Where are they? What happened to them?

They're just gone.

I'd like to tell you more about them -- where they are, what their condition is -- but I don't know. Nobody except the military and intelligence community of the US, and its international partners in Europe, Asia and Africa knows where these people are or what's become of them.

The USA inherited a principle and fundament from English common law called habeas corpus. When the government imprisons or detains a person, a writ of habeas corpus asks a judge to order the government to bring that person to court, and order the government to explain the legal circumstances of the person's detention or imprisonment.

Habeas corpus is not a "Get Out of Jail Free" card.

But habeas corpus guarantees that people cannot just vanish at the government's whim, convenience, or secret, unaccountable desire.

Americans revere Abraham Lincoln above almost all historical figures. But two stains have followed his presidency during the American Civil War (1861-1865):

* He authorized criminal trials of civilians by military tribunals

* He suspended the right of habeas corpus

Now once again, the executive branch of the US government -- led by President George Bush -- has suspended habeas corpus protection against indefinite and secret detention. The US government can make anyone disappear, and our laws have been weakened and modified during The War on Terror so that no authority can force the government to produce these vanished people.

To most Americans, habeas corpus is an obscure Latin legal phrase we had to pass a high school test about. Then it never touched our lives again. In America, people just don't disappear after the government knocks on their door. That's something we associate with Soviet-era Russia, or Nazi-era Germany and occupied Europe. That's a phenomenon we remember from Latin America's "dirty wars" of the 1980s. In Chile, the Pinochet military junta just flew detainees over the Pacific Ocean and tossed them out of Air Force planes.

Without habeas corpus, these 39 people may never be seen or heard from again. Amnesty International and several prestigious international human rights partner organizations want to know what became of them.

You should want to know what became of them, too. You should very much want to know.

Because if they stay vanished, and more people keep vanishing in "The War on Terror," and the government's power to make human beings vanish is never effectively challenged, who will have the right to ask what happened to you if you disappear? What judge will have the power to demand that the government produce you, physically, in person, in a court of law?

====================

The Associated Press
(pickup in Forbes magazine)
Thursday 7 June 2007

Human rights coalition asks:
What has USA done with 39 detainees?

by Raphael G. Satter

A coalition of human rights groups has drawn up a list of 39 terror suspects it believes are being secretly imprisoned by U.S. authorities and published their names in a report released Thursday.

Information about the so-called "ghost detainees" was gleaned from interviews with former prisoners and officials in the U.S., Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen, according to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and four other groups.

"What we're asking is where are these 39 people now, and what's happened to them since they 'disappeared'?" Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said "there's a lot of myth outside government when it comes to the CIA and the fight against terror."

"The plain truth is that we act in strict accord with American law, and that our counterterror initiatives - which are subject to careful review and oversight - have been very effective in disrupting plots and saving lives," Gimigliano said. "The United States does not conduct or condone torture."

Information on the purported missing detainees was, in some cases, incomplete, the report acknowledged. Some detainees had been added to the list because Marwan Jabour, an Islamic militant who claims to have spent two years in CIA custody, remembered being shown photos of them during interrogations, it said.

Others were identified only by their first or last names, like "al-Rubaia," who was added to the list after a fellow inmate reported seeing the name scribbled onto the wall of his cell.

But information for at least 21 of the detainees had been confirmed by two or more independent sources, said Anne Fitzgerald, a senior adviser for Amnesty International.

President Bush acknowledged the existence of secret detention centers in September 2006, but said that the prisons were then empty.

Bush said 14 terrorism suspects that the CIA had been holding, including a mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, had been transferred to military custody at Guantanamo Bay for trials.

Fitzgerald said she wasn't convinced that the sites were ever emptied, and claimed a program of secret detentions was ongoing.

"We wanted (the detainees') names in the public eye because of the impression that this is over, this is finished, and they're not doing this anymore," Fitzgerald said. "That's clearly not the case."

Detainees on the list include Hassan Ghul and Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi al-Ghamdi, who were both named in the 9-11 Commission report as al-Qaida operatives.

Another is Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, a jihadist ideologue named as one of the FBI's "Most Wanted Terrorists." U.S. officials have confirmed that Nasar was seized in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta in November 2005, and the activists' report said that he was taken into U.S. custody after his arrest, citing unnamed Pakistani officials. His current location is unknown.

Also missing is Mohammed Omar Abdel-Rahman, the son of the Omar Abdel-Rahman, the "Blind Sheik" behind the first plot against the World Trade Center in New York, the report said.

Most of the 35 other detainees mentioned in the report have been previously identified, with the exception of four Libyans, alleged members of the al-Qaida-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.

The report says they were handed to U.S. authorities and have not been heard from since.

