Some stats:
Deaths in Custody: 108 People Have Died in U.S. Custody, U.S. Government Acknowledges
The U.S. government has acknowledged 28 confirmed or suspected homicides of detainees in U.S. custody. Only one of these homicides occurred at Abu Ghraib.[1]
At least 45 detainees have died in U.S. custody since Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld was informed of the abuses at Abu Ghraib on January 16, 2004.[2]
63 of the 108 detainee deaths occurred at locations other than Abu Ghraib.[3]
Abu Ghraib – One Prison in a Wider Network
Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are two of the most well-known prisons, but they are just two sites in a much larger network of at least two dozen U.S. detention facilities.
There are six main acknowledged U.S. detention facilities worldwide—three in Iraq, two in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay;[4]
There are also approximately 25 transient facilities – field prisons designed to house detainees only for a short period until they can be released or transferred to a more permanent facility – in Afghanistan and Iraq.[5]
As of February 2005, roughly 65,000 people have been screened for possible detention, and about 30,000 of those were entered “into the system,” and assigned internment serial numbers in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, and Afghanistan.[6]
Secret Prisons, “Ghost Detainees”
In addition to Abu Ghraib and the five other acknowledged U.S. detention facilities worldwide, there are a number of other “secret” detention locations at which the United States has held, and continues to hold, prisoners. These have included CIA facilities in Afghanistan and Jordan, detention facilities in Alizai, Kohat and Peshawar in Pakistan, and detentions of prisoners on U.S. ships, particularly the USS Peleliu and USS Bataan.[7]
The United States continues to hold detainees in these and other “secret” facilities, not registering them with the International Committee of the Red Cross or allowing independent Red Cross observers to access and examine these detainees to make sure they are not being mistreated.[8]
A U.S. official, General Paul Kern, estimated that CIA has held as many as 100 ghost detainees in Iraq alone.[9]
The U.S. transferred at least one dozen prisoners out of Iraq in late 2003 and early 2004 for further interrogation in violation of the Geneva Conventions.[10]
Detentions Are On the Rise
The detainee population in Iraq has doubled in the past five months; the prison population today is at the same level it was when the abuses documented in the Abu Ghraib photos occurred. The rising numbers of detentions have strained the capacity of the main detention facilities in Iraq, a factor now-concluded Pentagon investigations identified as contributing to abuse such as that at Abu Ghraib.
More than 11,000 people are currently in U.S. detention in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
As of March 2005, there were 8,900 detainees in main facilities and 1,300 in transient facilities in Iraq.
The U.S. was holding approximately 600 detainees in Afghanistan.
There are approximately 520 detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.[11]
Torture Policies Still In Place
The numbers alone make clear the role that policy decisions have played – and continue to play – in facilitating the torture and abuse of U.S.-held detainees. Beyond the numbers:
In an April 16, 2003 directive, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld approved for use at Guantanamo interrogation techniques including prolonged solitary confinement and “environmental manipulation.” The April 2003 directive, authorizing treatment in violation of U.S. and international law, is still in effect. FBI memos released since the April 2003 directive was made public have charted the effects of this policy, describing detainees in frigid temperatures left chained to the floor, lying in their own excrement, in one case pulling his own hair out in response.[12]
The Administration ruled in 2002 that the Geneva Conventions do not generally apply in
Afghanistan; that policy remains in place. In addition, there are at least 325 foreign fighters detained in Iraq to whom the Administration says the Geneva Conventions do not apply.[13]
The Administration also takes the view that the prohibition against cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment does not apply to non-citizen prisoners the U.S. holds abroad. Attorney General Gonzales asserted incorrectly that “there is no legal obligation ... on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment with respect to aliens overseas.”[14]
A draft version of revised Army detention rules circulated last month maintains the Administration’s equivocal commitment to abiding by the Geneva Conventions; in one section, the draft implies that even the fundamental legal obligation to treat so-called “enemy combatants” humanely may be avoided at will in the general interest of “military necessity.”[15]
While Pentagon investigators cited the vagueness and confusion of these policies – if Geneva doesn’t apply, what does? – as contributing to the torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib, there remain at least three different sets of still ambiguous interrogation guidelines for Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay.[16]
The policy of outsourcing torture to other nations continues. An estimated 100 to 150 individuals have been rendered from U.S. custody to a foreign country known to torture prisoners, including to Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Pakistan.[17]
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/us_law/etn/statements/abu-yr-042605.htm
