Come clean on secret prisons

[struggle4progress]

Editorial: Come clean on secret prisons
From the Journal Sentinel
Last Updated: Nov. 6, 2005

<snip> The prison system was known to only a handful of people in the United States and in the host countries. Particularly disturbing was the lack of meaningful supervision of this sensitive operation. The Post said the "black sites" were known only to four members of Congress: the chairmen and vice chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. This is hardly enough to constitute meaningful oversight, yet the White House has refused to allow the CIA to brief anyone else in Congress about the prisons.

The Bush administration contends that it neither practices nor condones the use of torture. Yet the conditions under which the captives are held are a gilt-edged invitation to abuse. Some of the prisoners are kept in darkened, underground cells; they have no recognized legal rights; and no one outside the CIA, even the Red Cross, is allowed to see them.

The torture that went on at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad occurred in a place that was not secret. Imprisoning and interrogating terrorist suspects under a blanket of secrecy and anonymity, and keeping them in these conditions indefinitely, only maximizes the likelihood of torture. <snip>

Congress and the American people need to know what the administration is doing in their name at these prisons. Particularly urgent is the need for Congress to be fully briefed. The Red Cross and other humanitarian groups should be granted full and immediate access, to dispel the darkness and secrecy that protects the misuse of power.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/editorials/nov05/368194.asp