A Coast Guard official told me people have been held for 90 days. In the 1960s and 1970s, the UK deported the native people of the atoll to Mauritius and the Seychelles in order to allow the United States to construct a large naval and military base now known as Camp Thunder Cove. He was picked up in September of 2014. They're provided essentially buckets to use as toilets on some of the boats. It probably referred to a statement by controversial Senator and Great Romania party leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor.[137]. The Coast Guard was conscripted as the agency empowered to seek out suspected smugglers and bring them to American courts, the Times reports. I would wake up sweating; almost crying, thinking I was still chained. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The Secret Life of Prisons tells the hidden stories from behind bars. 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. Answer (1 of 3): They did back in the Victorian era like when San Quentin was a ship anchored in the harbor before the prison was built.. the prisoners built the prison and started with the C.O's Barricks first. The Salt Pit is a secret CIA-run prison in Afghanistan. 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. [20] On September 6, 2006, Bush publicly admitted the existence of the secret prisons[9] and that many of the detainees held there were being transferred to Guantanamo Bay. While the US and host countries have signed the United Nations Convention Against Torture, CIA officers are allowed to use what the agency calls "enhanced interrogation techniques". A June 2006 report from the Council of Europe estimated 100 people had been kidnapped by the CIA on EU territory (with the cooperation of Council of Europe members), and rendered to other countries, often after having transited through secret detention centres ("black sites") used by the CIA, some located in Europe. The accusation that several EU members may have allowed the United States to hold, imprison or torture detainees on their soil has been a subject of controversy in the European body, who announced in November 2005 that any country found to be complicit could lose their right to vote in the council.[105]. 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. Inquiry", "C.I.A. What a thin, fragile veneer our Bill of Rights, rule of law and self-adulation turns out to be once we suffer a blow and lose ourselves in fright and rage. [14][15], A 2022 United Press International story cited former Polish President Aleksander Kwaniewski as admitting in 2014 that his country had provided a quiet location for the CIA to operate a black site to torture accused Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists.[16]. Senator Ron Wyden (DOregon) said he was sending a letter to Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, asking him to instruct Hayden to drop the inquiry. [115], In an October 30, 2007, address to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Hayden defended the agency's interrogation methods, saying, "Our programs are as lawful as they are valuable." The Egyptian security service also operated black sites involved with the CIAs counter-terror black site program. CIA detainees were subjected to coercive interrogation techniques that had not been approved by the Department of Justice or had not been authorized by CIA Headquarters. More:Deaths from drugs, alcohol and suicide could hit 1.6M over the next decade, report says. US Slammed for Secret 'Floating Prisons' Jun 2, 2008 5:07 AM CDT. The CIA's operation and management of the program complicated, and in some cases impeded, the national security missions of other. [37] Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has denied these reports.[38][39][40][41]. It has been said that you can judge a society by how it treats people accused of violating its laws. The United Nations has begun to intervene in this aspect of black sites. We will eventually reunite these ghost prisoners with their legal rights. This page was last edited on 15 February 2023, at 19:30. Reprieves research pointed to at least 17 US warships being used as secret CIA black sites. "I find it unfathomable that the committee tasked with oversight of the C.I.A. After more than two months of detention, Arcentales says, he had lost 20 pounds; Payan says he lost 50. The US Central Intelligence Agency has, according to multiple investigative reports from both mainstream media outlets and human rights organizations, operated numerous black sites across the world. Those courts had agreed with the government that the case could not go forward without exposing state secrets. The inquiry is reportedly being overseen by Robert L. Deitz, a lawyer who served as general counsel at the National Security Agency when Michael Hayden ran it, and also includes Michael Morell, the agency's associate deputy director. Describing what sounded to me like real terror for them on the high seas. In fact, the specifics of the network of black sites remains controversial. 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. One of the CIAs guinea pigs was Abu Zubaydah, a Saudi national captured in Pakistan in 2002. [129][130], The future robustness of the highly secret investigation, in progress since 2008, may however be in some doubt. securities and exchange commission purpose; conservative party of canada ethics violations; hcpss staff dress code; role allocation definition sociology The reason cited for the destruction of the tapes was that the tapes posed a security risk for the interrogators shown on the tapes. You write about some Ecuadorians who are out there transporting drugs and they end up shackled for many, many days on a Coast Guard boat. Coast Guard officials say they can do this because the drug smugglers aren't under arrest until they reach U.S. shores, but some of the worst cases are drawing criticism even from Coast Guard officials. 