The four other groups involved in drafting the report were the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University's School of Law, and Reprieve and Cageprisoners -- both London-based rights groups.

- 30 -

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

===========

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE

AI Index: AMR 51/099/2007 (Public)
News Service No: 102
7 June 2007

Embargo Date: 7 June 2007 04:01 GMT

Leading human rights groups
name 39 CIA
“disappeared” detainees

Three groups file lawsuit seeking information about “ghost” detention

Amnesty International, Cageprisoners, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law, Human Rights Watch, and Reprieve

(London and New York, 7 June 2007) -- In the most comprehensive accounting to date, six leading human rights organizations today published the names and details of 39 people who are believed to have been held in secret US custody and whose current whereabouts remain unknown. The briefing paper also names relatives of suspects who were themselves detained in secret prisons, including children as young as seven.

In a related action, three of the groups filed a lawsuit in US federal court under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) seeking the disclosure of information concerning “disappeared” detainees.

The 21-page briefing paper, Off the Record: U.S. Responsibility for Enforced Disappearances in the “War on Terror”, includes detailed information about four people named as “disappeared” prisoners for the first time. The full list of people includes nationals from countries including Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan and Spain. They are believed to have been arrested in countries including Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia and Sudan, and transferred to secret US detention centres.

The list—drafted by Amnesty International (AI), Cageprisoners, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law (CHRGJ), Human Rights Watch (HRW), and Reprieve — draws together information from government and media sources, as well as from interviews with former prisoners and other witnesses.

Off the Record highlights aspects of the CIA detention programme that the US government has actively tried to conceal, such as the locations where prisoners may have been held, the mistreatment they endured, and the countries to which they may have been transferred.

It reveals how suspects’ relatives, including wives and children as young as seven, have been held in secret detention. In September 2002 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s two young sons, aged seven and nine, were arrested. According to eyewitnesses, the two were held in an adult detention centre for at least four months while US agents questioned the children about their father’s whereabouts.

Similarly, when Tanzanian national Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was seized in Gujarat, Pakistan, in July 2004, his Uzbek wife was detained with him.

The human rights groups are calling on the US government to put a permanent end to the CIA’s secret detention and interrogation programme, and to disclose the identities, fate, and whereabouts of all detainees currently or previously held at secret facilities operated or overseen by the US government as part of the “war on terror”.

In a related action, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), CCR and the International Human Rights Clinic of NYU School of Law today filed a lawsuit in US federal court under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) seeking disclosure of information concerning “disappeared” detainees, including “ghost” and unregistered prisoners. AIUSA, CCR and the NYU International Human Rights Clinic filed FOIA requests with several US government agencies, including the Departments of Justice and Defense, and the CIA. These FOIA requests sought information about individuals who are — or have been — held by, or with the involvement of, the US government, where there is no public record of the detentions. Though a few departments produced documents containing little relevant information, no agency provided a list of secretly-held detainees or an assessment of the legality of the secret programme.

The documents that the groups are seeking are known to exist. President George W. Bush publicly acknowledged the existence of CIA-operated secret prisons in September 2006; 14 detainees from these facilities were transferred to Guantánamo, and the US Department of Justice has issued an analysis concluding that the secret detention programme is legal.

Yet information about the location of the prisons, identity of the prisoners, and the types of interrogation methods used has never been publicly revealed. This prevents scrutiny by the public or the courts, and leaves detainees vulnerable to abuses that include torture and other ill-treatment.

The secrecy surrounding the programme also means that no one outside the US government knows exactly how many prisoners have been detained and how many remain “disappeared”. The transfer in April 2007 of Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi from CIA custody to Guantánamo indicates that the programme continues to operate, although some prisoners may have been transferred to prisons in other countries, possibly as a form of proxy detention. Off the Record indicates that some missing detainees may have been moved to countries where they face the risk of torture and where they continue to be held secretly, without charge or trial.

Interviews with prisoners who have been released from secret CIA prisons indicate that low-level detainees have frequently been arrested far from any battlefield, and held in isolation for years without legal recourse or contact with their families or outside agencies. Those who have been released have received no acknowledgment of their detention or any legal or financial redress.

Quotes:

* Clive Stafford Smith, Legal Director of Reprieve, said: “It’s time for the US government to come clean: these 39 people have been missing for years, and the evidence shows they were in US custody at some point. Where are they and what has been done to them?”

* Joanne Mariner, Terrorism and Counterterrorism Director at Human Rights Watch, said: “What we’re asking is where are these 39 people now, and what’s happened to them since they ‘disappeared’? It is already a serious abuse to hold them in secret CIA prisons. Now we fear they may have been transferred to countries where they face further secret detention and abuse.”

