The UN prepares for the opening of an investigation of clandestine detention centers used by the CIA as part of the “war on terror,” according to the agency’s spokesperson on torture. “We call on all governments to cooperate, not only to clarify the facts, but also so that no secret detention facilities will be used in the future,” said Manfred Nowak. Nowak has described the use of prisons by the CIA after September 11 as ‘one of the most horrible.’

UN experts have expressed confidence that US President Barack Obama will put an end to the mandate and practice of illegally transferring terrorist suspects for interrogation under torture. In this regard, he argued that the previous US government used such transfers of detainees to secret detention centers.

According to Nowak, detainees were sent to countries known to practice torture. Similarly, the UN spokesperson on counter-terrorism, Martin Scheinin, said that with the new administration in Washington, people can expect real change in ending the most horrendous forms of the practice of transfers. In this regard, Scheinin added that “in some countries, the intelligence service is a state within a state” with little outside control of their activities.

Yet another chapter of this war on terror is about to be disclosed, hopefully revealing soon to the world the complex machinery that had been in place to address the matter of terror, especially post-9/11.

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Via France24

The US CIA secret prisons in Guantanamo, Cuba is more than an incarceration edifice, it is an entire culture of military impunity in handling suspected enemies of the state. The Guantanamo prison will close but another one of such kind and culture exists at the US military base in Bagram, Afghanistan which is 40 miles to Kabul, the country’s capital. If Gitmo has 250 detainees, Bagram houses 670 suspects. The current Bagram Theater Internment Facility will be renovated to be able to accommodate 1,100 detainees in emergency situations, and will be isolated on the remote portion of the 4,000-acre US base. Obama will have his own Gitmo.

In 2002, news leaked that two Afghan detainees were beaten to death by guards at the military detention center inside the base. This became the controversial investigation into Afghan prisoner abuse cases. In October 2004, the US Army Criminal Investigation Command recommended the prosecution of 27 officers and enlisted personnel for criminal offenses related to the prisoner abuse. Torture has remained to this day as a strategic interrogation tactic, though.

According to the New York Times, one of the two Afghan detainees was tethered to the ceiling of an isolation cell by two sets of handcuffs and a chain around his waist. He had taken at least 9 peroneal strikes. The other Afghan prisoner, a 22-year-old cab driver and farmer who weighed 122 pounds, was dealt with the same peroneal strikes over a period of 24 hours, his body amassing over 100 strikes. Peroneal strikes are severe blows to the side of the leg above the knee and destroying the peroneal nerve, rendering the leg incapacitated. It is a known torture tactic.

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Via TIME

Pakistan has exhibited lackadaisical measures to stem terrorism. This has resulted in the country’s negative reputation of being a coddler of terrorists. Ergo, a hotbed of terrorism. India calls this treatment as ‘catch and release’ approach to the problem. Pakistan just goes through the motions of temporary detentions and light prosecutions, and then releases the suspects after a few months. Is Pakistan really a coddler of terrorists or is it just a case of gross ineptness?

Pakistan may yet be harboring another secret, though. The country has its own secret prisons system, much like the US Guantanamo. The prosecutions that happen in open courts may not necessarily be the only way as to how terrorists are being investigated while under lock and key. The Army and the I.S.I are said to be running an anti-terrorism campaign that is not known to the public and with no judicial ties.

That is why Pakistan has had a reputation for loose criminal justice system. Its intelligence arm sounds nefarious itself, sort of underground and vigilante in nature. So long as the pillars of the justice system are not brought up to the surface where proceedings are apparent to all, Pakistan will remain hogging a bad rep of a Third World country where justice is only aspirational. Terrorists exist in Pakistan, either using the country as their half-way point or comfortable lair. It is entirely up to the country to process the stigma that close association with terrorists has brought to it. For starters, it can overhaul its anti-criminality ranks and imbue them with credibility for a change.

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Via The New Yorker