Bagram torture and prisoner abuse

thumb|300px|right|A [[sally port used in the transfer of internees to and from the 12-man cells during the nine years that the "temporary" facility was in use]]

In 2005, The New York Times obtained a 2,000-page United States Army investigatory report concerning the homicides of two unarmed civilian Afghan prisoners by U.S. military personnel in December 2002 at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility (also Bagram Collection Point or B.C.P., now the Parwan Detention Facility) in Bagram, Afghanistan, and general treatment of prisoners. Two prisoners, Habibullah and Dilawar, were repeatedly chained to the ceiling and beaten, resulting in their deaths. Military coroners ruled that both prisoners' deaths were homicides. Autopsies revealed severe trauma to both prisoners' legs, describing the trauma as comparable to being run over by a bus. Seven soldiers were charged in 2005.

Hajimumin, another prisoner, told Al Jazeera that they tied them to chairs and applied electric shocks for 30 seconds a time for torture purposes.

Location

thumb|The former hospital on-base where lawyer [[Dennis Edney alleges abuse of Omar Khadr began]]

The torture and homicides allegedly took place at the military detention center known as the Bagram Theater Internment Facility, which had been built by the Soviet Union as an aircraft machine shop during the Soviet–Afghan War (1980–1989), which was a concrete-and-sheet metal facility that was retrofitted with wire pens and wooden isolation cells; the center was part of Bagram Airfield in Bagram, near Charikar in Parwan Province, Afghanistan.

Detainees

In January 2010, the American military released the names of 645 detainees held at the main detention center at Bagram, modifying its long-held position against publishing such information. This was to comply with a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in September 2009 by the American Civil Liberties Union, whose lawyers had also demanded detailed information about conditions, rules, and regulations at the center.

Victims

Habibullah

Habibullah died on December 4, 2002. Several U.S. soldiers hit the chained man with so-called "peroneal strikes", or severe blows to the side of the leg above the knee. This incapacitates the leg by hitting the common peroneal nerve. According to The New York Times:

Dilawar

thumb|A sketch showing how Dilawar was chained to the ceiling of his cell by Thomas V. Curtis, a former [[Sergeant#United States|sergeant in the Reserve United States Army Military Police Corps]]

Dilawar, who died on December 10, 2002, was a 22-year-old Afghan taxi driver and farmer who weighed 122 pounds and was described by his interpreters as neither violent nor aggressive.

When beaten, he repeatedly cried "Allah". The outcry appears to have amused U.S. military personnel. The act of striking him to provoke a scream of "Allah" eventually "became a kind of running joke", according to one of the MP's. "People kept showing up to give this detainee a common peroneal strike just to hear him scream out 'Allah'", he said. "It went on over a 24-hour period, and I would think that it was over 100 strikes."

The Times reported that:

Aafia Siddiqui/Prisoner 650

Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani citizen educated in the United States as a neuroscientist, was suspected of the attempted assault and killing of U.S. personnel in Afghanistan. She disappeared in 2003 with her three children. She was allegedly detained for five years at Bagram with her children; she was the only female prisoner. She was known to the male detainees as "Prisoner 650". The media dubbed her the "Mata Hari of al-Qaida" or the "Grey Lady of Bagram". Yvonne Ridley says that Siddiqui is the "Grey Lady of Bagram" – a ghostly female detainee, who kept prisoners awake "with her haunting sobs and piercing screams". In 2005, male prisoners were so agitated by her plight, Ridley said, that they went on a hunger strike for six days. Siddiqui's family maintains that she was abused at Bagram.

