U.S. Operated Secret 'Dark Prison' in Kabul

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/05bee6d5f916310a6f68909e2e67ecf7.htm

(New York, December 19, 2005) – Accounts from detainees at Guantánamo reveal that the United States as recently as last year operated a secret prison in Afghanistan where detainees were subjected to torture and other mistreatment, Human Rights Watch said today. Eight detainees now held at Guantánamo described to their attorneys how they were held at a facility near Kabul at various times between 2002 and 2004. The detainees, who called the facility the "dark prison" or "prison of darkness," said they were chained to walls, deprived of food and drinking water, and kept in total darkness with loud rap, heavy metal music, or other sounds blared for weeks at a time.

The detainees offer consistent accounts about the facility, saying that U.S. and Afghan guards were not in uniform and that U.S. interrogators did not wear military attire, which suggests that the prison may have been operated by personnel from the Central Intelligence Agency.

The detainees said U.S. interrogators slapped or punched them during interrogations. They described being held in complete darkness for weeks on end, shackled to rings bolted into the walls of their cells, with loud music or other sounds played continuously. Some detainees said they were shackled in a manner that made it impossible to lie down or sleep, with restraints that caused their hands and wrists to swell up or bruise. The detainees said they were deprived of food for days at a time, and given only filthy water to drink. snip

"We're not talking about torture in the abstract, but the real thing," said Sifton. "U.S. personnel and officials may be criminally liable, and a special prosecutor is needed to investigate."

Human Rights Watch called on the United States to move "disappeared" persons into known detention facilities, articulate the legal basis under which detainees are held, and allow access to all detainees by independent monitors.