The men were required to clean out the buckets themselves. "[25], On July 20, 2007, Bush made an executive order banning torture of captives by intelligence officials. 9. The vagaries of international maritime law allow the Coast Guard to engage in what could fairly be described as a pattern of kidnapping and human rights abuses. 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]. [12], In December 2002, The Washington Post reported that "the capture of al Qaeda leaders Ramzi bin al-Shibh in Pakistan, Omar al-Faruq in Indonesia, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in Kuwait and Muhammad al Darbi in Yemen were all partly the result of information gained during interrogations." One of them stated that between 2002 and 2005 the CIA held terror suspects inside a military intelligence training base in Stare Kiejkuty in north-eastern Poland. Are private prisons safer? your username. [2] Black sites in China are also known as black jails. US President George W. Bush acknowledged the existence of secret prisons operated by the CIA during a speech on September 6, 2006. duh A report by Helgerson's office completed in the spring of 2004 warned that some CIA-approved interrogation procedures appeared to constitute cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as defined by the international Convention Against Torture. Black site. Through the example set by the worlds most influential nations, fundamental human rights principles stand or fall across the world. Example video title will go here for this video. Prisons, European Antiterror Chief Says", "European Parliament resolution on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners", Executive Order -- Ensuring Lawful Interrogations, "CIA Prisons to Be Evaluated in One-Year Review by Senate Panel", "CIA says shuttering detention 'black sites', "Message from the Director: Interrogation Policy and Contracts", "U.S. to Prosecute a Somali Suspect in Civilian Court", "Congress Clashes Over Release of CIA Torture Report", "Top senator rejects CIA torture report redactions ahead of public release", "Here's What Dianne Feinstein Said About the Torture Report", "7 Key Points From the C.I.A. Those courts had agreed with the government that the case could not go forward without exposing state secrets. Some of the suspected smugglers have spent months chained to ship decks, awaiting transfer to the mainland for prosecution in American courts. They're provided essentially buckets to use as toilets on some of the boats. [77] In September 2008, two anonymous Polish intelligence officers made the claims about facilities being located in Poland in the Polish daily newspaper Dziennik. 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. The Times report indicates that detainees are held in this inhumane legal limbo for weeks or months while the ships continue their patrols. Flight records obtained by the group documented the Boeing 737 'N4476S' leased by the CIA for transporting prisoners leaving Kabul and making stops in Poland and Romania before continuing on to Morocco, and finally Guantnamo Bay in Cuba. [13], In January 2012, Poland's Prosecutor General's office initiated investigative proceedings against Zbigniew Siemitkowski, the former Polish intelligence chief. This page was last edited on 15 February 2023, at 19:30. They would pass a piece of leftover chicken down the line, each detainee taking a bite and handing it to the next, until the bone was picked clean. According to the BBC, in 2006, a Swiss investigation into CIA black sites named Bosnia as one of the many countries which had partnered with the CIA to secretly detain suspected terrorists, along with Italy, Sweden, and Macedonia. The CIA's operation and management of the program complicated, and in some cases impeded, the national security missions of other. [129][130], The future robustness of the highly secret investigation, in progress since 2008, may however be in some doubt. However, some have alleged that a number of these flights were used to traffic ghost prisoners to and from a secret prison on the airports premises. Reports state that he, too, was waterboarded, in addition to being threatened with sodomy. 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. Siddiqui's family maintains that she was abused at Bagram. The Salt Pit, also known as Cobalt, is a former brick factory located north of Kabul in Afghanistan. In Iraq, Abu Ghraib was disclosed as a black site, and in 2004 was the center of an extensive prisoner abuse scandal. A former riding school in Antaviliai, a village some 25 kilometres (16mi) from Vilnius, was said to have been converted into a jail by the CIA in 2004. 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 conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees. The detainees have been imprisoned for more than a year despite the Hadhramout Specialized Criminal Court granting their release. 