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. 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. And for the next 70 days, he was held aboard a series of Coast Guard cutters and Navy frigates as he was moved around the Pacific Ocean. They are war criminals of the highest order. Give us the quick thumbnail sketch of this one guy, in particular, Jhonny Arcentales, and how he ended up there? 6. 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. Black site. Listen to music from Secret Floating Prisons. ", "EU May Suspend Nations With Secret Prisons", "No Proof of Secret C.I.A. 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. The officer said only the CIA had access to the isolated zone, which was used because it was a secure site far from major towns and was close to a former military airport. [26], In a September 7, 2007, public address to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, rare for a sitting Director of Central Intelligence, General Michael Hayden praised the program of detaining and interrogating prisoners, and credited it with providing 70 percent of the National Intelligence Estimate on the threat to America released in July. [31][32][33] Siddiqui was sentenced to 86 years in prison on September 23, 2010, following a hearing in which she testified.[34]. The Times report indicates that detainees are held in this inhumane legal limbo for weeks or months while the ships continue their patrols. [77] In September 2008, two anonymous Polish intelligence officers made the claims about facilities being located in Poland in the Polish daily newspaper Dziennik. As long as the state continues to lock people in cages and try to cure America's drug problem with the barrel of a gun, this horrific scenario will keep playing out like a broken record. In the article, it was noted that the aircraft's registration showed it as being owned by Premier Executive Transport Services, based in Massachusetts, though as of February 2005 it was listed as being owned by Keeler and Tate Management, Reno, Nevada (US). [4], In Chechnya, gay men have allegedly been tortured at black sites by Chechen security forces. The conditions of confinement for CIA detainees were harsher than the CIA had represented to policymakers and others. It is estimated that the U.S. has also used 17 ships as floating prisons since 2001, bringing the total estimated number of prisons operated by the U.S. and/or its allies to house alleged terrorist suspects since 2001 to more than 100. Cia is biggest dope pusher in the usa.the guys at sea are small fry compared to cops and cia! Defense lawyers have challenged the practice in federal courts with no success. For these fishermen, the ocean is the geography of their life. [83] In January 2022, it was reported in a Washington Post article that a former black site has been put up for sale by the Lithuanian government. Other Democrats in Congress also made public statements of outrage about the destruction of the tapes, suggesting that a violation of law had occurred. 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. As weve made this decision to prosecute more and more people, these delays have grown longer and longer.. For full details, see the section below on the media and investigative history. Often, these waits can last weeks or months, according to new reporting from The New York Times. However, much of this cocaine was never even destined for America, yetArcentales and thousands of others are now rotting in Federal prisons after being senselessly tortured all of which is at your expense. These secret prisons, floating in international waters, to avoid the US justice system, exist because, under the guise of protecting youfrom yourself, the US government spends billions on enforcing the failed drug warall at the expense of freedom. (One of my first reactions was noted by central texas, above. In fact, I spoke to Coast Guard commanders who are really uncomfortable about the conditions on their ship and uncomfortable about the amount of time people are held. He really didn't know all that much about what he was doing. Analyst Played by Rules", "Fired Officer Believed CIA Lied to Congress", "Remarks by the President on the Global War on Terror", "Bush orders CIA to comply with Geneva Conventions", "Hayden: CIA Had Fewer Than 100 Prisoners", "Information memorandum II on the alleged secret detentions in Council of Europe state", "Court Declines Case of Alleged CIA Torture Victim", "Aafia Siddiqui Guilty of Shooting at Americans in Afghanistan", "Aafia Siddiqui Found Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court of Attempting to Murder U.S. Nationals in Afghanistan and Six Additional Charges", "Pakistani scientist found guilty of attempted murder of U.S. agents", "Aafia Siddiqui, alleged Al Qaeda associate, gets 86-year sentence", "More Than Two-Dozen Countries Complicit In US Torture Program", "Time to come clean on secret CIA prison", "Thaksin denies Thailand had 'CIA secret prison', "Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly", "CIA director Gina Haspel's Thailand torture ties", "The Salt Pit, CIA Interrogation Facility outsitde Kabul", "U.S. Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations 'Stress and Duress' Tactics Used on Terrorism Suspects Held in Secret Overseas Facilities", U.S.