The handover of Bagram and other detention centers to the Afghan government came with a lot of US warnings not to release detainees, but with huge numbers held without any evidence against them, the courts have had little choice but to turn them loose.
That’s infuriated the US, and officials are now warning that it is threatening talks on a long-term American occupation, and could convince the US to follow through with its empty threats to withdraw outright.
The Afghan government has released 650 detainees from Bagram so far, and that’s 85% of the ones they’ve reviewed. US officials say that many of them have “American blood on their hands.”
That’s the claim, but there’s no evidence to back it up, and while the US claims “ample evidence” that freed insurgents return to the battlefield, they have no evidence that the guys they’re holding were insurgents in the first place.
That was never a problem for the US, which has grown unsettlingly comfortable with open-ended detention without charges or evidence. The Afghan government’s own fledgling legal system is having a harder time justifying keeping people locked up without at least a little evidence of wrongdoing, however, and that core difference is going to be a source of ongoing tension between the two nations.
So Afghan justice is closer to established principles than that practiced by the US? This would be amusing if it weren't so sad.
What about Afghan blood on 'their hands'.
Afghan blood? You must be kidding. They're not white people! They're not exceptional. They're just garbage people. They don't count.
That's unamerican, to release people because there is no evidence of any guilt!
It's perfectly legal to resist an illegal foreign invasion.
The CIA would allow the withdrawl of the troops that are there to protect their opium crop?
Perhaps the Pat Tillman murder would be uncovered an his executioners brought to justice!
Now, that would be one of the best pieces of news out of Afghanistan, if this would only happen.
Hey ? you leavin ? don't let the tent door hit your big old US asses on the way out ! Byeee ! Don't come back.