A US court rule Monday that the Pentagon can withhold key information about hundreds of detainees held at a US military prison in Afghanistan, according the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the suit.The ruling came in response to a suit filed by the ACLU against the US Defence Department and the Central Intelligence Agency seeking information about inmates detained at a US installation at Bagram Air Base.
The ACLU had been seeking access to records on the detention and treatment of prisoners at Bagram, which now is known as Parwan.
The Pentagon has released the names of the 645 prisoners detained there as of September 2009, but has kept secret other vital information including the detainees' nationalities, how long they have been held, in what country they were detained and the circumstances surrounding their capture.
The ACLU said the case was heard in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York which, in denying the motion, also ruled that the CIA did not act improperly when it refused to even confirm or deny having records about the rendition and interrogation of Bagram detainees.
The civil rights group decried the ruling, saying in a statement Monday that Bagram had "become the new Guantanamo," referring to the US-run military prison in Cuba.
"The public remains in the dark when it comes to basic facts about the facility and whom our military is holding in indefinite military detention there," said Melissa Goodman, staff attorney with the group.
"The public has a right to know how long the US has kept people locked up in military detention and under what circumstances," she said.
| No, the public doesn't, unless the mooks are Americans. |