Bagram - the granddaddy of US terror camps

The Bagram detention centre in Afghanistan makes others look like holiday camps, say those who have been there

FIRST POSTED FEBRUARY 9, 2009

Two and a half years ago, a grudge festered in a sleepy hamlet in eastern Afghanistan. Under a midday sun, American soldiers came to seize Musakhil Gahfor. According to his younger brother, an angry neighbour had tipped them off that Musakhil was stockpiling weapons. They found nothing but took their man anyway. It was the last his family would hear of him for five months.

Musakhil disappeared into Bagram Theatre Internment Facility - a US prison notorious for the interrogation techniques pioneered there and the subsequent torture and death of men in custody. American soldiers who served there would export what they learned to Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Twice the size of the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Bagram is the granddaddy of US terror camps.

Bagram inmates are held in ‘a previously undisclosed warren of isolation cells’

Musakhil is still languishing in Bagram. Word first came to his family of his whereabouts via the Red Cross, which traces the families of detainees and puts them back in touch. His younger brother Abdul has visited the organisation's compound in Kabul every two months to register for a 20-minute video-call - which, until last September, was as much contact as the US allowed. Access is increasing, with some relatives now able to visit the prison in person.

Human rights campaigners concede that conditions inside the prison have improved since Bagram's nadir around 2002. But a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross leaked last year maintained that conditions were still "harsh", that prisoners were held in "a previously undisclosed warren of isolation cells" and "sometimes subjected to cruel treatment in violation of the Geneva Conventions".

Most important, while President Obama has eagerly announced his intention to close Guantanamo Bay within a year, Bagram, where conditions are generally reported by former detainees to be worse than at Guantanamo, is actually being expanded.

‘They beat me with guns. They broke my head and threw me in the snow...’

Mullah Abdul Zaeef, who was Afghanistan's ambassador to Pakistan from 2000 until 2001, when the Taliban were in power in Kabul, spent a month in Bagram before being transported to detention facilities in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. Bagram was the worst, he said. "On the first day they beat me with sticks and guns and their feet and they broke my head and my shoulder," he told The First Post. Zaeef also claims that the guards stripped him naked and threw him into the snow until he lost consciousness. At no point was he offered medical attention.

Former detainees may have much to gain by exaggeration, but the treatment Zaeef

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I live in the US. I do watch our news but only FOX NEWS. I cannot believe I have not heard about Bagram. Our government keeps EVERYTHING from us! President Obama scares me. My sincere thanks for opening my eyes!

Posted by Michelle at 3:12pm on February 9, 2009

Sorry, but your first two sentences contradict each other - I'm referring to the 'cannot believe' part. I live in the UK and it is widely accepted here that the word 'NEWS' when used in 'FOX NEWS' is a joke, albeit in extremely poor taste, both here and in the US. To give it its due credit, it is a bottomless pit of comedic entertainment for those of us so inclined.

Posted by WhoDatDere at 4:30pm on February 9, 2009

"Bagram's capacity is being almost doubled to hold 1,100 illegal enemy combatants." The phrase "illegal enemy combatants" has no recognised meaning in international law. In reality, it refers to people arbitrarily held without trial. Why use it?

Posted by Alan Dawes at 10:20am on February 10, 2009

Michelle, dear, your colours are showing! Our UK friend is so right. NOBODY with intelligence takes FOX news seriously. We watch it only for the Image Awards, they happen to be one of the few channels which broadcast it. Read the NYT instead, Michelle, I am trusting that literacy is not a problem? And by the way, it was NOT Present Obama who founded Bagram and Guantanamo. I would hardly be surprised if you are one of the critics of his decision to close down the latter.

Posted by Yolande Agble at 10:38pm on February 12, 2009

I live in the US. My son works in Bagram, extending civilization, like food, medical care, electricity, education to one of the most barbaric sh*tholes on the planet, no charge, free from America. In exchange, the local Organization of Opium Farmers scurries around at night collecting weaponry, planting IED's, making suicide bomb vests for their kids, and cultivates some kind of [religion] that encourages overthrow of the western powers by violent means, and makes some pathetic attempts daily along those lines. Their quality of governance of their own populace is easily identifiable by walking down the street. When we 'detain' one of these criminals, the only information we require are 1) where are his friends; and 2) where does he keep his stuff so we can target it? Although I am in favor of reducing the capacity to one, then throwing his body out in the rubbish (like the torture room behind the throne room in Salzburg castle)

Posted by Dave McCrae at 2:29pm on February 15, 2009

Another one of Bush's dirty secrets. Very possibly FoxNews knew all about it, but never told its brainwashed viewers as not to tarnish the colors of their hero: "George dubya Bush." I trust that President Obama was informed of this and will look into this matter as he did with (Gitmo) Guantanamo-Cuba, and will equally enforce the rules there as well, of the Geneva Convention.

Posted by librophile at 5:53pm on March 22, 2009

"News" I forgot that all the information we receive from freelance journalist and/or News media is legit. Yet again people jump to conclusions that you don't truly have a feel for. Bagram October 2001 was a different place and the years after 9/11/01 there have been drastic improvements. Our mind set then was different and we where working with less at those times. I can speak with out doubt that things have changed greatly and those detainees are not treated in such a manner. What I will say is your tax $$$ is paying for medical care,teaching them to read and write and many other things. Doubling the #, well maybe that number has doubled due to more fighting, oh and the closing of the other facility in Kandahar in 2005. Fighting in the GHAN has always been bad. And now that our President is Pulling "combat troops" out of Iraq we can shift our news media to the GHAN. There are plenty of detainees that need to be in Gitmo as well as the facilities in Iraq. Oh and as for the new facility that is Afghan ran its called Policharki. And the detainees know that and know that they don't want to go there bc the Afghans will not be as kind. NYT. Fox News, CNN whatever its all a picture someone else is painting and unless you've been shot out and dealt with these people then you are greatly uninformed! But then again only 1% of Americans can understand There called US service Members. As well as Veterans that have listened to people who just don't know!

Posted by Mike Yarbrough at 2:40pm on July 24, 2009

I must disagree with this article. There is CONSTANT medical care given to Bagram detainees, ANYTIME THEY ASK FOR IT! They are free to practice their religion, they are fed better than what they are when they are free. They are treated better than our own military is by our higher ups. So don't give me this load of lies. The majority of detainees that are handed over to the ANA(Afghan National Army) are killed within a few hours. I am tired of my brothers and sisters coming back into society and being spit on by a bunch of left wing extremists. And as for the ICRC (International Commitee of the Red Cross), our soldiers have been greatly complimented for the way they run things by these people. So don't try to spread these lies. you may not ever understand, but anyone who ever walks into those walls will forever know the truth behind them.

Posted by Cody Meridith at 7:09pm on October 22, 2009