The Bagram Bait & Switch

President Obama has decided to deny Bagram's prisoners their rights.

President Obama has, sadly, has stuck to his predecessor’s plan, arguing that prisoners held in the Bagram Air Force Base outside Kabul, Afghanistan, have no right to petition the courts for review of their detention.

Bagram is to remain another lawless enclave. Indeed, it’s the “Bagram Bait and Switch”. Instead of 242 prisoners in Guantánamo, there are to be 1,100 prisoners held beyond the rule of law in Bagram.

For a long time now, at Reprieve, we have emphasized that Guantánamo Bay was a diversionary tactic in the ‘War on Terror’.

Totting up the prisoners around the world – held by the US in Iraq, Afghanistan, Djibouti, the prison ships and even Diego Garcia, or held by US proxies in Jordan, Egypt and Morocco – the numbers dwarf Guantánamo. There are still perhaps as many as 18,000 people in legal black holes.

Obama should perhaps be offered more than a month to get the American house in order. However, this early sally from the Administration underlines another message: It is far too early for human rights advocates to stand on the USS Abraham Lincoln and announce, “Mission Accomplished.”