also used extraordinary rendition, passing suspects to countries with lax human rights standards

The US has used extraordinary rendition to transfer suspects to countries with lax human rights standards, such as Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Uzbekistan. These countries have been accused of using torture and other harsh interrogation techniques that may rise to the level of torture.

The US has also used its own detention facilities, where Afghan prisoners reportedly had no access to lawyers and were unable to challenge the basis for their imprisonment.

The US has also operated "black sites", covert prisons whose existence is denied by the US government, in eight countries, including Afghanistan, Poland, Romania, and Thailand.

Extraordinary rendition has been ruled illegal by the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment, ratified by the US in 1992.

Despite this, the practice continued under the Obama administration, which restricted the practice to the transfer of suspects to countries with jurisdiction over them for the purpose of prosecution after diplomatic assurances that they would not be treated inhumanely.

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