US defense officials are confirming tonight that 12 “third-country” detainees were secretly moved out of the Parwan Detention Center in Afghanistan, sent to their countries of origin.
38 other detainees of this designation remain, many of them unlikely to ever be charged with a crime of any type, and some of whom have no ties to the Afghan War at all, including one Yemeni captured in Thailand.
That they’re in Afghanistan now isn’t an accident, but rather part of a policy to send detainees captured elsewhere to a US-run prison where they have no legal rights.
Who all the detainees actually are is unclear, and the Pentagon has kept a lot of the details classified. US courts have ruled that while Guantanamo Bay detainees have some conceivable rights, since they are on overseas US territory, the Parwan captives have essentially none, since the prison is on Afghan soil.
Earlier this year, Congressmen began discussing legal changes that would allow them to replace Parwan with the US Navy Brig in South Carolina, with all of the same lack of basic legal rights.
They should throw Congress into one of these black holes…and then lose the keys.