Bagram: The other Guantanamo?

(CBS News)  Updated 11/15/11

KABUL, Afghanistan - The former prisoner of the American military in his native Afghanistan entered the office leaning on a crutch. He said he had trouble walking after spending a year confined to a 35-square-foot jail cell at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, about an hour's drive north of the capital, Kabul.

He agreed to speak with us only if we kept his identity hidden. We agreed to call him just "Mohammed."

"Our cells were like cages," Mohammed spoke in Dari through a translator. "We couldn't see anything outside."

The cage-like cells for some Bagram detainees were part of a $60 million renovation in 2009. Mohammed, who was detained that June, believes disgruntled neighbors tipped U.S. troops about him following a land dispute. His family did not learn for six months why he had disappeared.

"Somebody had reported that I was helping the Taliban, which would be the last thing in the world I would do," Mohammed said. "I build this country. What Taliban are doing is destroying this country."

The Taliban is the militant Islamic group allied with al Qaeda that ran Afghanistan from 1996 through 2001, until it was toppled by the U.S. invasion.

Mohammed, a father of 10 children, said he is a trained engineer and educator who teaches girls. He said he would never support the Taliban, which was infamous for its oppression of women.

Mohammed said he never saw any evidence against him and did he not get an attorney. Instead, a U.S. military officer was appointed to represent him at status review hearings.

"I was innocent. I hadn't done anything wrong," Mohammed said. He was never physically mistreated, but he was woken up at all hours to be interrogated, he said.

Today, there are more than 3,000 detainees at Bagram, or five times the number (around 600) when President Barack Obama took office in January 2009. There are currently 18 times as many detainees at Bagram than at the U.S. military prison at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval base, whose prisoner population has dwindled from a peak of 780 to 170.

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While Guantanamo has been the subject of legal wrangling and international controversy since the U.S. started sending terrorism suspects there in 2002, the explosive growth of the detainee population at Bagram has largely escaped international or domestic scrutiny.

When CBS NEWS asked to visit Bagram three months ago, the U.S. military first approved our visit, and then canceled it. Our request to interview any U.S. military official in Afghanistan or at the Pentagon about detainee procedures was rejected.

Neither William Lietzau, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, nor Brigadier General Mark Martins, who oversaw detainee affairs in Afghanistan as the first commander of Joint Task Force 435, were available for an interview. Gen. Martins is now in charge of prosecutions at Guantanamo.

Earlier this year, Daphne Eviatar, an attorney for Human Rights First, interviewed nearly 20 former detainees in Afghanistan and was permitted to observe several detainee hearings at Bagram.

"It's worse than Guantanamo," Eviatar said in an interview, "because there are fewer rights."

Eviatar's report, "Detained and Denied in Afghanistan: How To Make U.S. Detention Comply With the Law," documented stories of detainees held from seven months to seven years.

"There was no evidence presented," she said, "there was no questioning of the government's evidence, whether this person had done anything wrong, whether he deserved to be in prison. So that's a real problem -- you have a complete lack of due process."

Unlike Guantanamo, the Department of Defense won't release the names of its Bagram detainees or its reasons for holding them indefinitely. Eviatar said Mohammed's story is typical.

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[SGT_USA]

I am a Sergeant in the United States Army. The following I have to say is my own opinion and is not the opinion of the Army or any US Military. I want to address this to Nancy_Naive. Im currently stationed in Bagrham, Afghanistan and I was in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba not long ago. So, I would say I'm highly qualified to cover this discussion. My mission has always been Detainee Operations. I'm a professional. All Detainees get three meals a day, purified water, a Quran, change of cloths, showers, recreation, family visitation, incentive items, and more. And to think, they get offered all of this just hours after trying to kill us with Indirect Fire or small arms fire! Tell me America isn't fair. If you have a problem with our beautiful country maybe you should consider moving. And your obsession with Omar Khadr? Why? I'm guessing you've been to GTMO right? As maybe Commissions or Habeas? If so, then you know they get treated good. Most visitors come to them with Subway, Pizza, candy and plenty more. There is a system to all this so called madness. It's a much bigger picture than what you can read in the paper. Just know, innocent Detainees are released home. I've seen it first hand. And for the rest, there detained for a reason.

[Diane19766]

Senator Graham says insurgents are not being treated as criminals but as insurgents according to the law of war. He referred to insurgents caught on the battlefield after firefights. He also spoke of prisoners being held until the war is over.