* Professor Meg Satterthwaite, Faculty Director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law, said: “Since the end of Latin America's dirty wars, the world has rejected the use of 'disappearances' as a fundamental violation of international law. Despite this universal condemnation, our research shows that the United States has tried to vanish both the people on this list, and the rule of law. The United States cannot ignore human rights by hiding detainees in shadowy black sites. Enforced disappearances are illegal, regardless of who carries them out.”

* Vincent Warren, Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said: “Our client Majid Khan was subjected to torture and abuse while in secret CIA detention for three years. His family didn't know if he was alive, let alone where he was. The only reason to make someone disappear is to be able to operate outside the law and hidden from public view. Ghost detention is incompatible with basic respect for human rights and the rule of law. The US government must cease this shameful practice at once.”

* Moazzam Begg, Spokesman for Cageprisoners and former Guantánamo detainee, said: “Representing individuals detained by the world’s most powerful democracy has become more of an exercise in chasing ghosts than it is about providing justice. Concepts such as habeas corpus bear no meaning to those being detained in black sites or darker more sinister holes. For many of those detained, simply gaining the right to speak the truth unhindered by the need to escape the signing of a false confession means more than the fact they have been detained.”

* Claudio Cordone, Senior Director for Research at Amnesty International, said: “The duty of governments to protect people from acts of terrorism is not in question. But seizing men, women and even children, and placing people in secret locations deprived of the most basic safeguards for any detainees most definitely is. The US Administration must end this illegal and morally repugnant practice once and for all.”

Contacts
Amnesty International
London - Josefina Salomon, T: +44 207 413 5562, M: +44 7778 472 116, jsalomon@amnesty.org
Washington - Sharon Singh, T: +1 202 544 0200 x 289, M: + 1 202 459 8703, ssingh@aiusa.org
Washington – Gwen Fitzgerald, T: +1 202 544 0200 x206, M: +1 240 462 9076 fitzgerald@aiusa.org

Cageprisoners, London
Moazzam Begg, Spokesman, P: +44 787 509 0494, moazzam.begg@cageprisoners.com
Asim Qureshi, Researcher in International Law, P: +447973264197, asim.q@cageprisoners.com
Maryam Hassan, Executive Director, contact@cageprisoners.com

Center for Constitutional Rights, New York
Jen Nessel, P: +1 212 614 6449, JNessel@ccr-ny.org
Vincent Warren, Executive Director, P: +212 614 6449 VWarren@ccr-ny.org

Center for Human Rights & Global Justice, New York
Prof. Meg Satterthwaite, Faculty Director, P: +1 212 998 6657, M: +1-347-277-5035, margaret.satterthwaite@nyu.edu;
Jayne Huckerby, Research Director, P: + 1 212 992 8903, M: + 1 212 203 6410, huckerby@juris.law.nyu.edu

Human Rights Watch

Reprieve, London
Clive Stafford Smith, Becky Hewitt and Laura Brodie, P: +44 207 131 3609; info@reprieve.org.uk

Public Document
****************************************
For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW. web: http://www.amnesty.org

For latest human rights news view http://news.amnesty.org

==========

Amnesty International
"Working to protect human rights worldwide"

'Off the record'
secret CIA detention

At least 39 individuals who remain missing are believed to have been subjected to enforced disappearance by the US authorities. The wives and children of other detainees in secret CIA custody have also been held in custody and interrogated, either as potential sources of information or to secure the capture of their husband or father.

Based on research by six leading human rights groups - Amnesty International, Cageprisoners, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and NYU School of Law, Human Rights Watch and Reprieve -, the briefing paper Off the Record provides the most comprehensive account of these 39 individuals' apprehension and detention to date, including four missing detainees here identified for the first time.

Related materials
Press release: Leading human rights groups name 39 CIA 'disappeared' detainees

Report: Off the Record - U.S. Responsibility for Enforced Disappearances in the 'war on terror'

Video: Interview with Rabia Khan, the wife of Majid Khan, transferred to Guantánamo from secret CIA custody

Video: Interview with Moazzam Begg, unlawfully detained in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay for 3 years

Feature: USA: Government must end all secret detention and guarantee fair trials

The full list includes cases of nationals from countries including Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Pakistan, Kenya and Spain. They were arrested in countries including Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Somalia and Sudan, and transferred to secret sites run by the US government.

In many cases, the current fate and whereabouts of detainees included on the list are completely unknown. In other cases, some speculative information has emerged in the press or through research and investigation.

In all cases, the US government’s silence has created grave uncertainty. The US government must end the use of secret detention, clarify the fate and whereabouts of all people who have been secretly detained and allow them access to their families and to adequate legal process.

The US has the duty to detain and bring to justice anyone responsible for crimes but it must do so in a manner that respects human rights and the rule of law.

You can make a difference.