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. They are war criminals of the highest order. He had left home a year and a half . Iliescu further stated that had he known of the intended use of the site, he would certainly not have approved the request. By its own admission, the US government is currently detaining at least 26,000 people without trial in secret prisons, and information suggests up to 80,000 have been 'through the system' since 2001. secret floating prisons. The CIA marginalized and ignored numerous internal critiques, criticisms, and objections concerning the operation and management of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program. [106] The report, which documented the cases of three Yemeni nationals, was the first to describe the conditions in black site detention in detail. The site was closed in December 2002. reggie white sarcoidosis. On our Doge's Palace "Prisons and Tyranny" tour, you'll discover a darker side of Venice. 1,3 . Less than 16 kilometers (10 mi) from the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius is a mysterious former riding school in the village of Antaviliai. 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. Well, John Kelly was in charge of Southern Command, the Department of Defense area of operation in Latin America that's in charge of managing the drug war in Latin America. 6. Our subreddit is primarily for ", "Bush Defends Treatment of Terrorism Suspects", "Watchdog of C.I.A. In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black operation or black project is conducted. In their report, they've also stated that a huge number of those people are held on ships that are known as "floating prisons". Responding to the allegations about black sites, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated on December 5, 2005 that the U.S. had not violated any country's sovereignty in the rendition of suspects, and that individuals were never rendered to countries where it was believed that they might be tortured. These secret prisons, floating in international waters, to avoid the US justice system, exist because, under the guise of protecting you from yourself, the US government spends billions on enforcing the failed drug warall at the expense of freedom. In December 2014 the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) published an executive summary of a secret 6,000-page report on CIA techniques. [3], US President George W. Bush acknowledged the existence of secret prisons operated by the CIA during a speech on September 6, 2006. Courts have generally bought the government's argument. ). You know, we stick to U.S. law and our international obligations." In 2008, a Polish intelligence source revealed to the BBC that Stare Kiejkutys facilities were used by the CIA to detain and interrogate high-value detainees. The BBC report stated that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the so-called architect of the 9/11 attacks, had been interrogated in Poland, among other places. Tim Bissell is a writer and researcher who works in the Canadian television industry. 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. Governments are notorious for their secrets, and prisons are no exception to this. 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. In an effort to staunch the flow of cocaine and other hard drugs from South America to Central America and points north, Coast Guard cutters have been deployed farther and farther . By 2005, the CIA had overwhelmingly outsourced operations related to the program. 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. In the February 26 March 4, 2005, edition of Ireland's Village magazine, an article titled "Abductions via Shannon" claimed that Dublin and Shannon airports in Ireland were "used by the CIA to abduct suspects in its 'war on terror'". They describe that as a really terrible disgusting process. We don't have facilities here. On the day of registration transference, a Gulfstream V jet (number N8068V) used in the same activities, was transferred from Premier Executive Transport Services to a company called Baynard Foreign Marketing. 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. In the past Chevalier Floatels has come up with an innovative solution to provide a fast solution to governments who had a sudden increase of detainees. Nevertheless, there are many indications from various sources which must be considered reliable, justifying the continuation of the analytical and investigative work. The Coast Guard makes the argument that these people are not formally under arrest until they get to the United States. [1][12] After denying the fact for years, Poland confirmed in 2014 that it has hosted black sites. Many Americans I speak with don't believe this could . Coast guard cutters on missions to interdict suspected drug smugglers in international waters have become de facto prisons for detainees. I havent heard a thing since on this floating prison claim. [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. He was also sentenced to a decade in U.S. federal prison. [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. [112] On October 5, 2007, President George W. Bush responded, saying "This government does not torture people. Operated Secret Dark Prison in Kabul (Human Rights Watch, 19-12-2005), "Sexual abuse rife at UAE-run jails in Yemen, prisoners claim", "Disappearances and torture in southern Yemen detention facilities must be investigated as war crimes", "Inside numerous secret prisons in Yemen, the UAE tortures and the U.S. interrogates detainees: Re", "HRW: UAE backs torture and disappearances in Yemen", "Amnesty urges probe into report of UAE torture in Yemen", "UAE runs 'horrific network of torture' in secret Yemen prisons: report", "NGO calls for closing UAE's 'secret prisons' in Yemen", "The UAE and Saudi Arabia Supervise the Arrest and Torture of Dozens of Yemenis", "The #UAE an #SaudiArabia supervise the arrest and torture of dozens of Yemenis", "Authorities in Mukalla must free those being arbitrarily detained in Al Munawara Central Prison", "Is Europe being used to hold CIA detainees? 