Group: U.S. Detention Facilities Hold More than 11,000 in Iraq, Afghanista

[liveoaktx]

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=45023
Increasing Numbers Held in Trailers and Barbed Wire Where Abuse is More Likely

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"The numbers we're detaining now are essentially where they were in 2003 when we saw the worst torture and abuse occurring in U.S. custody overseas," said Deborah Pearlstein, Director of the U.S. Law and Security Program at Human Rights First. "It was in part these stresses on capacity that the Pentagon's own investigators cited as contributing to the gross abuses the Abu Ghraib pictures revealed," Pearlstein said.

In Iraq, the United States is now detaining a record 10,200 people, more than double the number held five months ago. The number of detainees held in Afghanistan also appears to be on the rise. Individuals detained in Afghanistan by U.S. forces rose from 350 in June of 2004 to 500 in January of 2005. No numbers on Afghanistan are available since January 2005 since the Department of Defense has introduced a policy of classifying information related to U.S. detentions in Afghanistan, including the number of detainees held and the specific legal basis for their detentions.

"One of the concerning developments we're seeing as U.S. detention operations in these places mature is a trend toward greater secrecy, not less," Pearlstein said. Behind the Wire updates a report Human Rights First issued in June 2004 on the scope and nature of U.S. global detention operations in the "war on terrorism."

"(T)he scrutiny of the past nine months has still failed to produce full answers to many of the most basic questions posed in our original report," the Report says. "Far from diminishing in importance as U.S. missions in Afghanistan and Iraq mature, these questions are becoming more urgent as U.S. detention operations appear to be picking up permanence and pace."
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[74dodgedart]

1. Due Process ?

How many have been charged and tried ?