Despite the recent U.S. budget crisis, the Obama administration seemed to find it reasonable to build a new massive and rather pricey prison in Bagram, Afghanistan. The estimated cost of the project is between $25,000,000 and $100,000,000 according to an announcement on FedBIzOps.Gov, a website used to announce privatized spending projects. The detention facility will include detainee housing with the capability to hold up to 2,000 detainees with extensive security systems and an administrative facility.
Regardless of the never-ending list of more useful and important things to put our tax dollars toward, building another military prison brings up serious human rights concerns. Human Rights First documented that, “Ten years after the September 11 attacks, few Americans realize that the United States is still imprisoning more than 2,800 men outside the United States without charge or trial. Sprawling U.S. military prisons have become part of the post-9/11 landscape.”
The concept of “indefinite detention” was previously foreign to our system of government, and now may be the indefinite future of captives in prisons such as the future prison in Bagram. Not only does the military’s classification privilege make the validity of detaining over 2,000 people questionable, but there has also been approval of detainment in Bagram without any habeas corpus rights.
The promise of bringing the troops home has already been broken by the Obama administration, and the building of a new prison in Bagram doesn’t give much hope for this promise to be fulfilled anytime soon.
Article Title: U.S. to Buld New Massive Prison in Bagram
Author: Glenn Greenwald
Source: Salon.com
Date: September 19, 2011
Student Researcher: Ashley Berryhill, Sonoma State Univeristy
Faculty Advisor: Sheila Katz, Sonoma State University