Binyam Mohamed

Mohamed immigrated to the U.K. from Ethiopia in 1994 and sought asylum. In 2001, he converted to Islam and travelled to Pakistan, followed by Afghanistan, to see if the Taliban-run Afghanistan was "a good Islamic country". U.S. authorities believed that he was a would-be bomber who fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan. Pakistani immigration officials arrested him at the airport in April 2002 before he returned to the U.K., and Mohamed has said officials have used evidence gained through torture in sites in Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan between 2002 and 2004, before he was "secretly rendered" to the U.S. Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. In October 2008, the U.S. dropped all charges against him. Mohamed was reported as very ill as a result of a hunger strike in the weeks before his release. In February 2009, Mohamed was interviewed by Moazzam Begg, a fellow Bagram detainee and founder of CagePrisoners, an organization to help released detainees. Mohamad identified a photo of Aafia Siddiqui as the woman whom he and other male detainees had seen at Bagram, known as "Prisoner 650".

Others

Mohammed Sulaymon Barre, a Somali refugee who worked for a funds transfer company, described his Bagram interrogation as "torture". Barre said he was picked up and thrown around the interrogation room when he would not confess to a false allegation. He was put into an isolation chamber that was maintained at a piercingly cold temperature for several weeks, and deprived of sufficient rations during this period. As a result of this treatment, his hands and feet swelled, causing him such excruciating pain that he could not stand up.

Zalmay Shah, a citizen of Afghanistan, alleges mistreatment during detention at Bagram air base. An article published in the May 2, 2007, issue of The New Republic contained excerpts from an interview with Shah.

Investigation and prosecution

In October 2004, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command concluded that there was probable cause to charge 27 officers and enlisted personnel with criminal offenses in the Dilawar case, ranging from dereliction of duty to maiming and involuntary manslaughter. Fifteen of the soldiers were also cited for probable criminal responsibility in the Habibullah case. Seven soldiers have been charged so far. According to an article published in the October 15, 2004, by The New York Times, 28 soldiers were under investigation. Some of the soldiers were reservists in the 377th Military Police Company under the command of Captain Christopher M. Beiring. The rest were in the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion under the command of Captain Carolyn A. Wood.

On October 14, 2004, the Criminal Investigation Command forwarded its report from its investigation to the commanders of 28 soldiers.

As of January 20, 2012, 17 soldiers have been charged (15 of which listed).

{| class="wikitable"

! style="width:20%;"| Soldier || style="width:10%;"| Unit || style="width:70%;"| Charges

| Sgt. James P. Boland || 377th MP ||

Charged in August 2004 with assault, maltreatment of a detainee, and dereliction of duty for alleged conduct in connection with treatment of a detainee on December 10, 2002, at Bagram. He was charged with a second specification of dereliction of duty in the death on December 3, 2002, of another detainee. All charges were dropped. He was given a letter of reprimand and eventually left the Army.

| Pfc. Willie V. Brand || 377th MP ||

Charged with involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, simple assault, maiming, maltreatment, and making a false sworn statement. Convicted in August 2005, of assault, maltreatment, making a false sworn statement, and maiming, charges involving Dilawar. Acquitted on charges involving Habibullah. Reduced to the rank of private.

| Sgt. Anthony Morden || 377th MP ||

Charged with assault, maltreatment, and making a false official statement. pleaded guilty. Sentenced to 75 days of confinement, reduction to the rank of private, and a bad-conduct discharge.

| Sgt. Christopher W. Greatorex || 377th MP ||

Acquitted of charges of abuse, maltreatment and making a false official statement.

| Sgt. Darin M. Broady || 377th MP ||

Acquitted of charges of assault, maltreatment and making a false official statement.

| Capt. Christopher M. Beiring || 377th MP ||

Charged with dereliction of duty and making a false official statement.
All charges dropped on 6 January 2006.
Given a letter of reprimand.

| Staff Sgt. Brian L. Doyle || 377th MP ||

Charged on October 13, 2005
Acquitted of dereliction of duty and maltreatment.

| Sgt. Alan J. Driver || 377th MP ||

Charged with assault.
Acquitted Thursday February 23, 2006.

| Spc. Nathan Adam Jones

| Spc. Glendale C. Walls || 519th MI ||