What law of war would that be? I would like to know if the US plans to try all those insurgents who have targeted the US or allied militaries over the last 10 years, by, for example, throwing grenades in firefights, or other acts of war that are normally lawful. Will they all be charged with war crimes because they are all unlawful combatants? Somebody must have killed or wounded thousands of soldiers in Afghanistan, not to mention Iraq. Have I just not heard about their war crimes trials before military commissions?

And, what is the US government doing with 15 year old insurgents, and others who qualify for special treatment under the "child soldier protocol"? Are they being tried for war crimes too? Has the US withdrawn itself from the protocol?

See the case of Omar Khadr, a 15 year old Canadian citizen who was raised mainly in Afghanistan/Pakistan and was recruited into the insurgency by his father in 2002. He was captured after a firefight during which a soldier was killed by a grenade, possibly thrown by him, or someone else. He "confessed" under interrogation using methods like sleep deprivation and rape and death threats (reported by interrogators). He had no lawyer at the time. He has been in Gtmo ever since, either in solitary or with adult prisoners. It took 8 years to finally wind up his "war crime" trial. The Military Commission sentenced him to 40 more years in prison, but the US government had already convinced him to plead "guilty" and give up the right of appeal in exchange for an 8 year sentence, 7 to be served in Canada.

The Canadian Supreme Court declared that he was illegally treated by the US and Canada was complicit because Canadian officers did about 4 out of numerous interrogations under what the court considered illegal conditions. Somewhere in the works there is a multi-million dollar law suit against Canada because of that decision, but Khadr can't sue the US, as part of the plea deal.

So, I would like to know about other cases. Will his be used as a precedent to charge thousands, including kids, or has it already been done? And, are they all being handled like the Khadr case?

[Samlv]

Given the 'rules' of war which we follow and our enemy does not, how about we close gitmo, send all of those people to Bagram, then turn control of that prison over to the Afghans?

Surely they're more just, more trustworthy.

In all seriousness, why should we care about those prisoners for one second?

The only reason that they are a 'problem' is that we do NOT follow the rules of our enemies, or even Russia or China or Pakistan, for that matter -- They're lucky we caught them and not anyone else, or they would not be alive to complain.

[nancy_naive]

Yeah, right.

[American_soldier_]

Mr. Doane I am a US soldier who recently got back from Afghanistan on a 12 month deployment.This is my own opinion and does not in any way represent the opinion of the military. I just read your story "Bagram: The other Guantanamo?" Apparently your trip to Afghanistan was very safe since you said" I've got plenty of guys with weapons around me" on a reply to one of your friends on your Facebook wall. When American soldiers cross the wire they are not as safe. We are being targeted day and night, and during patrols. Those bad guys we capture who were shooting at our troops, planted IED along roads, or are helping and aiding the Taliban or Al-Qaeda are being treated in a very respectful and humane way. Have you ever sat through one of our leaders and commanders trainings on how to treat the locals, and the captured? you apparently have not. Please ask to sit through one and make sure you report that too. Does the Taliban have some thing like this? Do you know that if a group of American soldiers are being stuck surrounded in a fire fight before sending air support to save their lives there has to be evidence showing what is going on, then the orders has to go through a chain of command approving that air support making sure no civilians would be harmed etc.. (while our troops are still in a fire fight). I wonder when the Taliban or Al-Qaueda captures an American soldier what kind of treatment that soldier would get? I wonder if that soldier will even have a cell that is a weather controlled hard building with running water and electricity ( While our troops stay 24 to a 12 man tent, and those who are very lucky 6 to a 2 man room how come you did not show that on your report? ), or will be given food. I WONDER if he can request a lawyer or ask to show the evidence on why he was captured. On the other hand we Americans have all this human rights groups fighting for the rights for some one who his whole mission was to kill an American citizen. Even if he had to die doing that. I really pray and hope you never become MIA (Missing in action) or captured if that ever happens who will be the ones who will go searching every door in Afghanistan trying to find and rescue the American citizen journalist. Please tell me when they have a knife towards your neck about to slaughter just because you are an American citizen not even a soldier, you ask them where are my human rights?

[nancy_naive]

Are we not better than they?

[nancy_naive]

Just face the fact that America lost its moral compass... no America never had a moral compass.

[Samlv]

Really? America has done more good for more people than any nation that ever existed on Earth.

Imperfect, to be sure, but if you're not proud of that then, please, relocate to a country which you can be proud of.

[nancy_naive]

State your case Sam, state your case.

1.6 MILLION Vietnamese might disagree, but you start. Oh, don't bring up charity, we rank be hind almost all of the European nations in per capita charitable giving.