Naming Bagram’s Detainees

After a request by the ACLU for information, the U.S. has released the list of detainees at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, a move the ACLU calls an “important step toward transparency and accountability” for the secret prison site. —JCL

New York Times:

The announcement came as political wrestling over the leadership of the government continued, with the Afghan Parliament again turning down many of President Hamid Karzai’s nominees for cabinet ministers.

The release of the detainee list was prompted by a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in September by the American Civil Liberties Union, whose lawyers had also demanded detailed information about conditions, rules and regulations at the prison.

“Releasing the names of those held at Bagram is an important step toward transparency and accountability at the secretive Bagram prison, but it is just a first step,” Melissa Goodman, a lawyer for the A.C.L.U., said in a statement.

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U.S. Air Force / Staff Sgt. Derrick C. Good

Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan houses a secret detention camp that inmates call the “black jail” because it is closed to outside groups such as the Red Cross.