US could continue Afghan detention

The US military has drawn up plans to continue holding Afghan prisoners it deems a threat in a "unilateral" prison complex on Bagram airbase even after it hands control of the main detention facility to the Afghan government next year. US military authorities are expecting to retain control part of the existing Bagram prison to hold "security threats," as well as prisoners who were arrested outside the country and flown into Afghanistan on rendition flights, according to the admiral in charge of overseeing US detention operations in the country. Vice-Admiral Robert Harward, the head of Joint Task Force 435, which runs US detentions in Afghanistan, was quoted on Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal admitting that the handover of Bagram was not expected to include all the prisoners currently being held there. "I anticipate having a subset of unilateral US detention operations, including Pakistanis we can't repatriate and enduring security threats," the admiral said. The prisoners would be held in one of Bagram's blocks which would remain under the control of the US military. The proposal has been slammed by legal campaigners, who say that it would effectively see dozens of prisoners held beyond the rule of law with no clear means of challenging their detention. "This proposal for a US 'prison within a prison' at Bagram reveals that the operative principle at the heart of Obama's overseas detention policy is to maintain a clear continuity with the worst practices of the Bush-era," said Clara Gutteridge, deputy director of the secret prisons and renditions team at the legal charity Reprieve.