Red Cross criticizes Bush’s Bagram torture prison in Afghanistan

This video is the trailer of the film Taxi to the dark side; about the torturing to death of Afghan prisoners at Bagram.

From Associated Press:

KABUL, Afghanistan – The U.S. military should allow outside evidence to be presented at hearings at the U.S. military prison at Bagram to determine whether a detainee may be freed, the top international Red Cross official said Monday.

Jakob Kellenberger, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said that many detainees held by the U.S. military in Afghanistan complain that they do not know why they are being held.

“They do not know what the future brings, how long will they be there and under which conditions will they be released,” Kellenberger said after a weeklong visit to the country. …

The U.S. military does not make public the list of detainees nor the suspected offenses they are held on. Some of the detainees are fighters who were held after clashes or raids.

Unlike the U.S. prison at the base in Guantanamo, Cuba, the military does not allow journalists to visit the Bagram detention facility. …

Human rights groups accuse the U.S. military of holding prisoners without charge at facilities like Bagram, in some cases for more than five years.

The International Committee of the Red Cross is extremely timid in criticizing powerful governments. That they do so at all now says something about how terrible the Bagram situation is. At least if one bases oneself on the Associated Press report, the criticism by Jakob Kellenberger is incomplete; not mentioning the torture and deaths by torture of Bagram prisoners.

Talking about torture in prisons in Afghanistan; from the Canadian Press:

Ottawa tries to halt military police commission probe of Afghan prisoners

Murray Brewster

April 13, 2008

– Federal lawyers are attempting to shut down an investigation by the military police complaints commission into the handling of Taliban prisoners captured by Canadian troops in Afghanistan.

Government counsel have asked the Federal Court for a judicial review, claiming the independent commission doesn’t have the jurisdiction to “either investigate or hold a hearing into the complaint ” filed by Amnesty International Canada and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

See also here.