'Terrorist'='Trafficked to the US for a $78k Pakistani-equivalent bounty'? [View All]

[ProgressiveEconomist]

Would knowing about huge money incentives for mislabeling people as 'terrorists', and about hundreds of 'terrorists' already released from Guantanamo because it was decided they had been wrongly charged, change any minds about torturing 'terrorists'?

Amnesty International says (see http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20496534-1702,00.html , an Amnesty International press release at http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGASA330382006 , and a GD thread at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2253704 ):

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'"The road to Guantanamo very literally starts in Pakistan," said Amnesty's Claudio Cordone, commenting on the report. "Hundreds of people have been picked up in mass arrests, many have been sold to the USA as 'terrorists' simply on the word of their captor, and hundreds have been transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Bagram Airbase (a US base in Afghanistan) or secret detention centres run by the USA," he said....

"A large number of war on terror detainees have been literally sold into US hands by bounty hunters who have received cash payments in return, typically $US5000 ... ," it said....

The report said that 300 people - previously labelled as "terrorists" and "killers" by the US government - have since been released from Guantanamo Bay without charge, the majority to Pakistan or Afghanistan. "Many detainees remain unaccounted for, their fate and whereabouts unknown," it said, saying they include a baby and a 13-year-old Saudi boy called Talha, according to reports. "More than two years later, nothing is known about the fate and whereabouts of Talha and the other children and women," said Amnesty."'

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GDP per capita at purchasing power parity in the US ($41,399) is 15.6 times what it is in Pakistan ($2,653), according to IMF estimates for 2005 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita.

Multiplying the typical $5,000 bounty for a so-called terrorist makes the Pakistani equivalent amount $78,023.