According to the Times, using the Coast Guard to interdict seaborne contraband headed to the United States is an age-old practice. No the bathrooms on these boats are very different, ship to ship. The United States is operating "floating prisons" to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to . Cardboard, the Guardian is hardly a conspiracy theory forum. On January 22, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order requiring the CIA to use only the 19 interrogation methods outlined in the United States Army Field Manual "unless the Attorney General with appropriate consultation provides further guidance". Siddiqui's family maintains that she was abused at Bagram. On November 20, 2002, Gul Rahman died of hypothermia after being beaten, stripped naked, and chained to the floor during a freezing cold night. What we're seeing now is sort of carting people around carting suspected drug smugglers around the ocean an average of 18 days very often longer than that as the government waits to transport people to courts in Florida. Approximately 30 detainees are considered the most dangerous or important terrorism suspects and are held by the CIA at black sites under the most secretive arrangements. 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]. Toggle navigation. secret floating prisons. First the land to build the prison on, needs to go through a permitting stage . In their increasing effort to prove they are needed to stop the flow of drugs, the Coast Guard has continued to go further and further out into these international waters. Tim Bissell is a writer and researcher who works in the Canadian television industry. Created out of necessity due to overcrowding in the 1980s, the ship has . [95] Several other articles reported the retention of ghost detainees by the CIA, alongside the other official "enemy combatants". The report continued to state that the site was used to interrogate Al-Qaeda suspects who had been captured in Afghanistan. They're simply being held, while the Coast Guard deals with the logistical challenges of trying to get these men onto shore into an airplane and flown to Florida, where they'll be prosecuted. The CIA coordinated the release of classified information to the media, including inaccurate information concerning the effectiveness of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques. Instead of realizing how entirely ineffective, barbaric, deadly, and insane the war on drugs has proven to be, the US government shows no signs of slowing despite public opinion on the matter rapidly shifting. The detainees have been imprisoned for more than a year despite the Hadhramout Specialized Criminal Court granting their release. [23] The Washington Post posited that McCarthy "had been probing allegations of criminal mistreatment by the CIA and its contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan", and became convinced that "CIA people had lied" in a meeting with US Senate staff in June 2005. [118], After a media and public outcry in Europe concerning headlines about "secret CIA prisons" in Poland and other US allies, the EU through its Committee on Legal Affairs investigated whether any of its members, especially Poland, the Czech Republic or Romania had any of these "secret CIA prisons". Aafia's case gained notoriety due to Yvonne Ridley's allegations in her book, The Grey Lady of Bagram, a ghostly female detainee, who kept prisoners awake "with her haunting sobs and piercing screams". Inquiry", "C.I.A. When these cutters capture a boat carrying drugs, the smugglers are brought onto the ships and kept shackled to the deck, sometimes outside in the elements, until the Coast Guard makes arrangements for them to be transported back to the U.S. for trial. For full details, see the section below on the media and investigative history. And so when I talked to Arcentales, for example, about the sea, he said to me "the ocean used to be a place that for me represented freedom. [4][5] A claim that the black sites existed was made by The Washington Post in November 2005 and before this by human rights NGOs. [109], On October 4, 2007, The New York Times reported that, shortly after Alberto Gonzales became Attorney General in February 2005, the Justice Department issued a secret opinion which for the first time provided CIA explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures. In fact, his son-in-law decided not long after that earthquake to take one of these jobs and left home. However, the lawyer representing the LDH declared that he was surprised that the judicial investigation was only opened on January 20, 2006, and that no verifications had been done before. The US government must show a commitment to rights and basic humanity by immediately revealing who these people are, where they are, and what has been done to them., (My emphasis can this really be true? In 2008, The Guardian reported that human rights organization Reprieve, which claimed that the US has admitted to holding at least 26,000 people in secret prisons, had discovered that the US was operating a fleet of "floating prisons" that span the globe. The reality is that when the Coast Guard has had to move people more quickly, they do. [64][65] However, it has since been revealed by Time magazine and a "senior American official" source that the isle was indeed used by the U.S. as a secret prison for "war on terror" detainees. After more than two months of detention, Arcentales says, he had lost 20 pounds; Payan says he lost 50. 