US accused of holding terror suspects on prison ships

Human rights lawyers are claiming that the US is operating a series of floating prisons, utilising prison ships in an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees.

Details of ships where detainees have been held and sites allegedly being used in countries across the world have been compiled as the debate over detention without trial intensifies on both sides of the Atlantic. The US government was yesterday urged to list the names and whereabouts of all those detained.

Information about the operation of prison ships has emerged through a number of sources, including statements from the US military, the Council of Europe and related parliamentary bodies, and the testimonies of prisoners.

The analysis, due to be published this year by the human rights organisation Reprieve, also claims there have been more than 200 new cases of rendition since 2006, when President George Bush declared that the practice had stopped.

It is the use of ships to detain prisoners, however, that is raising fresh concern and demands for inquiries in Britain and the US.

According to research carried out by Reprieve, the US may have used as many as 17 ships as "floating prisons" since 2001. Detainees are interrogated aboard the vessels and then rendered to other, often undisclosed, locations, it is claimed.

This is one of the many reasons why such a great number of Europeans yearn for the day that Barack Obama takes over as US president and brings these disgusting practices to an end.

We want America back. We want a US who would never dream of behaving like a third world dictatorship, no matter what the circumstances.

It's hard when reading the following to believe that we are discussing the USA at all:

Reprieve will raise particular concerns over the activities of the USS Ashland and the time it spent off Somalia in early 2007 conducting maritime security operations in an effort to capture al-Qaida terrorists.

At this time many people were abducted by Somali, Kenyan and Ethiopian forces in a systematic operation involving regular interrogations by individuals believed to be members of the FBI and CIA. Ultimately more than 100 individuals were "disappeared" to prisons in locations including Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Guantánamo Bay.

I mean the use of the word "disappeared" when referring to prisoners is the kind of thing one associates with dictatorships, it's certainly not a word that one would expect to come across in relation to the world's leading democracy and sole superpower.

And yet, under the leadership of George W Bush, such words are now routinely used to describe people held by the US.

What is the need for such secrecy? If the US has proof against these men why can't this evidence simply be presented before a court of law?

Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve's legal director, said: "They choose ships to try to keep their misconduct as far as possible from the prying eyes of the media and lawyers. We will eventually reunite these ghost prisoners with their legal rights.

"By its own admission, the US government is currently detaining at least 26,000 people without trial in secret prisons, and information suggests up to 80,000 have been 'through the system' since 2001. The US government must show a commitment to rights and basic humanity by immediately revealing who these people are, where they are, and what has been done to them."

26,000 people are currently being denied the basic right of Habeas corpus. People should be marching in the streets over this, but we appear to have become overwhelmed by the illegality of the Bush administration and beaten into submission. The British Labour government which, according to it's traditions, should be loudly opposing what is taking place, acts as if it is a silent partner.

Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on extraordinary rendition, called for the US and UK governments to come clean over the holding of detainees.

"Little by little, the truth is coming out on extraordinary rendition. The rest will come, in time. Better for governments to be candid now, rather than later. Greater transparency will provide increased confidence that President Bush's departure from justice and the rule of law in the aftermath of September 11 is being reversed, and can help to win back the confidence of moderate Muslim communities, whose support is crucial in tackling dangerous extremism."

The Liberal Democrat's foreign affairs spokesman, Edward Davey, said: "If the Bush administration is using British territories to aid and abet illegal state abduction, it would amount to a huge breach of trust with the British government. Ministers must make absolutely clear that they would not support such illegal activity, either directly or indirectly."

Where I disagree with Andrew Tyrie is in the notion that trust is merely being lost amongst the moderate Muslim communities. Trust is actually being eroded across the board amongst everyone who believes in civil liberties and the basic rule of law.

The Bush administration has been an abomination and I feel sure one day books will be written about this disgraceful period in American history.

However, when history condemns Bush and Cheney for what they have done, a special chapter should be set aside to discuss Blair and Brown and the silent complicity they offered as human rights were shredded.

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Tags: Bush, Cheney, Guantanamo Bay, disappeared, prisoners, war on terror, Habeas corpus, Blair, Brown, prisoners of war