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. [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. See US accused of holding terror suspects on prison ships for the grisly story. . 2.7m members in the teenagers community. 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. 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. After an investigation by the EU Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, the EU determined that it could not find any of these prisons. 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. The report defines extraordinary renditions as instances where "an individual suspected of involvement in terrorism is illegally abducted, arrested and/or transferred into the custody of US officials and/or transported to another country for interrogation which, in the majority of cases involves incommunicado detention and torture".UK officials have further denied any claims and many investing officials agree to it that UK was not involved in the [108], On September 14, 2007, The Washington Post reported that members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence had requested the withdrawal of the nomination of John A. Rizzoa career CIA lawyerfor the position of general counsel, due to concerns about his support for Bush administration legal doctrines permitting "enhanced interrogation" of terrorism detainees in CIA custody. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 46197038. [31][32] On February 3, 2010, she was found guilty of two counts of attempted murder, armed assault, using and carrying a firearm, and three counts of assault on U.S. officers and employees. The CIA and their operatives methods allegedly include waterboarding, sleep deprivation, humiliation, physical beatings, electric shocks, and worse. He says a combination of U.S. agreements with Latin American countries and the U.S. Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act allows the US to take this action. Rather they asked they not publish the names of the countries in which the prisons are located. 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. "[116], On December 6, 2007, the CIA admitted that it had destroyed videotapes recordings of CIA interrogations of terrorism suspects involving harsh interrogation techniques, tapes which critics suggest may have documented the use of torture by the CIA, such as waterboarding. These secret prisons, dotted all over the world, might just be the most terrifying places on Earth. 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. [100] "The Post has not identified the East European countries involved in the secret program at the request of senior U.S. officials who argued that the disclosure could disrupt counter-terrorism efforts".[102]. It did not matter to us where they would leave us; we were desperate to communicate with our family. The Coast Guard and the Department of Justice maintain that all detainees are treated humanely and with accordance to the law. As discussed in the preceding section, many of the facts surrounding black sites remain controversial. Although no clear evidence have been found against the United Kingdom. 5 Jun. As he was moving this cocaine on a boat with three other men, another Ecuadorian man and a Colombian man, they were approaching Central America, approaching Guatemala and the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard intercepted that boat and pulled these men off. With the passage of the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act of 1986, drug smuggling in international waters became a crime and interdictions expanded farther and farther out to sea. [125], Viso magazine journalist Rui Costa Pinto also testified before the DCIAP. [62], On January 23, 2009, The Guardian reported that the CIA ran a secret detention center in Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, a former French Foreign Legion base. U.S. Coast Guard Holding Detainees In Secret Floating Prisons in Pacific Ocean - Legal News India, Legal News World, Supreme Court, Supreme Court of India, Delhi high court [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. The property was purchased in 2004 by Elite LLC, a company registered in Washington, DC. Ships that are understood to have held prisoners include the USS Bataan and USS Peleliu. [9] The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported details of black site practices to the US government in early 2007,[10] and the contents of that report became public in March 2009. Now, however, it seems to have gotten worse as an ad-hoc US detention system has recently been discovered floating in the Pacific Ocean in international waters as to exist outside the realm of the US justice system. From secret black site prisonsoperating in Chicagowith no due process, to midnight raids in which babies faces are blown off by