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). Romania claims that Mihail Kogalniceanu Airport is only used as a transfer point for CIA prisoners and not for actual detainment or interrogations. Anything. secret floating prisons. The other suspected aircraft would have landed in Brest on March 31, 2002. It is one of the several prisons set up by the CIA after the 9/11 attacks and was intended to hold people suspected of having links with terrorists. It's not always clear that the drugs are coming here and, in fact, the circuit court in California has said that the U.S. can't prosecute these cases unless they can prove that the drugs were headed to the United States that they actually intended to to show up there. It is only at that point that the detainees are formally arrested. Now, it turns out, there's a secret U.S. detention system in the War on Drugs, too and this one is aboard U.S. Coast Guard cutters sailing in the Pacific Ocean. [1] A 2021 Associated Press news story defined black sites as "clandestine jails where prisoners generally are not charged with a crime and have no legal recourse, with no bail or court order." At some point prior to 2005, the prison was again relocated, this time to an unknown site. Reprieves research pointed to at least 17 US warships being used as secret CIA black sites. Naval Base in Diego Garcia was reported to be a black site, but UK and U.S. officials initially attempted to suppress these reports. As discussed in the preceding section, many of the facts surrounding black sites remain controversial. Ireland was so troubled in the 1820s and 30s that gaols were overflowing. Yes. As per the former detainees, survivors, and witnesses, Emirati forces operating in Yemen run illegal detention centers in the south of the country. Coast guard cutters on missions to interdict suspected drug smugglers in international waters have become de facto prisons for detainees. US President George W. Bush acknowledged the existence of secret prisons operated by the CIA during a speech on September 6, 2006. And the Coast Guard says "our ships aren't equipped as detention centers. [135], In its edition of January 8, 2006, the Swiss newspaper Sonntagsblick published a document intercepted on November 10 by the Swiss Onyx interception system (similar to the UKUSA's ECHELON system). ; . 3. Two of the alleged smugglers profiled in the Times described their on-board meals as consisting of small portions of black beans and rice, with an occasional piece of chicken or spinach. [70], In June 2008, a New York Times article claimed, citing unnamed CIA officers, that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was held in a secret facility in Poland near Szymany Airport, about 160km (100mi) north of Warsaw and it was there where he was interrogated and the waterboarding was applied. These have been alleged to constitute "severe pain or suffering" under the UN convention, which would be a violation of the treaty and thus US law. Danner also provided excerpts of the ICRC report characterizing procedures used at the black sites, dubbed "an alternative set of procedures" by President Bush, and discussed whether they fit the definition of torture.[14]. Germany had issued warrants for 13 people suspected to be involved with the abduction but dropped them in September 2007. If we even get the chance to start rebuilding. So the Coast Guard is arresting these people in these boats and it's not clear whether the drugs on these boats are going to the U.S.? In 2014, the US government declassified a US Senate Report on the CIAs Detention and Interrogation Program. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Simple Product [120], In November 2005, El Pas reported that CIA planes had landed in the Canary Islands and in Palma de Mallorca. If you're looking for a unique Venice . The US Coast Guard is operating floating prisons in the Pacific Ocean, outside US legal protections!!! In 2005, two Bosnian men, Nihad Karsic and Almin Harbeus, spoke to Bosnias public television broadcaster BHTV about their ordeals at Camp Eagle, near Tuzla, close to the Bosnian border with Serbia. So this guy, Arcentales, and another guy they're on a ship. This area is a safe area, and does not have a level requirement to access. The Coast Guard has gotten away with this inhumane and horrific practice for years by claiming that logistics make it hard to get these people back. June 27, 2014. [114] Members of the House and Senate intelligence committees expressed concern about the inquiry, saying that it could undermine the inspector general's role as independent watchdog. His attorney blamed his troubles on the CIA, saying the kidnapping and detention had left Masri a "psychological wreck".[29]. In 2014, former Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski confirmed that he had made agreements with the United States to allow the CIA to operate black sites in Poland during his time in office between 1995 and 2005. In 2003, Morocco was examined by the UN Committee against Torture. 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. In an interview, Seth Freed Wessler, who wrote the November 20, 2017 Times article, noted the practice of holding suspects at sea for long periods of time has been condoned by the judicial system. The Outlaw Ocean Project. Of the 27 detainees, 13 had been granted acquittal, 11 completed their full terms, and the cases of the remaining 3 were nullified by the court. Top Searches. The CIA's management and operation of its Detention and Interrogation Program was deeply flawed throughout the program's duration, particularly so in 2002 and early 2003. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. However, it was the revelations of The Washington Post, in a November 2, 2005, article, that would start the scandal. Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve's legal director, said: They choose ships to try to keep their misconduct as far as possible from the prying eyes of the media and lawyers. He really didn't know all that much about what he was doing. [146][147][148] ", And all of these men say "we understand that we've broken laws. [4], In Chechnya, gay men have allegedly been tortured at black sites by Chechen security forces. They were moved from ship to ship, chained to the deck by the ankle, defecated in buckets and threw the waste overboard. [84], After the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture, the president of Poland between 1995 and 2005, Alexander Kwasniewski, admitted that he had agreed to host a secret CIA black site in Poland, but that activities were to be carried out in accordance to Polish law. securities and exchange commission purpose; conservative party of canada ethics violations; hcpss staff dress code; role allocation definition sociology The organization went on to claim that the United States was imprisoning as many as 26,000 foreign detainees in secret prison facilities, including land-based prisons. Bush said that the interrogation techniques "have been fully disclosed to appropriate members of Congress".