LONDON, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The United States is
operating "floating prisons" to detain those arrested in its war on terror, The
Guardian reported Monday.
Information about the operation of prison ships was
revealed through a number of sources, including statements from the U.S.
military, the European Council and related parliamentary bodies, as well as
testimonies of prisoners, the report said.
Details of ships where detainees have been held and
sites allegedly being used in countries across the world have been compiled as
the debate over detention without trial intensifies on both sides of the
Atlantic. On Sunday, the U.S. government was urged to list the names and
whereabouts of all those detained.
According to the report, an analysis, due to be
published this year by the human rights organization Reprieve, claims that there
have been more than 200 new cases of rendition since 2006, when U.S. President
George Bush declared that the practice had stopped.
According to a research carried out by Reprieve, the
U.S. may have used as many as 17 ships as "floating prisons" since 2001, and
detainees are interrogated aboard the vessels and then rendered to other, often
undisclosed, locations.
The Reprieve research includes the account of a
prisoner released from Guantanamo Bay, who described a fellow inmate's story of
detention on an amphibious assault ship.
"One of my fellow prisoners in Guantanamo was at sea
on an American ship with about 50 others before coming to Guantanamo ...he was
in the cage next to me. He told me that there were about 50other people on the
ship. They were all closed off in the bottom of the ship. The prisoner commented
to me that it was like something you see on TV. The people held on the ship were
beaten even more severely than in Guantanamo."
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. We will eventually reunite these ghost
prisoners with their legal rights."
"By its own admission, the U.S. 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. The
U.S. 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," said the director.
Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP who chairs the
all-party parliamentary group on extraordinary rendition, called for the U.S.
and British governments to come clean over the holding of detainees.
"Little by little, the truth is coming out on
extraordinary rendition. The rest will come, in time. Better for governments to
be candid now, rather than later," said Tyries.
"Greater transparency will provide increased
confidence that President Bush's departure from justice and the rule of law in
the aftermath of Sept.11 is being reversed, and can help to win back the
confidence of moderate Muslim communities, whose support is crucial in tackling
dangerous extremism," he added.
Washington denied the operation of the "floating
prisons." A U.S. navy spokesman, Commander Jeffrey Gordon, told the Guardian
"there are no detention facilities on U.S. navy ships."
But he added that it was a matter of public record
that some individuals had been put on ships "for a few days" during what he
called the initial days of detention.
According to the report, ships that allegedly have
held prisoners include the USS Bataan and USS Peleliu, and a further 15ships are
suspected of operating around the British territory of Diego Garcia in the
Indian Ocean, which has been used as a military base by Britain and the United
States.
It is reported that the U.S. spy agency operates a
covert prison system covering eight countries for holding terror suspects, and
the locations of these prisons, so called "black sites," included Thailand,
Afghanistan and several East European countries as well as the U.S. naval base
in Guantanamo Bay.
WASHINGTON, May 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S.
Defense Department said on Tuesday that it was inviting news media
to cover the trial of five terrorist suspects in the U.S. Navy base
in Guantanamo, Cuba.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Pentagon would
allow about "four or five dozen" journalists and technical personnel from
domestic and international news organizations to witness the trial set on June
5. Full story
WASHINGTON, May 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Defense Secretary
Robert Gates said the U.S. government's efforts to close the U.S. military
prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have come to a "standstill" due to procedural
problems.
In a testimony before the Senate Appropriations defense
subcommittee on May 24, Gates said there are "about 70" detainees whom the
United States is prepared to send back to their home countries. Full story