police grenades, attempting to stop Americans from self-medicating has proven to be a disastrousfailure. Simple Product An eye-opening report from The New York Times has exposed the existence of multiple floating Guantanamos operated by the U.S. Coast Guard throughout the Pacific Ocean. Is this 'secret prison' number including all the Iraqi detainees in camps in Iraq, or is there some other network of major camps?). Location at which an unacknowledged black project is conducted, "Blacksite" redirects here. (Guardian) Al-Qaeda and the "War on Terrorism" (January 20, 2008) [142][143][144] Panetta informed his fellow employees that the CIA would only use interrogation techniques authorized in the US Army interrogation manual, and that any individuals taken into custody by the CIA would only be held briefly, for the time necessary to transfer them to the custody of authorities in their home countries, or the custody of another US agency. However, the officer said it was unlikely either man knew if the prisoners were being tortured because the Poles had no control over the Americans' activities. 5. He's called drug smuggling in Central America an existential threat to the United States. ", "United States of America / Below the radar: Secret flights to torture and 'disappearance', "Secret prisons: Obama's order to close 'black sites', "United States of America / Yemen: Secret Detention in CIA "Black Sites", "Developments in the British Indian Ocean Territory", "CIA interrogated suspects on Diego Garcia, says Colin Powell aide", "Terror suspects were interrogated on Diego Garcia, US official admits", "Source: US Used UK Isle for Interrogations", "Swiss intercept fax on secret CIA jails", "Swiss paper claims proofs of secret US torture camp", "Folter in Rumnien: Ex-Staatschef Iliescu gibt Existenz von CIA-Gefngnis zu", "Ukraine denies hosting secret CIA prisons", "Inside a 9/11 Mastermind's Interrogation", "Rights group: US won't cooperate with Polish probe of CIA prisons", "Lithuania pinpoints site of alleged secret CIA prison", "Lithuania investigates claim it ran secret prison", "Senate report 'proves Lithuania hosted CIA jail': detainee's lawyers", "Jail for sale: Lithuania to put former CIA black site up for auction", "Polish president admits Poland agreed to host secret CIA 'black site', "John Walker Lindh Profile: The case of the Taliban American", "Myers: Intelligence might have thwarted attacks", "CIA Torture Jet sold in attempted cover up", "Details of US 'torture by proxy flights' emerge", "US accused of holding terror suspects on prison ships", "Prison ships, torture claims, and missing detainees", "Revealed: the full story of the Guantanamo Britons The Observer's David Rose hears the Tipton Three give a harrowing account of their captivity in Cuba", "Transcript of interview of Andrea Mitchell, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Bill Bennett, John Harwood, Dana Priest and William Safire", "U.S. Faces Scrutiny Over Secret Prisons", "Nations Urged to Answer Prison Allegations", http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2005/11/28/1327488-ap.html, "The Black Sites; A rare look inside the C.I.A. Wilkerson stated that this was done by the CIA in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. More:U.S. Coast Guard operating secret floating prisons in Pacific Ocean. ", "EU May Suspend Nations With Secret Prisons", "No Proof of Secret C.I.A. 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. These torturous waits can last for weeks or months, according to the Times. That report stated that no CIA officers were ever charged with crimes relating to the death of Rahman. The other suspected aircraft would have landed in Brest on March 31, 2002. In 2004, Amnesty International alleged that the DST is a recurrent and flagrant abuser of human rights and that many of these offenses have occurred at Temara. The former riding stable outside of the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius consists of long corridors leading to windowless and soundproof rooms where one could do whatever one wanted, said current Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas, who led a parliamentary investigation into the facility in 2010. [45] Some Guantanamo Bay detainees report being tortured in a prison they called "the dark prison", also near Kabul. Rinoplastia; Blefaroplastia In 2015, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's former chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, elaborated saying Diego Garcia was used by the CIA for "nefarious activities". On November 8, 2005, rights group Amnesty International provided the first comprehensive testimony from former inmates of the CIA black sites. He was the head of Southern Command between 2012 and 2016 then retired. Toggle navigation. As we've made this decision to prosecute more and more people, these delays have grown longer and longer. 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". Makes me think it was a load of bs. Although the UK has long claimed that ghost prisoners havent been held at Diego Garcia, in a 2015 interview with Vice News, Lawrence Wilkerson (US Secretary of State Colin Powells former chief of staff) revealed that terrorism suspects were abducted and brought to the ocean base for special interrogations.