[113]. But the instruction concerned only N50BH, which was a Gulfstream III, which would have landed at Le Bourget on July 20, 2005, coming from Oslo, Norway. [152][153], On 31 May 2018, the ECHR ruled that Romania and Lithuania also violated the rights of Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in 20032005 and in 20052006 respectively, and Lithuania and Romania were ordered to pay 100,000 euros in damages each to Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Nashiri. A fax intercepted by the Onyx Swiss interception system, from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to its London embassy, stated that 23 prisoners were clandestinely interrogated by the U.S. at the base. A further 100 ghost detainees kidnapped in Europe and "rendered" to other countries must be counted, according to Swiss senator Dick Marty's report of January 2006. Very often, detainees are brought to port in one of these cutters, then placed in a hidden room in a helicopter hangar or in a room below deck and hidden there for the day while the Coast Guard cutter refuels or the Coast Guard crew get a bit of a break and then are brought back out to sea. Mwatana has also verified the torture of detainees at these Emirati-run secret detention centers where some have gone as far as committing suicide to protest against their unfair detention, as cited by one of the victim's brothers. [80] The allegations resulted in a parliamentary inquiry, and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskait stated that she had "indirect suspicions" about a black site in her country. 2.7m members in the teenagers community. shares, Facebook Watch Videos from The Infographics Show: We all know prisoners are kept locked inside prison cells and monitored. 5 Jun. The Coast Guard adds that it shackles detainees and conceals them while in port for their own safety and the safety of the crew. How can the Coast Guard get away with keeping people under those conditions when the men haven't even been charged? Malinowski's comments prompted quick denials by both Polish and Romanian government officials as well as sparking the concern of the International Committee of the Red Cross ("ICRC"), who called for access to all foreign terrorism suspects held by the United States. [66][67], While the revelation was expected to cause considerable embarrassment for both governments, UK officials were expected to face considerable exposure since they had previously quelled public outcry over U.S. detainee abuse by falsely reassuring the public no U.S. detainment camps were housed on any UK bases or territories. The CIA did not conduct a comprehensive or accurate accounting of the number of individuals it detained, and held individuals who did not meet the legal standard for detention. The CIA marginalized and ignored numerous internal critiques, criticisms, and objections concerning the operation and management of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program. On November 3, 2005, Tom Malinowski of the New York-based Human Rights Watch cited circumstantial evidence pointing to Poland and Romania hosting CIA-operated covert prisons. These included sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, keeping prisoners naked indefinitely and photographing them naked to degrade and humiliate them, and forcibly administering drugs by suppositories to further break down their dignity. These secret prisons, dotted all over the world, might just be the most terrifying places on Earth. It does search and rescue, enforces fisheries laws. Once detained, the Coast Guard employs the fiction that the suspects are not under arrest, sometimes chains them to the deck exposed to the elements, feeds them near starvation rations and provides them buckets for toilets. Ghost prisoners are subject to what the CIA calls enhanced interrogation tactics; most others call it torture. The war on drugs has produced the vilest police state one can imagine. Location at which an unacknowledged black project is conducted, "Blacksite" redirects here. In 2009, unnamed former intelligence agents told ABC News that the site at Antaviliai was operational for over a year and that during that time, it held at least eight suspected terrorists within its walls. 11/28/17: 5 . [21], On April 21, 2006, Mary O. McCarthy, a longtime CIA analyst, was fired for allegedly leaking classified information to a Washington Post reporter, Dana Priest, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her revelations concerning the CIA's black sites. The men said that they were eventually released and given $500 in compensation. This is what we've got.". Since 2001, the US has held approximately 80,000 detainees, 26,000 of which remain in secret prisons. The CIA impeded effective White House oversight and decision-making. 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. The decision was made in Geneva following two days of hearings at which a 26-member U.S. delegation defended the practices.[17][18]. On November 4, 2009, an Italian judge convicted (in absentia) 23 of the Americans, including a U.S. Air Force (USAF) colonel. Competitive Shopping. Next up in 5. So there are these delays that people in the Coast Guard Coast Guard officials I interviewed though really are actually unreasonable, considering that they're near an airport. :confused: How could a wall prevent maritime insertion? The involvement of Leszek Miller, Poland's Prime Minister from 2001 to 2004, is also considered possible. We've done stories about that. (below)[96]. In its 26 December 2020 video statement SAM cited one of its reports citing that the Saudi and UAE forces subjected the Yemeni detainees to cruel forms of torture.[55][56][57], Mwatana for Human Rights reported on 11 April 2021 about the continued forceful detention of approximately 27 civilians at the Al Munawara Central Prison, Mukalla City, Yemen by UAE authorities. The reason cited for the destruction of the tapes was that the tapes posed a security risk for the interrogators shown on the tapes. 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These locations, according to the reports, are secret prisons used to house ghost prisoners. Those sent to these places are held captive without being charged with any crime and are not allowed any form of legal defense. secret floating prisonshow old was martina navratilova when she retired. On December 2, 2005, conservative newspaper Le Figaro had revealed the existence of two CIA planes that had landed in France, suspected of transporting CIA prisoners. They describe that as a really terrible disgusting process. 2. Locals described seeing US contractors digging around the property, creating what they assumed was an underground complex beneath the main building. He didn't know that he was going to be brought to the United States, wasn't being allowed to call his family wondering, "does my family think I died?" This page was last edited on 15 February 2023, at 19:30. An estimated 50 prisons have been used to hold detainees in 28 countries, in addition to at least 25 more prisons in Afghanistan and 20 in Iraq. I would wake up feeling the chains digging into my ankle and jerking my leg thinking I was shackled, and feel my leg freed and be relieved that I was not chained there on the boat. Above all else, we respect everyone's opinions and ALL The CIA abducted Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (also known as Abu Omar) in Milan and transferred him to Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured and abused. 1. United States Coast Guard Is Operating Secret Floating Prisons In The Pacific Ocean! In August 2018, the Royal Thai Army announced that another suspected Udon Thani black site, the former Ramasun Station, would be turned into a tourist attraction. [110], Patrick Leahy and John Conyers, chairmen of the respective Senate and House Judiciary committees, requested that the Justice Department turn over documents related to the secret February 2005 legal opinion to their committees for review. On March 15, 2009, Mark Danner provided a report in the New York Review of Books (with an abridged version in The New York Times) describing and commenting on the contents of the ICRC report. Hassan Nasr was released by an Egyptian courtwho considered his detention "unfounded"in February 2007 and has not been indicted for any crime in Italy. Example video title will go here for this video. Both Prime Minister Leszek Miller and President Aleksander Kwasniewski knew about the base, the newspaper reported. Despite protests in major Russian cities against the situation in Chechnya, Vladimir Putin, wanting to maintain good relations with Kadyrov, has denied that any abuses of homosexuals in Chechnya have occurred. Your email address will not be published. The vast majority of information that has been provided to the public about black sites has been the result of investigative reporting. The 6,000-page report produced 20 key findings. The Swiss government did not officially confirm the existence of the report, but started a judiciary procedure for leakage of secret documents against the newspaper on January 9, 2006. 6. We could no longer endure living in such conditions for that prolonged period of time, Arcentales wrote later in a letter. views, 5,4 . The list of those thought to be held by the CIA includes suspected al-Qaeda members Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Nurjaman Riduan Isamuddin, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Abu Zubaydah. The CIA rarely reprimanded or held personnel accountable for serious or significant violations, inappropriate activities, and systematic and individual management failures. 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. Time began to warp for them. [11], On September 6, 2006, Bush publicly admitted the existence of secret prisons[9] and announced that many of the detainees held there were being transferred to Guantanamo Bay.[12]. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. The court ordered the Polish government to pay each of the men 100,000 euros in damages. You know, we stick to U.S. law and our international obligations." Djibouti is a highly strategic location for the US military, primarily due to its close proximity to terrorist hot zones such as Somalia and Yemen as well as the pirate-filled Gulf of Aden. And yet it goes on. Chechnya is arguably the most homophobic area in Russia, with 95% of its population adhering to Orthodox (Sunni) Islam. The report alleges that at least eight Thai senior officials knew of the secret site. That same report cited Spain, Turkey, Germany, and Cyprus as staging posts and the UK, Portugal, Ireland, and Greece as stop-off points for detainees being flown to black sites such as Camp Eagle. [81] On December 22, 2009, the parliamentary commission finished its investigation and stated they found no proof that a black site had existed in Lithuania. The Coast Guard usually has a reputation for being the good guys out there rescuing people, apprehending bad guys. The Coast Guard was conscripted as the agency empowered to seek out suspected smugglers and bring them to American courts, the Times reports. The group claimed that these secret detention facilities intentionally held prisoners, including political opponents, civilians, opinion-makers. The law does not allow for us to throw this case out. US News: The US is operating 'floating prisons' to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an at. In an effort to staunch the . likes, 175 loves, 691 comments, 1,8 . The sources who spoke to the BBC stated that the Polish president likely had no idea what was really going on at the Stare Kiejkuty base. It is claimed that waterboarding was used about 100 times over a period of two weeks before Khalid Sheikh Mohammed began to cooperate.